Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme: Preliminary Market Engagement.

Swindon Borough Council is planning to tender to the supplier market, seeking to award a framework contract to a range of suppliers to deliver the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) on behalf of the local authority. The purpose of this is to support Swindon Borough Council in enabling eligible children and young people to access activity. The framework suppliers will be responsible for supporting children eligible for the service, ensuring that children and young people in Swindon have access to high-quality activity provision that includes a nutritious meal at every session.

The supplier must deliver high quality activity provision that meets the HAF Standards (as per the Department for Education’s requirements). The HAF programme has provided national support to children in receipt of benefits-related free school meals through holiday periods. The HAF Programme supports eligible families to overcome financial and time pressures, by using grant funding to fund places with activity providers, to enable eligible children and young people to attend activities in the Spring, Summer and Winter school term holidays. Swindon Borough Council is interested in receiving tenders to deliver the HAF service. All delivery under this framework must take place in Swindon.

The intention is that Swindon Borough Council will go to market to award an initial 2.5-year contract, with an option to extend for a further 1-year period.

In preparation for this, please find enclosed our Preliminary Market Engagement questions to review the current supply market. The same information will be requested from a number of Suppliers, who wish to participate to assist the Council with the specification/tender preparations.

Any contracts for services relating to this exercise shall be subject to separate procurement processes in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023. All participants in this event shall be responsible for their own costs (including third party costs) and the Contracting Authority shall have no liability to any participant.

The purpose of this questionnaire is to gain intelligence on the supply market for Swindon Borough Council’s Specification requirements, including information that will help define the most appropriate Specification aligned to the Councils budget. The attached Specification is a first draft and outlines our Specification Requirements. If there are any components in Specification that would prevent your company from bidding, please advise. The closing date for the return of the Suppliers response to the Councils Pre Market Engagement Questions is 15/05/26.