Holiday Activities and Food annual report

Gateshead Council identified an absence of teenage involvement with the mainstream HAF programme in early 2022. Examining this absence of engagement from this important age group was seen as a major driver for the Gateshead HAF programme. Talking to HAF Leads across England in early 2022 it became clear that this was not just a Gateshead problem it was a national problem within most of the HAF programmes in England.

Having worked closely with Professor Greta Defeyter, Professor of Developmental Psychology at Northumbria University previously on several other successful mainstream HAF projects, we turned to Professor Defeyter and her remarkable academic team. We were confident that their innovative approach would support Gateshead Council in the development, design and delivery of a new HAF Plus programme for Gateshead.

Greta and her team developed a design sprint model that involved working closely with teenagers from Gateshead and key adult stakeholders they began to co-design a very distinctive HAF Plus programme for teenagers. Supported by Gateshead Council, NUFC Foundation and the Gateshead Youth Assembly the team began working on planning this inspirational work. During the autumn and winter of 2022, the young people supported by these key anchor institutions co-designed a HAF Plus model for Gateshead. The young people involved were invited to present this new innovative HAF Plus model to the Department for Education in October 2022. 

Following this exciting event Greta and her team got these key anchor institutions from across Gateshead/Newcastle together again to work with the young people to deliver a Pilot HAF Plus programme in Gateshead during the summer of 2023.

With guidance and support from Greta's academic team, NUcastle Foundation and Gateshead Council the young people involved managed their own independent programme of activities, making their own decisions on what activities to engage or attend. The programme was based in the Metrocentre's Community HUB.

Activities included:

• cinema
• ice skating
• ten pin bowling
• Beamish Museum
• sports at Northumbria University and NUcastle Foundation
• stem activities
• National Trust volunteering
• Hays and Kilner Solicitors work experience
• kayaking and climbing
• the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
• a 4 week all zones travel pass

The programme was a great success so much so that the Gateshead HAF Plus team hosted and delivered a HAF Plus conference at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in February 2024.

An important element of the HAF Plus is the food element of the programme. The food was provided by Greggs who worked very closely with a nutritionist from Northumbria University to develop healthy lunch options for the Gateshead HAF Plus programme.