Tower Hamlets Council is set to delegate the approval of grant awards for the Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF) for the 2025/26 financial year. This decision aims to streamline the programme's governance and align it with other council grant processes, ensuring timely decisions and giving clubs more time to prepare for delivery.
The move was discussed at a meeting of the Grants Determination (Cabinet) Sub-Committee on Wednesday, 1 October 2025. According to the agenda, the Sub-Committee reviewed the HAF programme, which is funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and provides activities and meals to children eligible for benefits-related Free School Meals.
In 2024, the DfE awarded £1,694,600 to Tower Hamlets for the HAF programme, with £1,506,163.75 allocated to direct provision across the year, according to the GDSC HAF full year funding report 2024. Due to tight deadlines that did not align with the timelines of the Grants Committee or Cabinet, decisions on the 2024 programme were made by the Executive Mayor and the Chief Executive.
To improve efficiency and ensure voluntary and community sector organisations can access funding in time to deliver services, the Sub-Committee has recommended delegating authority to either the Corporate Director for Resources or the Director of Customer Services to approve grant awards for HAF 2025/26. This change would bring the programme's governance in line with other council grants, such as the Small Grants Programme. The delegated authority will approve grant awards based on agreed scoring criteria in consultation with the Mayor.
Applicants for the 2025/26 HAF funding will submit a form through the Blackbaud grant management system. Applications will be judged using the same criteria as outlined in section 3.15 of the report, with the inclusion of a 'local connection' criteria worth five points. This criteria was already in place for Easter and Summer 2025, bringing the total available score to 30.
The GDSC HAF full year funding report 2024 includes a summary of the organisations that received funding through the HAF programme in 2024. These included:
- African Refugee Women
- Artichoke Trust
- Beyond the Bias
- Body of Christ Charity
- Bromley By Bow Community Organisation
- Bygrove Primary School
- Canary Wharf Football Academy
- Capital Kids Cricket
- CommunettIQ CIC
- Dynamic Coaching Southeast England CIC
- First Kicks sports Ltd
- Future Kidz Development CiC
- Genius Tuition Services
- GSJM Sports LTD T/A Premier Education
- Half Moon Young People's Theatre
- Junior Adventures Group UK
- Kobi Nazrul Primary School
- Leaders in Community
- Learning Hive
- Legends Learning Centre
- London Islamic School
- London Jaguars Community Association
- London Sportif
- Malmesbury Primary School
- Manorfield Primary School
- Mile End leisure Centre and Stadium, GLL
- Mile End Park Leisure Centre & Stadium
- Newark Youth London
- Ocean Youth Connexions
- Olive Tree Education
- Poplar HARCA
- Premier Education
- Purple Moon Drama
- Right Development Sports
- SAMA Centre Ltd
- SCK Fitness Team CIC
- SimpleGifts: Unitarian Centre for Social Action
- SOCIAL ORGANISATION FOR UNITY AND LEISURE
- SocietyLinks Tower Hamlets
- Sporting Foundation
- Sportscool East London
- St Andrews Youth Development Trust
- Stebon Primary School
- Stifford Centre Limited
- The Aberfeldy Project CIC
- The Docklands Settlement
- The Mentoring Lab Community CIC
- Tower Hamlets Education Foundation / Booster
- Tower Hamlets Youth League United
- Tower Hamlets Youth Sport Foundation (THYSF)
- Platform Cricket
- Trapped in Zone One
- Udichi Shilpi Gosthi
- UK LATIN COMMUNITY CIC
- Vallance Community Sports Association
- Weavers Adventure Playground Association
- WISE Youth Trust
- Women's Inclusive Team Chicksand Friendly Club
