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Learning, food and play for families when they need it most

Holiday Kitchen Activity and Food: Impact Report

Birmingham 2018

By Sian Every and Dr Caroline Wolhuter

1

Birmingham’s Holiday Kitchen 2018 was funded as part of the Department of Education’s

Holiday Activity and Food Research Fund and delivered through a partnership between

Accord Housing Association and Birmingham Forward Steps.

Accord is a values-led social housing, health and social care provider committed to providing innovative solutions and services to over 80,000 people across the Midlands. Holiday Kitchen has grown out of neighbourhood consultations and community investment work to address child and family poverty in the communities where we work.

Birmingham Forward Steps delivers early years health and wellbeing for children aged 0-5 in Birmingham, bringing together health visiting service and children’s centres, so that families can access the help they need from pregnancy until their child starts school. Birmingham Forward Steps is a partnership led by Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and includes Barnardos, Spurgeons, the Springfield Project and St Pauls Community Development Trust.

Holiday Kitchen is a trademarked programme developed and owned by Accord Housing Association Ltd. 2018

For information see https://accordgroup.org.uk/about/projects-and-partnerships

@HolidayKitchenNetwork @HolidayKitchen_

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Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3

Methodology for end of programme evaluation ............................................................................... 3

Why Holiday Learning, Food and Play: Context .............................................................................. 3

The programme delivery ..................................................................................................................... 4

Attendance Records ............................................................................................................................ 5

................................................................................................................................................................ 6

Outcomes and Impact: How well did we do? ................................................................................... 6

1. Improve eating habits of participating children ................................................................ 6

2. Improved physical activity ....................................................................................................... 8

3. Raising attainment through a range of enrichment activities ........................................... 10

4. Access to healthy meals........................................................................................................ 11

5. Family learning ....................................................................................................................... 12

The importance of holiday activity and food provision for under 5s ........................................... 14

Value for money ................................................................................................................................. 15

Programme Costs .......................................................................................................................... 16

The Cost per child .......................................................................................................................... 17

Is there any variation in costs between different children? ...................................................... 17

Total cost per day (and total cost per child per day) ................................................................. 18

Are some days more expensive than others and if so why? ................................................... 19

Staff and Volunteer Infrastructure .................................................................................................... 20

Learning and challenges ................................................................................................................... 21

Sustainability and Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 22

Appendix A: 2018 Family Case studies ......................................................................................... 24

Ladywood District ........................................................................................................................... 24

Edgbaston District .......................................................................................................................... 25

Hodge Hill District ........................................................................................................................... 26

Yardley District ................................................................................................................................ 27

Endnotes .............................................................................................................................................. 27

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Introduction

Holiday Kitchen is a quality assured wellbeing activities and food programme for early years and primary school children and their families. Each day families and Holiday Kitchen teams play, learn and eat together. The programme focuses on family learning and life-skills informed by Educational Endowment Fund Teaching and Learning Toolkiti topic areas and the Five Ways to Wellbeing principlesii. Notably Holiday Kitchen inclusively caters not only for school aged children, but for often overlooked 0-5 year olds and their parents during school and nursery holidays.

Holiday Kitchen is a high impact evidence based programme that has been developed and led by Accord Housing Association since 2013. It responds to key holiday risks of family stress, debt, food insecurity, learning loss, social isolation and physical inactivity. This year we partnered with the newly established Birmingham Forward Steps (BFS) service to deliver 12-15 days of intensive activity and meal programmes over 33 sites in deprived neighbourhoods across nine Birmingham districts.

Methodology for end of programme evaluation This report offers an end of programme evaluation for the Birmingham Holiday Kitchen programmes delivered during the summer holidays of 2018. It is based on financial reporting from each partner, 2,597 registration forms and attendance records for 11,547 activity days with meals, and surveys completed by 357 children, 275 parents, and 57 delivery staff. Delivery venues also provided photographic records, quality assurance reports, examples of their social media presence during the programme and case studies detailing family and volunteer experiences. Birmingham Holiday Kitchen 2018 was funded by a Department of Education’s Holiday Activities and Food Research Grant this summer. It was one of seven delivery partnerships in England to receive this funding.

Why Holiday Learning, Food and Play: Context School and nursery holidays can be a golden time of opportunity to learn, grow, explore and play outside formal institutional boundaries. With insufficient resources and accessible holiday childcare, coupled with the absence of Free School Meals (FSM), holidays can also be times of significant social, emotional and financial stress. This can result in poor health, inactivity, social isolation, inadequate school readiness, food insecurity and debt.

Social Services' referrals often spike around holiday periods. Simultaneously, many community based children’s services and institutions close their doors and/or reduce their commitments to a minimum during these periods.

This situation is most acute for young vulnerable families with pre-school children. Not only do they have the youngest parent profiles with the fewest cooking and parenting skills, equipment and activity resources, but poor diet, inactivity, isolation and stress can have the most damaging long term effects on the 0-5 year old age group.

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Five Ways to

Wellbeing Principles

The programme delivery

Building on five years’ of experience, Accord’s Holiday Kitchen Summer 2018 programme was delivered through a partnership with BFS children’s centre partners Barnardos, Spurgeons, St Pauls and the Springfield Project. This partnership brought together knowledge of evidence based early years practice and responsive localised services to better reach those most in need through Prevention, Early Help and universal services.

The programme was delivered in 18 children’s centres and 15 outreach satellites in deprived neighbourhoods including three nursery schools, a school, the Barnardos Think Family base and a domestic violence refuge.

All centres offered 12-15 half-day sessions of intensive activity and meal provision. 15 Saturday sessions were also offered which actively encouraged the participation of fathers and working parents/carers.

A ‘typical’ day:

09:30 Breakfast & Be Active “Wake Up Shake Up”

10:00 Keep Learning & Take Notice Activities

11:30 Free Be Active play and connected parent consultations/ family support

12:00 Give Back Community lunch preparation

12:30 Connect with others over a communal lunch

13:00 Give back and tidy up

The programme does not offer childcare but rather encourages parental attendance and involvement in children’s learning, and builds their capacity and confidence to do so beyond the programme. Activity days included:

5

29%

16%

12% 5%

33%

5%

Attendees by Age

0-5

Infant School

JuniorSchoolHigh School

ADULT

1. Holiday Kitchen launch events/Saturday crafts and sport

2. Adventure stories, drama and craft 3. Get active park challenge 4. Money, fun and games 5. Back to nature – growing 6. Local Outing 7. Make and taste

8. District family event 9. Back to nature – forest school 10. Guest External Activity Provider 11. Water world 12. Everyday active 13. Guest External Activity Provider 14. Celebration and music 15. District day trip

Children’s centres took responsibility for day-to-day management, supported by Accord’s core programme management, training, evaluation, communications, activity and food toolkit and quality assurance framework. Each site consulted with parent forums and directly with families during registration about food, activity and day trip preferences to inform individual programme content delivery.

Attendance Records Together children’s centres, satellites across Birmingham and the Barnardos Think Family base in Nechells provided 11,547 activity days with meals to 2,597 participants during the 2018 summer holidays. These figures include parent/carers and children.

The proportion of children attending who receive Free School Meals (FSM) was 39%, but the true percentage may be higher as it was not known whether 20% of attendees received school meals or not. In addition, 19% of attendees were too young to be eligible for FSM. In terms of regularity of attendance, the total number of recorded child attendances was 7,600. 68% of children attended for more than one day. The percentage of children attending more than 50% of available sessions was 25% although there are huge variations across different sites with inner city neighbourhoods and school/nursery sites recording much higher levels of consistent attendance.

District Sum of Attendee

Sum of Meals

Edgbaston 480 2170

Erdington 164 774

Hall Green 269 766

Hodge Hill 198 1058

Ladywood 577 2566

Northfield 439 1466

Perry Bar 55 368

Selly Oak 137 861

Yardley 278 1354

Grand Total 2597 11383

6

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

Asian

White British

Black

Mixed

Other

Not Disclosed

Asian other

Mixed British

Asian British

White other

Black British

Black other

Mixed Other

Outcomes and Impact: How well did we do? Through a whole family ‘learning by doing ethos’ we achieved multiple notable outcomes. This report focuses on five key areas which were project specific conditions as stipulated by the Department for Education in our grant agreement:

• Improving eating habits of participating children during and after the programme; • Improving levels of physical activity of participating children during and after the

programme; • Raising attainment, by giving disadvantaged pupils access to a range of enrichment

activities; • Improving access to healthy food during school holidays; • Providing opportunities for family learning and parental engagement in children’s

education. In this section we summarise how we performed against each of these outcomes.

1. Improve eating habits of participating children Holiday Kitchen aims to improve child and family eating habits through diverse experiences of experimenting with new foods during make and taste activities, group cooking, educational play, Change 4 Life resources and awareness raising exercises alongside daily communal meals. These activities aim to support healthy choices beyond holiday periods in relation to snacking habits, drinking habits, food choices, shopping on a budget, regularity of meals, communal eating, table manners and food hygiene. ‘Trying new things’ was the aspect of eating at Holiday Kitchen that children liked

most about eating at Holiday Kitchen, followed by ‘lunch’ and ‘eating with family’.

‘It has made cooking fun again for me and my child. Holiday Kitchen has given me time and opportunities to try out new things I would not have carried out this summer. I have enjoyed cooking foods together with other families. Holiday Kitchen has saved me a lot of money!’

Ethnicity:

Children’s

ethnicity was

varied within and

across delivery

sites with Asian

being recorded

as the largest

participant group

followed closely

by White British.

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Yes 65%

No 10%

Maybe 17%

Blank 8%

Has Holiday Kitchen helped you eat more healthy food in the holidays? (Parent Survey)

68% 65% 67%

76% 59% 56%

Eatingmore fruit

andvegetables

Drinkingmore water

Eatinghealthier

snacks

Tryingmore new

foods

Eating lesssugaryfoods

Eating lesssalty foods

Are your children doing any things differently since coming to Holiday Kitchen?

(Parent Survey)

65% of parents felt that Holiday Kitchen had helped them eat more healthy food in the

holidays

A high proportion of parents (over 56% of parents across six different behaviour areas)

reported improved eating habits since coming to Holiday Kitchen. The area where most

parents reported changed habits was ‘trying more new foods’ (76%) followed by eating more

fruit and vegetables (68%) and eating healthier snacks (67%).

When asked whether there are things families will do differently after Holiday Kitchen in

relation to food and healthy eating, 58% of parents responded positively:

- Looking at food labels before giving food to children - Eat more veg. Continue fruit as snacks - I will … try to use less sugary breakfast products and cut out some salt from our dinners - Cook the healthy meals I have learnt at Holiday Kitchen - Doing more home cooking and doing it together as a family - We will try new food we haven’t tried before and try to be healthier.

Nearly all (98%) of the 57 staff who completed the end of programme survey felt that the

outcome of improving eating habits of participating children had at least in part been

achieved. Staff referred to parents taking recipe cards home, children enjoying being

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involved in the food preparation, children trying and enjoying new foods and improved

scores in quizzes testing children and parents’ knowledge over the course of the

programme.

- Children were eating more fruit and vegetables especially when they saw other

participants eating.

- We noticed when children first started they wouldn't sit down to eat. By week 3 we had

children sit and eat with their parents and ate everything in the bowls, even asked for

seconds.

My child is normally fussy eater - during Holiday Kitchen he sat and ate with me and

my daughter

It encouraged her to try food that she wouldn't eat or try at home, Eating together

helped her try new food

2. Improved physical activity Holiday Kitchen encourages families to take manageable steps to increase their levels of physical activity to meet age appropriate national physical activity guidelinesiii both during school and nursery holidays and beyond. It does so through no/low cost Change 4 Life, Henry and related child and family focused activities including park visits, Wake up Shake Up, sport and living room dancing.

58% of parents reported that Holiday Kitchen that helped their family to be more

physically active

38% of children listed exercise as one of the best things about Holiday Kitchen

From the data it is clear doing things as a family and meeting new people through activities

are prioritised over being physically active per se, so combining these elements in Holiday

Kitchen activities helped support engagement around improved physical activity

My family really benefited from attending Holiday Kitchen. Everyone was excited on Holiday Kitchen

days and it was good to start the day with a breakfast, this gave my children a freedom of choice and

a chance to try something new and gave me ideas for healthy breakfasts and snacks. The sessions

went really quickly with lots of different daily activities. My children were occupied and I noticed a

definite improvement in their behaviour. I was able to spend time more time with my family as I didn’t

have to worry about shopping and cooking food for that day. We all made friends and it was nice for

us to all be able to sit and eat together.

9

123

136

222

185

195

225

192

160

27

0 50 100 150 200 250

Learn to cook

Save money

Do family activities

Improve social skills

Eat together

Meet new people

Get outside

Be physically active

Other

How has Holiday Kitchen helped you and your family? (Parent Survey)

050

100150200250

What are the best things about Holiday Kitchen? (Children's Survey)

When asked whether there are things families will do differently in relation to physical activity

after attending Holiday Kitchen, 49% of parents responded positively:

- My kids are home schooled and I would like to incorporate some more physical activities (even though we don't have a garden)

- We have started wake up shake up every day - Go out more with the children for walks - Get children to play in the garden more - We were quite active already but will try being more active with my lazier son now Staff agreed that the programme was successful in improving physical activity for

participating children:

- There was an improvement as the families were not used to taking a brisk walk round

the park

- Children gained awareness on how much exercise is needed each day.

- Children became healthier through increasing their stamina and fitness levels through a

variety of outdoor activities.

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Yes 77%

No 9%

Maybe 7%

Blank 7%

Have we helped you find out about community activities for your

family in the holidays? (Parent Survey)

3. Raising attainment through a range of enrichment activities Holiday Kitchen offers a varied structured programme of low/no budget activities drawn from an evidence based toolkitiv, including cooking, forest school, drama, crafts, music, dance, growing, budgeting, physical activity, local trips and neighbourhood signposting. It aims to widen the horizons of families to what is on their doorstep and within easy reach with the aim of strengthening parent/carers’ capacity to continue to support their children explore and participate in out-of-school/nursery enrichment activities .

81% of parents identified ‘family activities’ as one of the ways in which Holiday Kitchen had supported them during the holidays 65% of children listed ‘activities’ as one of the best things about Holiday Kitchen 77% of parents said Holiday Kitchen had helped them find out about community activities for their family in the holidays When asked about whether they would do different things in relation to family activities since attending Holiday Kitchen, 50% of parents responded positively:

- We do a lot of trips out of the house since doing Holiday Kitchen

- Now we are doing different things to entertain children

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- I would like to get out more and do outside activities with the family more

While most activities were locally based, day trips took people further afield, and were in

particular identified by parents, children and staff as summer highlights. For many, these trips

offered children their first visit to a beach or national park.

The beach trip to Weston Super-Mare was a great experience for my whole family. It was like a mini holiday

and all of us enjoyed every minute of it.

My youngest son said his favourite day was when we went to the seaside.He enjoyed the coach journey and playing football on the beach

4. Access to healthy meals

Additional demands for activities and food during holidays, especially for families with children

receiving Free School Meals (FSM) during term time, mean family diets are often more

stressed and unhealthy - with less fruit, vegetables and iron rich foods.

39% of children attending were eligible for FSM (19% were too young) and 15 % of children

were eligible for Health Start Vouchers – a proxy measure for future FSM eligibility in children

under fivev.

Holiday Kitchen provided both children and their parents/carers with healthy snacks, drinks and communal lunches that meet School Food Standardsvi and Early Years guidancevii every activity day. This was confidently enabled through food hygiene and communal cooking training activities, experienced staff and delivery partners’ commitment to the Holiday Kitchen Quality Assurance Framework which requests food diaries.

Over Birmingham school and nursery summer holidays 11,383 nutritious meals were provided to 2,597 participants This helped parents not only meet the nutritional needs of their families while attending, but they were able to also provide healthier meals at home. This could be a result of both increased learning about healthy eating on a budget and relieving financial pressure through the provision of breakfasts and lunches at Holiday Kitchen.

Everyone was excited on Holiday Kitchen days and it was good to start the day with a breakfast, this gave my children a freedom of choice and a chance to try something new and gave me ideas for healthy breakfasts and snacks.

‘As the long summer school holidays approached I started to think about how I was going to occupy my whole

family on a limited household income, I was so pleased when I saw Holiday Kitchen advertised. We attended

every session and we all loved it.

My eldest son really enjoyed the scavenger hunt and loved filling the brown paper bag with his finds, the

animal man was another big hit, and he held a snake and a very large spider! He took a great interest in the

‘Eat Well Plate’ and can now tell me about carbohydrates, proteins, meats and vegetables and portion sizes.

He really enjoyed the daily craft activities too.’

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3 3 6 6 13 26

41 48 43 45

82 68 69 70 59

152 138 140 132 124

Enjoy the summerholidays

Feel good aboutthemselves

Make new friends Learn new things Be more ready forschool/nursery in

September

Do you feel that Holiday Kitchen has helped your child/children to: (Parent Survey)

Not at all

A little

Quite a lot

Lots

5. Family learning Family learning and play that support and strengthen family and peer relationships are cornerstones of the Holiday Kitchen wellbeing ethos. Formal and informal parental engagement is central to children’s social and emotional development, supporting both their learning and life chances. Holiday periods can be ideal times to renew this bond and extend supportive social networks for families with pre and primary aged children. Holiday Kitchen provides a structured and supportive friendly environment to make friends, learn and spend positive time with family.

303 306 277

7 8 17 39 34 53

Enjoy your holidays? Enjoy spending timewith your family this

holiday?

Make more friends?

Has Holiday Kitchen helped you to: (Children's Survey)

Yes

No

Maybe

13

5 11

35 22

7

36 46

55 53 41

66 68 50 55

65

155 134

94

117 138

Get out and do funactivities with the

children during theholidays

Feel moreconfident about

doing activities withmy children

Feel moreconfident helpingmy children withtheir school work

Helped me toprovide regular

healthy meals athome

Helped me feelhappier and more

relaxed

Has Holiday Kitchen helped you in any of these ways (Parent Survey):

Not at all

A little

Quite a lot

Lots

When asked about whether they would do different things in relation to family activities since attending Holiday Kitchen, 50% of parents responded positively: - Holiday Kitchen has given me ideas of how we can play with my child

- Make time to sit down and do an activity together

- The boys are enthusiastic about cooking and want to entertain others too.

All staff felt Holiday Kitchen had provided opportunities for family learning and parental

engagement:

- Holiday Kitchen provided an excellent opportunity for families to learn and have fun together. All of our families enjoyed the time they spent together as a family. Parents stated that they felt more confident about engaging with their children and doing different activities with them.

- Holiday Kitchen provided a platform for rich family learning to take place by providing resources and activities for the whole family to participate. In all areas of development, children were able to thrive more knowing parents were also involved.

- Parents gave feedback on how much knowledge they have also obtained through out this programme and how much it has impacted the family as a whole that home routines have changed for the better and it has given a better bond between parent/child.

-

Through engagement in programme activities, routines and structure parents’ confidence to support their children participate in educational activities and play grew alongside more generalise improvements in family wellbeing. This may be associated with the stress relief Holiday Kitchen attendance offered some parents/carers and was highly valued in children’s survey feedback with children reporting Spending Time with Family this holiday as the area in which Holiday Kitchen had helped them most.

At the end of the children’s survey, children were asked for drawings to feedback what they learnt at Holiday Kitchen. They responded by highlighting sharing, caring relationships and activities repeatedly and most strongly.

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The importance of holiday activity and food provision for under 5s Children from low-income families are offered free early education and childcare from the age of two.viii This is available 38 weeks of the year. During the 14 weeks/year of school and nursery holidays, however, there are even fewer learning, support and play opportunities available for pre-school children and their families than there are for school aged children. It was previously stated that pre-school children are disproportionately likely to have the youngest parents with the fewest resources to manage the additional demands of holiday periods and yet poor diet, inactivity, isolation and stress can have the most damaging long term effects on this age group. Parents with children under five years of age were asked how attending Holiday Kitchen in the holidays had made a difference to their children. Many of the comments relate to

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improvements in social and emotional development, highlighting the positive impact of Holiday Kitchen in providing an environment for learning, experiencing new activities, socialising, developing healthy eating habits and strengthening family bond. - He became more confident, improved in speech and language and

made new friends - It helps her meet new people, so social and active. Holiday Kitchen

helps improve her eating habits - She gets to be around 'strangers' more which helps her to overcome

some of her shyness - Holiday Kitchen helped her to follow a regular time table during

holidays which normally seems a difficult task

Parental wellbeing is a pre-cursor to achieving the above outcomes and the positive impact of the programme on wellbeing is also evident through parent’s comments: - Saving money as a single parent without compromising health - It has enabled (my children) to have hot food even when I am mentally unwell and

unable to cook, to open a new world of tastes and quality of food - Less stress of making breakfast and lunch

- Holiday Kitchen is brilliant idea for families and people with low income

- Thank you for saving me from isolation with my children!

Staff echoed parents’ comments, recognising the value to parents and families of

establishing new social networks, sharing experiences, learning new skills and having fun:

- The parents mentioned they made friends during the session

therefore this decreased isolation. The parents learnt new

food ideas to use at home

- Tasting different foods, activities, artists, meeting other

families, making friendships, socializing with others,

allowing children to play alongside others and having lots

of fun

- The parents built up a community atmosphere, and talked about the sense of now having a support network that they didn't have before. There was a lot of advice and experiences shared between the parents as well.

Value for money Value for Money has been achieved by Holiday Kitchen in a number of ways when the impact and outcomes discussed earlier are considered. Children known to Prevention and Early Help partners were prioritised and targeted during programme recruitment before the holidays, and it is clear from monitoring and evaluation data that these families benefited most from the programme. Using Children’s Centres

‘Before I started attending Holiday Kitchen, I was very isolated and was used to keeping myself isolated. However, since attending Holiday Kitchen, I have come out of my shell a lot and have made some lovely friends who I will be staying in touch with as we have created a Whatsapp group with all of us ‘Holiday Kitchen friends’.

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infrastructure, staff and volunteers, delivery costs for Holiday Kitchen programmes were kept to a minimum while maximising support offered to known vulnerable families. One programme was also delivered jointly by Spurgeon’s Children Centre Staff and Accord’s Children’s workers in the Accord’s Domestic Violence Refuge over the summer to 26 children and their mothers in temporary accommodation for the daily unit cost of £10.56 per child. Another programme was delivered through Barnardos citywide Think Family Team to 61 children and their families qualifying for DWP Troubled Families support for the daily unit cost of £7.54 per child. Augmenting family support, physical activity, food and life skills training for both these services during high risk holiday periods is recognised as good Value for Money for these services and supports an invest to save case for targeted holiday activity and food programmes. This programme clearly offers good value for money if placed in context of the programme participant profile and the wider costs associated with Prevention and Early Help, particularly in relation to:

Social care support plans for children, emphasising strengthening relationships.

Health promotion of good nutrition, active lifestyles and mental wellbeing in fun, inclusive ways.

Targeted Family Support to strengthen life-skills in non-intrusive ways with ‘turn around’ families.

Children’s Specialist Support providing creative and safe opportunities Through Fareshare food provision, food costs were also significantly reduced for 24 sites that received a total of one ton of Fareshare food. Not all sites were able to meet Fareshare requirements and not all dietary requirements would be met through Fareshare provision. In these cases, provisions were supplemented and accessed through local providers.

Programme Costs

To deliver a total of 11,383 meals and 11,547 activity days through 32 programmes of between 11-15 half-days to 2597 participants, plus nine district launch events and one city wide launch event, the Holiday Kitchen programme spent £225,819.30 this summer.

This budget was spent across nine of Birmingham’s ten districts in the following way:

These costs include the training of 102 staff from Spurgeons, St Pauls Trust, Barnardos and the Springfield Project and the support of 68 volunteers. A total of £82,979.46 went on staffing costs and a further £20,064.89 when directly on food costs. Each programme took participating families on at least one day trip. Barnardos and Family Action have previously reported on the lack of affordability of such trips for families on low incomes. These trips had the highest level of attendance and cost Holiday Kitchen cumulatively £14,467.24 or an average of £452.10 per site/day trip. Five districts took families to Weston Super-Mare for a seaside trip with this money. Other trips were more local and varied.

Delivery Site

Hall Green

District

Average

Edgbaston

District

Average

Ladywood

District

Average

Northfield

District

Average

Selly Oak

District

Average

Yardley

District

Average

Hodge Hill

District

Average

Erdington

District

Average

Perry Barr

District

Average

Average

across all

sites

Total cost per

child £119.18 £131.69 £97.94 £121.65 £347.13 £180.61 £141.86 £126.75 £405.10 £173.82

Total cost per day £520.76 £578.56 £559.41 £575.94 £703.64 £591.34 £378.29 £331.50 £562.41 £566.13

Total cost per

child per day £8.84 £9.41 £7.17 £8.69 £28.93 £12.90 £11.82 £10.56 £33.76 £13.42

17

It should be noted that Erdington, Hodge Hill and Perry Barr Districts have not included their core staffing costs in their costings and calculations as these posts were already funded through other means. Spurgeons recognised that the Holiday Kitchen outcomes were coherent and supportive of these Children’s Centres’ existing business plan. Some of their sites were more restricted in recruitment into the programme as a result but their unit costs were lower owing to some mainstream funding being drawn upon and their attendance rates in six of their nine programmes was above the programme average of 4.5 days per participant.

The Cost per child

The cost per child varied significantly across sites and districts with Soho Children’s Centre

in Ladywood achieving the lowest unit cost per child at £66.35 for the programme and St

Bedes the highest total cost per child at £527.73 for programme participation. The rationale

behind the cost variances is manifold. Soho had high levels of consistent attendance with

141 participants attending 959 activity days with meals over the summer. By contrast, St

Bedes had 26 participants attending 155 activity days with meals. It is clear that costs vary

significantly by the number of children using the service, but this is not necessarily

dependent on levels of consistent attendance.

Is there any variation in costs between different children?

All children are required to be accompanied by a parent/carer so the cost of an additional adult meal for each sibling group needs to be factored in, but this is not age dependent. All the unit costs need to be read alongside attendance data. Centres catering for large numbers of children had proportionately lower unit costs per child than those with low attendance figures. It is clear that some children attended many more sessions than others and that the actual costs will vary significantly by levels of attendance. Children who regularly attended the most delivery days cost the least in terms of unit costs, and related administrative and evaluation costs. There is not notable variation in costs for children between children’s centre delivery, the Think Family programme at Rupert Street and the Accord Domestic Violence Service.

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Total cost per day (and total cost per child per day)

The average inclusive cost to deliver Holiday Kitchen activities and meals per day across all 32 sites is £566.13 although again there are some notable variations and caveats. Erdington, Hodge Hill and Rookery and Lime Tree sites have not included their core staffing costs in their calculations as these posts were already funded through other means. Spurgeons recognised that the Holiday Kitchen outcomes were coherent and supportive of the Children’s Centres’ existing business plan. Some of their sites were more restricted in recruitment and retention but their unit costs were lower owing to some mainstream funding being drawn upon. While Brearley appears to be an outlier in daily costs, they were able to engage and support a high number of children from large families resulting in their costs per child per day to being £8.93 compared to the programme average of £13.42. Accord programme co-ordination costs have been shared evenly across all 32 sites although some sites required more support than others based on a range of factors including familiarity site staff have with the programme, staff capacity, kitchen facilities and site capacity.

£0.00 £100.00 £200.00 £300.00 £400.00 £500.00 £600.00

Doddington

Lillian De Lissa

Keystone

Golden Hillock

Ladywood CC

Brearley

Soho

Nechells (Rupert St)

St John's

Deelands

Greaves Hall

Hollymoor

St Gabriel

Billesley

Spearhead

St Bedes

Fox Hollies

Oaklands

Stechford

Blakenhall

Hodge Hill's x 4 sites

Lime Tree

Rookery

Erdington x 3 sites

Springfield

St Barnabas

Malvern Street St Pauls

Total cost per child by site

Total cost per child

19

Are some days more expensive than others and if so why?

Yes, the day trips costs the most for all sites but has the highest level of engagement attracting the most children and parents/carers who do not otherwise engage with the service. Saturday delivery costs for some sites were the same as week day costs as their staff are paid a flat rate while other providers are required to pay their staff higher overtime rates based on their employment contracts. District launch days also cost more, but engaged a significant number of additional families. As district launch events were drop in activities for families not registered with Holiday Kitchen, it was difficult to record attendance and participation has not been captured in attendance data.

£0.00 £200.00 £400.00 £600.00 £800.00 £1,000.00

Doddington

Lillian De Lissa

Keystone

Golden Hillock

Ladywood CC

Brearley

Soho

Nechells (Rupert St)

St John's

Deelands

Greaves Hall

Hollymoor

St Gabriel

Billesley

Spearhead

St Bedes

Fox Hollies

Oaklands

Stechford

Blakenhall

Hodge Hill's x 4 sites

Lime Tree

Rookery

Erdington x 3 sites

Springfield

St Barnabas

Malvern Street St Pauls

Total cost per day

Total cost per day

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Staff and Volunteer Infrastructure

BFS and Accord have extensive experience of and commitment to supporting staff and volunteer development. This includes working with local faith and charitable group volunteers. Collectively 102 staff completed Holiday Kitchen Toolkit training and 68 parents and local residents volunteered to support Holiday Kitchen delivery. Many of these staff and volunteers also benefitted from additional food hygiene, safeguarding and related in-house training contributing to personal development and employment pathways.

£0.00 £10.00 £20.00 £30.00 £40.00 £50.00

Doddington

Lillian De Lissa

Keystone

Golden Hillock

Ladywood CC

Brearley

Soho

Nechells (Rupert St)

St John's

Deelands

Greaves Hall

Hollymoor

St Gabriel

Billesley

Spearhead

St Bedes

Fox Hollies

Oaklands

Stechford

Blakenhall

Hodge Hill's x 4 sites

Lime Tree

Rookery

Erdington x 3 sites

Springfield

St Barnabas

Malvern Street St Pauls

Total cost per child per day

Total cost per child per day

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Some volunteers had not previously volunteered at children’s centres, but will continue to volunteer and undertake training over the coming months, others have already moved into employment.

Working with existing and new volunteers and building this volunteer network through the

2018 programme has supported the sustainability of the Holiday Kitchen programme in the

longer term. Similarly, BFS’s commitment, capacity and infrastructure to deliver healthy

community food and activity programmes in the future has been strengthened through staff’s

commitment to Food Hygiene and Holiday Kitchen toolkit training, alongside the experience

of programme delivery itself, including kitchen inspections, Quality Assurance Framework

requirements and the experience of catering for large groups of families through communal

cooking practices.

Learning and challenges

Holiday Kitchen was the first programme to be collaboratively delivered through the Birmingham Forward Steps partnership, and while it did experience some teething problems, teams were solution focused over the intensive delivery timescale. The need for holiday provision was clearly understood by staff and Holiday Kitchen proved to successfully bring diverse teams together across the city around a common delivery goal.

When asked what are the worst things about Holiday Kitchen 67% of children answered

‘nothing’. The variety of other areas highlighted were very specific to individuals and/or sites,

including some which were unavoidable like the weather.

Mom joined in with most of the activities that Holiday Kitchen provided and encouraged others to

participate … this helped her with improving her social skills. Mom also helped with cooking and with

cleaning after the sessions and has now enquired about a volunteering role with Barnardo’s during

her son’s nursery/school hours

Holiday Kitchen also empowered mom. Mom stated that during one of the sessions she was able to

take a more hands on role and help out in the session... she really enjoyed this and this has led to

mom enquiring about taking on a volunteer role within the Children’s Centre in the near future.

Mom would also like to become a volunteer in the next Holiday Kitchen if possible. Both mom and the

children had a positive experience and are looking forward to the next one.

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Nothing 67%

Weather 7%

Other 9%

Activities 5%

Food 8%

Venue 4%

What are the worst things about Holiday Kitchen?

When staff were asked about the challenges in delivering Holiday Kitchen, the following

themes emerged from 57 staff survey responses:

Venues Some venues needed more outside areas and/or could have done with better

cooking facilities to accommodate larger numbers of families attending

Food Short use by dates on fresh food led to some food being wasted and made

planning difficult in some cases

Attendance It was a struggle to get the same families to commit for the whole programme

for some venues. It is recognised that it is not easy to remedy this challenge

when working with vulnerable families who are often experiencing a complex

number of issues simultaneously.

Staffing Some venues highlighted staffing pressures, particularly where high numbers

of families attended

Time The lead in time before the programme began was short meaning there was

limited time for planning activities, marketing the programme to families most

in need and booking external agencies.

With more lead-in time and experience most of these challenges could be substantially

reduced.

At a strategic level, the Steering Group recognise that there is also need to strengthen the

programme’s cross sectoral networks with businesses, sporting and arts bodies and local

community partners to better realise the programme’s scope to be delivered as an asset

based community development programme.

Sustainability and Conclusions The evidence provided in this report clearly demonstrates that Holiday Kitchen positively responds to the priority need areas for the Holiday Activities and Food Research Grant:

Improving eating habits of participating children during and after the programme. This was achieved through educational activities, communal cooking, tasting and sharing of healthy meals based on budget shopping.

Improving levels of physical activity of participating children during and after the programme. This was achieved through no/low cost educational life-skills resources and

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training sessions including What’s in My Neighbourhood, free park activities and daily Change4Lifeix routines like Wake Up, Shake Up, alongside active play and dancing.

Raising attainment, by giving disadvantaged pupils access to a range of enrichment activities. This was achieved through structured and creative holiday activities and trips.

Improving access to healthy food during school holidays. This was achieved through the provision of 11,383 meals that met the School Food Standards.

Providing opportunities for family learning and parental engagement in children’s education. This was achieved through actively engaging parents in the co-delivery of the programme, including the requirement that parents/carers attend all sessions with their children and participate in the communal meals.

Through offering a focused holiday activities and food programme to 2,597 vulnerable and low income nursery and primary school aged children and their parents/carers multiple related wellbeing and community based infrastructure outcomes have also been achieved, including:

Community Infrastructure:

Holiday Kitchen’s informal relationship with BFS has been consolidated. Through governance arrangements, the experience of delivery and the evidence base we have established this year BFS now have a strong case to consider further mainstreaming future holiday food and activity provision across Birmingham.

Children’s Centre community organizing capacity and infrastructure to deliver meal base activities have been strengthened across the city through Holiday Activity Toolkit alongside Food Hygiene, healthy cooking and allergens training.

As a result of programme participation 68 parents and local residents have grown in confidence, and over time taken on more responsibility as Holiday Kitchen volunteers. This has sustainably supported their engagement, skills, and employability pathways and future programme delivery. Wellbeing:

Participant family and peer relationships have been supported and strengthened in safe, nurturing environments.

Parents have developed knowledge of and confidence to engage with other community

support services. In particular, School readiness, behaviour management, healthy

weight, speech and language and vulnerable families’ pathway have been strengthened.

Referral pathways with wrap-around care for vulnerable families during holidays have

been strengthened reducing the stress of families in crisis

Children’s Centres have increased their registrations (REACH) and families accessing

services (SEEN) including through Saturday delivery we have been able to engage more

fathers in activity participation.

Through seeing whole families interact over a period of time, staff have been able to

better understand family dynamics and strengthen their ability to get families the Right

Help at the Right Time

This has been enabled by positive partnership working building upon the many synergies

that exist between the delivery of Holiday Kitchen and the wider remit of Birmingham

Forward Steps Children’s Centres in the areas of prevention and early help. These include

the need to support those most in need, operate in areas of highest deprivation, address

poverty, deliver quality services in a safe environment, strengthen family relationships and

improve children’s educational outcomes. The programme is also considered to significantly

complement all sites commitments to Startwell Birminghamx and Henryxi nutrition and

physical activity initiatives alongside promoting Healthy Startxii uptake.

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Appendix A: 2018 Family Case studies

Ladywood District

Mum (CH) talks about her experience of Holiday Kitchen at Ladywood Children’s Centre

throughout the summer break. In her own words:

Holiday Kitchen has been a wonderful experience. It has built a good support network of

families, where we can all talk to one another about our children’s development, and the

support and trust has built up within one another. There has been friendships built between

families and children, which is lovely to see as we have all grown self-confidence and self-

esteem within ourselves and as a family. The food cooked each day has all been delicious

and recipes have been shared with us in our very own HK recipe book provided by the staff

for us to try as a family at home.

Before I started attending Holiday Kitchen, I was very isolated and was used to keeping

myself isolated. However, since attending HK, I have come out of my shell a lot and have

made some lovely friends who I will be staying in touch with as we have created a Whatsapp

group with all of us ‘HK friends’.

The beach trip to Weston Super-Mare was a great experience for my whole family. It was

like a mini holiday and all of us enjoyed every minute of it. My children loved the trip and

made some lovely friends with the other children. We have also loved attending the Launch

days and joining in with all the fun activities provided. There has been something for all of us

to do both individually and together as a family.

The staff were really helpful and friendly. There has always been a friendly atmosphere

between the families and the staff at HK – all positive effects for the whole family. There has

always been a good range of activities provided for all ages and has helped the children’s

independent skills.”

Parent from Ladywood’s Holiday Kitchen

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Edgbaston District

This case study reflects the journey of one family who attended every session of the Holiday

Kitchen. Mum and three sons aged 8,7 and 5 and a younger daughter aged 1 year 11

months attended all sessions.

As the long summer school holidays approached I started to think about how I was going to

occupy my whole family on a limited household income, I was so pleased when I saw

Holiday Kitchen advertised. We attended every session and we all loved it.

My eldest son really enjoyed the scavenger hunt and loved filling the brown paper bag with

his finds, the animal man was another big hit, and he held a snake and a very large spider!

He took a great interest in the ‘Eat Well Plate’ and can now tell me about carbohydrates,

proteins, meats and vegetables and portion sizes. He really enjoyed the daily craft activities

too.

My middle son really enjoyed the cooking activities and making his own pizza and rice

krispie cakes; these activities have made me think about involving my children in more

cooking at home.

My youngest son said his favourite day was when we went

to the seaside. He enjoyed the coach journey and playing

football on the beach. He also said he enjoyed the

scavenger hunt and was delighted when he found a snail. I

will definitely use this activity during the next school

holiday.

My daughter loved the painting, singing, the food and the

animal man. I knew she had had a good time painting by

the state of her clothes.

The family sports day was very enjoyable and good fun. It

was nice seeing my boys take part in the races. I entered

the parent’s race which was good fun. It was lovely that at

the end of the day we were presented with individual

medals and a family trophy.

My family really benefited from attending Holiday Kitchen.

Everyone was excited on holiday kitchen days and it was

good to start the day with a breakfast, this gave my

children a freedom of choice and a chance to try something

new and gave me ideas for healthy breakfasts and snacks.

The sessions went really quickly with lots of different daily

activities. My children were occupied and I noticed a

definite improvement in their behaviour. I was able to

spend time more time with my family as I didn’t have to

worry about shopping and cooking food for that day. We all

made friends and it was nice for us to all be able to sit and eat together. I hope that holiday

(Mum)kitchen happens again next year as it was great for us all.

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Hodge Hill District

Holiday kitchen has made a difference to me as a parent and as a volunteer. As a volunteer I have gained skills through this program by being more hands on and involved with the families it has given me a platform of engaging with families and children up to the ages of 11 years. Whereas I wouldn’t be presented with this opportunity other than being in stay and play sessions. Holiday kitchen has enabled me to put policies and procedures I have read and signed during my induction into practice furthermore. When it came to cooking with the children I would ensure their safety and this gave me more responsibility in having more awareness when working together with the facilitators, providing support where needed. I am aware of the set up before and after sessions and the input that needs to go into each day ensuring garden checks and room checks were conducted each day.

My child has also enjoyed attending the program as she would look forward to each day and feel excited when coming. My child has gained confidence and will be school ready for September. “Holiday Kitchen has broken down the summer for me it’s been really good fun, we have both enjoyed our time” As a parent I will encourage other parents to attend so they can also learn new skills just as I have. It has made cooking fun again for me and my child. Holiday kitchen has given me time and opportunities to try out new things I would not have carried out this summer. I have enjoyed cooking foods together with other families. Holiday kitchen has saved me a

lot of money! I have been present on Saturdays when attending the libraries this was a good turnout of families. Trips out of the center has also made holiday kitchen fun and enjoyable. Time has gone very fast!

Holiday Kitchen Volunteer

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Yardley District

Mom, dad and daughter of 5 years old live in a high rise flat in a deprived area so there is

nowhere for daughter to be able to play

Mom stated when she started (at

Holiday Kitchen) that her daughter was

a very fussy eater and would refuse to

eat any fruit or vegetables or anything

that was mixed together, we decided to

do a learning plate with her so (at) the

start of holiday kitchen she just have

her sandwich/wrap on her own plate,

and a plate next to her so she could try

a new thing each day, which by the

end of the holiday kitchen she was

having a lot more vegetable and fruit

and even having them on one plate.

The daughter even participated in our blind fold eating challenge and tried everything.

Mom said it has changed her daughters eating habits even at home and now she still using

(Yardley District Staff member) the learning plate to introduce new foods.

Endnotes i https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/ (November 2018) ii https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/five-ways-to-mental-wellbeing (November 2018)

iii https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-physical-activity-guidelines(November 2018)

iv The educational aims of the programme are to support out of school learning in a dynamic manner,

which parents could continue independently. Programme activities focus on budget wellbeing and life skills informed by the Educational Endowment Foundation (EEF) Teaching and Learning and Early Years toolkits used to close the attainment gap for children from low income households. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/ (November 2018) v Healthy Start Voucher eligibility provides some proxy insight into household deprivation for families

with children too young to receive Free School Meals based on eligibility thresholds vi http://www.schoolfoodplan.com/actions/school-food-standards/ (November 2018)

vii https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/example-menus-for-early-years-settings-in-england

(November 2018) viii

https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-2-year-olds (November 2018) ix https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/about-change4life

x http://startwellbirmingham.co.uk/ (November 2018)

xi https://henry.org.uk/ (November 2018)

xii https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/ (November 2018)