Has anyone noticed a lot of the summer camps for poor children are in expensive villages miles away from where a lot of poor kids actually live?

[Noahide]

The strange thing about the Haf programme in my (not small) town is that the majority of the summer camps are in more expensive villages that are a few miles from here.
Seems strange when most children eligible for Haf have parents who cannot drive and it’s unlikely many children in said expensive villages are eligible.

Maybe that’s the only locations they could get that’s suitable? Is there no public transport to these villages?

also what is the haf programme

Public transportation that needs to be paid for and is slow (not ideal for getting there at 8 am)
anyway just seems strange when this town is actually quite big that most of these clubs aren’t here

Summer camp for poor children

Maybe better facilities?

Not just for poor children. I can get on these even though my child isn't eligible for free school meals.

Maybe the nice places get a tax discount from letting charities or cic's use their facilities? Maybe its a way for those kids to experience something they wouldnt usually.?
Is this an observation or something youre not keen on?

Does your village have a hall, playing facilities etc, that would be needed. Is there enough demand to fill a camp there?

My local one is at a leisure centre.

What organisations are running the camps? Maybe village halls are the cheapest places to rent.

It’s not just for poor children. Families from any background can book on to HAF camps. It’s just those in receipt of free school meals, and other qualifying factors, can attend for free, whereas others pay.

We have lots of them dotted around, many in deprived areas, others in affluent areas.

That’s my point. This is a large town most of the poor kids in the area will live here. The little villages are really expensive and mainly populated by elderly or wealthy people. Not many poor kids will live there. And yet most of the Haf clubs are in these places?

It stands for Holiday Activities and Food programme.

It is for children who get benefits related free school meals but some areas extend the provision to groups like young carers, looked after children or those with an EHC.

I think th issue is perhaps that organisations apply to be part of it. So you will get lots of activity providerslocated on these well off areas who usually cater for the more well off families apply to run a scheme as the council will pay them direct.

Plenty in the town centre here.
The main one that isnt is a watersports one... which is taking place at the council watersports centre. Which is in the countryside.

Do you think there is a conspiracy that’s why they are holding them there, or do you just not want dc from this village attending?

thanks @PassMeTheCookies for the explanation, so the clubs aren’t “only for dc on haf”. Haf pays for their attendance at the clubs that run?

Summer camp for poor children
There is a little more to ut than that.
It is Holiday activity and good programme which is a government initiative.
It is aimed at school children during Easter, summer and possibly Christmas ( I'm not sure about the last one)

Children take part in a minimum of one hours physical activity and they have to have a nutritional balanced meal. Sessions must include guidance around food and food preparation, although some of the one I've been part of seemed to skip this bit!

In my experience if families couldn't get their children to a location they were picked up.

Different for different areas but I have booked my daughter on different things for free despite not getting free school meals. They also get a free lunch. Managed to book something most days even if for a couple of hours.

No I just think there should be more in the much larger town which has a lot more children living in it and more poor people. A lot of poor parents can’t drive or can’t afford a car.

There aren’t that many children in the villages and the ones that do live there are most likely not eligible.

How do you know this and why does it affect you? It’s a holiday club people who don’t need funded pay to attend, those who can’t afford it, get it funded.
where you for the closure of surestart too as the people who actually attended “weren’t the right sort”?

Can you not read? I already said it’s not possible for many poor families to get to these villages on time for 8am. I don’t drive and from speaking to other parents doing Haf it would seem a good half of them don’t drive either.

and I’ve not heard of surestart so unsure why you’re making assumptions about me?

From what people have said further up, it's up to organisations to set them up and run them, and then they get council funding. So the small villages seem to be proactive in doing this, but groups in your town are not. How are you managing to blame the villages for there being none in your town then?

"Poor children"
What a delightful way of saying it @Noahide 🙄
How do you know the financial situations of everyone that lives in the village?

That might be the case in your area but in my areas these clubs are exclusivly for the eligible children. Others cannot simply pay to attend.

OP is right. Sometimes even just the location excludes the children. Many of ds's friends would not have travelled to an area they felt was full of people not like them or where they might feel out of place. Not for the likes of us is a big thing.

Because it’s about half a million pounds for a regular sized house in the villages. The villages are all really small and not many children live there anyway

Is the camp under subscribed?
If not then eligible families are obviously figuring out a way of getting there.
Also "HAF" children doesn't necessarily mean "poor".

Who's running the camp though?
Is it a group based in the village?