Equality impact assessment (EIA)
form: evidencing paying due regard to protected
characteristics
(Form updated April 2019)
Holiday Activity and Food Programme
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If you would like this information in another language or format such as Braille, large print or audio, please contact the Communications Unit on 01609 53 2013 or email communications@northyorks.gov.uk.
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Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are public documents. EIAs accompanying reports going to County Councillors for decisions are published with the committee papers on our website and are available in hard copy at the relevant meeting. To help people to find completed EIAs we also publish them in the Equality and Diversity section of our website. This will help people to see for themselves how we have paid due regard in order to meet statutory requirements.
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Name of Directorate and Service Area |
Central Services, Stronger Communities CYPS, Children & Families, Inclusion, Education & Skills
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Lead Officer and contact details |
Howard Emmett Howard.Emmett@northyorks.gov.uk
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Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA |
Alice Wild, Project Manager Marie-Ann Jackson, Head of Stronger Communities Howard Emmett, Assistant Director, Strategic Resources (CYPS)
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How will you pay due regard? e.g. working group, individual officer |
Working Group
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When did the due regard process start? |
4th January 2021
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Section 1. Please describe briefly what this EIA is about. (e.g. are you starting a new service, changing how you do something, stopping doing something?)
From December 2020 through to March 2021, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have operated a Covid Winter Grant Scheme, providing funding for local authorities to flexibly operate a local eligibility framework and approach to support vulnerable individuals and families. The scheme ends on 31st March 2021 and is replaced by a Department for Education (DfE) scheme.
The Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF) is intended to provide healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children. Pilot schemes have operated in England since 2018, but has not previously been rolled out to North Yorkshire. The programme is intended to cover a minimum of one week at Easter, four weeks over the Summer and one week at Christmas.
The rationale behind the scheme is that families may experience increased pressure points in holiday periods because of increased costs – such as food or childcare – and reduced incomes. This potentially leads to holiday experience gaps with children from disadvantaged families less likely to access organised out-of-school activities, more likely to experience ‘unhealthy holidays’ in terms of nutrition and physical health, and more likely to experience social isolation.
The programme, therefore, seeks to provide consistent and accessible enrichment activities which involve children, and parents, in food preparation. Local authorities are expected to coordinate free holiday provision for all children who receive benefits-related free school meals. Not all eligible children are expected to participate.
The aim of the programme is to make free places available to childen eligible for free school meals for the equivalent of at least four hours a day, four days a week, six weeks of the year. Local authorities – and partners – will have flexibility to determine how to deliver this level of provision to best serve the needs of children and families in their area.
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Section 2. Why is this being proposed? What are the aims? What does the authority hope to achieve by it? (e.g. to save money, meet increased demand, do things in a better way.)
The programme’s intended objectives are that children who attend the provision will: · eat more healthily over the school holidays · be more active during the school holidays · take part in engaging and enriching activities which support the development of resilience, character and wellbeing along with their wider educational attainment · be safe and not be socially isolated · have greater knowledge and health and nutrition · be more engaged with school and other local services
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Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?
This will be a positive change for eligible children to elect to participate in the scheme.
There will be no long-term changes for staff. Some additional work will be required from Stronger Communities, Finance, Strategy and Performance, Libraries, Education & Skills, Procurement, Project Management, Early Help, Public Health and SEND teams in the short term.
Some additional work will be required from schools to distribute the activity packs to eligible children for the Easter holidays.
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Section 4. Involvement and consultation (What involvement and consultation has been done regarding the proposal and what are the results? What consultation will be needed and how will it be done?)
No formal consultation is required as part of this process however schools will be communicated with via the Red Bag and letters. Updates will be added to the NYCC website and social media where relevant. The steering group will engage Locality boards comprising school leaders to discuss the implementation of the scheme for Summer 2021.
No face-to-face provision is planned for the Easter holidays. However, it is expected that face-to-face provision will take place over the summer holidays. Providers will be engaged with directly through email / letters / contracts to be part of the scheme.
All information about the scheme for parents, carers, children and young people will be available on the North Yorkshire Together website.
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Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs?
It is not anticipated that there will be any impacts on Council budgets.
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Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics? |
No impact |
Make things better |
Make things worse |
Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc. |
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Age |
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X |
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There will be a positive impact for children and young people who are eligible for the scheme during the school holidays. |
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Disability |
X |
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Places as part of the scheme will be provided to children and young people who are eligible and disability will not be taken into account as part of this. |
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Sex |
X |
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Places as part of the scheme will be provided to children and young people who are eligible and sex will not be taken into account as part of this. |
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Race |
X |
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Places as part of the scheme will be provided to children and young people who are eligible and race will not be taken into account as part of this. |
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Gender reassignment |
X |
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Places as part of the scheme will be provided to children and young people who are eligible and gender reassignment will not be taken into account as part of this. |
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Sexual orientation |
X |
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Places as part of the scheme will be provided to children and young people who are eligible and sexual orientation will not be taken into account as part of this. |
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Religion or belief |
X |
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Places as part of the scheme will be provided to children and young people who are eligible and religion or beliefs will not be taken into account as part of this. |
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Pregnancy or maternity |
X |
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Places as part of the scheme will be provided to children and young people who are eligible and pregnancy or maternity will not be taken into account as part of this. |
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Marriage or civil partnership |
X |
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Places as part of the scheme will be provided to children and young people who are eligible and marriage or civil partnership will not be taken into account as part of this. |
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Section 7. How will this proposal affect people who… |
No impact |
Make things better |
Make things worse |
Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc. |
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..live in a rural area? |
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X |
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There will be a positive impact for children and young people during the Easter holidays who live in a rural area; if a child or young person is eligible, they will receive an activity pack.
There may be a positive impact for eligible children and young people who live in a rural area if provision during the summer holidays is available near to where they live that ordinarily would not be available unless part of this scheme. |
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…have a low income? |
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X |
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There will be a positive impact for children and young people during the Easter holidays who live in a low income family; if they are eligible for the scheme they will receive an activity pack.
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…are carers (unpaid family or friend)? |
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X |
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This may have a positive impact for any young people who are carers and are eligible for the scheme as they will receive an activity pack during the Easter holidays and access to face-to-face provision during the summer holidays. |
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Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply) |
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North Yorkshire wide |
X |
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Craven district |
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Hambleton district |
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Harrogate district |
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Richmondshire district |
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Ryedale district |
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Scarborough district |
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Selby district |
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If you have ticked one or more districts, will specific town(s)/village(s) be particularly impacted? If so, please specify below. |
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N/A |
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Section 9. Will the proposal affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics? (e.g. older women or young gay men) State what you think the effect may be and why, providing evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
It is not anticipated that this will affect a combination of protected characteristics.
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Section 10. Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us) |
Tick option chosen |
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1. No adverse impact - no major change needed to the proposal. There is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact identified. |
X |
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2. Adverse impact - adjust the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We will change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, or we will achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. |
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3. Adverse impact - continue the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We cannot change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, nor can we achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. (There must be compelling reasons for continuing with proposals which will have the most adverse impacts. Get advice from Legal Services) |
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4. Actual or potential unlawful discrimination - stop and remove the proposal – The EIA identifies actual or potential unlawful discrimination. It must be stopped. |
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Explanation of why option has been chosen. (Include any advice given by Legal Services.)
This will be a positive change for children and young people who are eligible for the scheme.
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Section 11. If the proposal is to be implemented how will you find out how it is really affecting people? (How will you monitor and review the changes?)
Monitoring will be completed as per the DfE requirements.
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Section 12. Action plan. List any actions you need to take which have been identified in this EIA, including post implementation review to find out how the outcomes have been achieved in practice and what impacts there have actually been on people with protected characteristics. |
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Action |
Lead |
By when |
Progress |
Monitoring arrangements |
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Steering Group to continue planning for delivery of scheme for Easter
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Marie-Ann Jackson |
19/03/21 |
On-going |
To be completed as per DfE monitoring requirements |
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Steering Group to continue planning for delivery of scheme for Summer provision
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Marie-Ann Jackson |
28/05/21
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On-going |
To be completed as per DfE monitoring requirements |
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Section 13. Summary Summarise the findings of your EIA, including impacts, recommendation in relation to addressing impacts, including any legal advice, and next steps. This summary should be used as part of the report to the decision maker.
The proposed framework and approach has a potential positive impact for children and young people and their families who are eligible for the scheme. There are no identified adverse impacts.
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Section 14. Sign off section
This full EIA was completed by:
Name: Alice Wild Job title: Project Manager Directorate: Central Services Signature: Alice Wild
Completion date: 24th February 2021
Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature): Howard Emmett
Date: 24th February 2021
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