FAQs for FEAST providers

Children and young people receiving benefits-related free school meals are automatically eligible for funded places at FEAST activities.

All children and young people from reception to year 11 (inclusive) who receive benefits-related free school meals are eligible for FEAST.

Schools can also make a small number of additional children eligible by exception if they face significant financial and/or other disadvantage (see below).

As defined by the Department for Education, FEAST is primarily for children and young people on benefits-related free school meals.

However, schools can also make a small number of additional children and young people eligible by exception if they face significant financial and/or other disadvantage.

There are limits on how many children and young people can be made eligible by exception, to ensure that the focus of the programme remains on the Department for Education’s key audience: those on benefits-related free school meals.

If a parent/guardian believes their child should be made eligible for a funded FEAST place, please ask them to contact their school to request this. Individual schools have been given the responsibility to make additional children eligible by exception. 

Schools are not required to automatically issue vouchers to ‘eligible by exception’ children/young people who have received vouchers historically.

If the child does not attend school, the parent/guardian should email hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk confirming this and the reason for their eligibility.

If you don’t get a voucher for a child/young person, HolidayActivities will not count them as being eligible for FEAST. This means they will not count towards your targets.  

When parents/guardians book using HolidayActivities, their voucher code is already allocated to their account, meaning they are automatically counted towards your targets.

If the parent or guardian makes their booking any other way (e.g. over the phone or via email), you need to:

1. Receive their 16-digit FEAST voucher number (and all other information required to keep them safe during their activity)
2. Manually add their booking, including the 16-digit FEAST voucher, to HolidayActivities.

Parents/guardians can find their voucher by logging into to app.holidayactivities.com using the email address or social login as previously, and their voucher code for the current holiday period will be in their account (at the top, under the child’s name and school).

This ONLY works if parents/guardians have claimed this holiday period’s voucher by clicking on the link in the email or text. If they haven’t done this, they will need to:

1. Search their emails or texts for ‘HolidayActivities’ to see if it is in their inbox or junk email folder
2. Ask their school to provide them with a copy – there are instructions for school on how to do this on our Schools FAQ page. If it is the school holidays, ask them to contact hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk

If the parent/guardian has not received a voucher, please as them to contact their school. If school is closed, and you are confident the child is eligible for a funded place, please accept their booking and ask them to contact hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk.

It is your responsibility to follow up with the parent or guardian to get their voucher number and add this to the booking before the session takes place.

Eligible children and young people are allocated a voucher by their school, not by North Yorkshire Together. Please direct the parent/guardian to the school to be allocated a voucher.

If the child doesn’t attend school, please ask their parent/guardian to email hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk confirming their name, primary contact email and mobile phone number, and the reason for their eligibility.

If the parent/guardian books via HolidayActivities, their voucher will already be automatically tracked and counted towards your targets.

If the parent/guardian books their place any other way, you need to secure their 16-digit voucher and add this to a booking you make manually on HolidayActivities.

The parent/guardian can find the voucher in their original email or text from HolidayActivities, or if they can’t find this, they can go to app.holidayactivities.com and log in and find it in their account.

If the parent/guardian hasn’t yet received a voucher, please ask them to contact their child’s school. If the child does not attend school, or the school is closed, please ask them to email hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk.

Any attendance not added to HolidayActivities will not count towards your targets. This may lead to under-performance against your grant agreement, which could result in the withholding or clawback of some of your grant. 

No. It is not possible to retrospectively gain eligibility for participants.   

If you are accepting a child/young person to attend your activity, and you do not have a 16-digit voucher for them, you MUST work with the parent/guardian to secure this and add it to the manual booking you have made for them on HolidayActivities before they attend*.

In order to secure the voucher, you can:

1. Ask the parents to search in their emails or texts for ‘HolidayActivities’ to see if it is in their inbox or junk email folder
2. If they’ve used HolidayActivities before, ask them to go to app.holidayactivities.com and logging in using the email address or social login they first accessed the platform with – their voucher code for the current holiday period will be in their account (at the top, under your child’s name and school)
3. If they have not received a voucher, ask the parent to contact their school to be made eligible
4. If schools are closed, ask them to email hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk with the following information as soon as possible and BEFORE they attend the activity:
   • Child’s name
   • Child’s date of birth
   • Primary contact’s phone number and email
   • Reason for their eligibility

North Yorkshire Together only issues FEAST vouchers in the very limited circumstance that a child/young person who is eligible has not received their voucher and schools are closed.

You CANNOT secure vouchers in bulk from North Yorkshire Together for young people who have attended your activity. Vouchers must be secured as soon as possible and before activity, via the parent/guardian.

Please remember that ALL FEAST-eligible bookings must be made on, or manually added (with a 16-digit voucher) to, HolidayActivities, to count towards your targets.

*If, for exceptional circumstances, you need to do add their voucher after their attendance, this is possible – however you should make all possible efforts to do so before they attend. This does not mean you can secure eligibility after their attendance.

Yes, if you’re confident they are eligible for a funded place.

You then need to work with the parent/guardian to secure their 16 digit voucher to add to the manual booking you will make for their attendance on HolidayActivities. 

The parent/guardian can find this by following the instructions in the FAQ ‘How can I help someone find a voucher that’s been lost or not received?’

If the parent/guardian has not received a voucher, please as them to contact their school. If school is closed, and you are confident the child is eligible for a free place, please accept their booking and ask them to contact hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk.

It is your responsibility to follow up with the parent or guardian to get their voucher number and add this to the booking before the session takes place.

Eligible children and young people are allocated a voucher by their school, not by North Yorkshire Together. Please direct the parent/guardian to the school to be allocated a voucher.

If the child doesn’t attend school, please ask their parent/guardian to email hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk confirming their name and eligibility.

If someone has been allocated a FEAST voucher for the current holiday period and they have already claimed it via HolidayActivities – by clicking the link in the email or text – they should:

1. Log in to app.holidayactivities.com using the email address or social login they first accessed the platform with,
2. Their voucher code for the current holiday period will be in their account (at the top, under their child’s name and school).

If someone has been allocated a FEAST voucher for the current holiday period and they have NOT already claimed it via HolidayActivities, they can:

1. Search their emails or texts for ‘HolidayActivities’ to see if it is in their inbox or junk email folder
2. Ask their school to provide them with a copy. If the school needs help with this, they can be directed to the instructions on our Schools FAQ page. If it is the school holidays, ask the parent/guardian to email hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk

The best way is to support them in person, at a device, to search in their inbox for messages from HolidayActivities. You want to find the email with their voucher, click the link and redeem it. You can then support them to make their bookings.

To help, we have this step-by-step guide on how to redeem your FEAST voucher and book free activities. You can also contact support@holidayactivities.com if you have any issues in creating an account, making a booking or managing a booking.

If the person you’re supporting isn’t able to get online to view activities, redeem their voucher or make a booking, see the FAQ on our ‘Information for Families’ page on ‘How do I book a free place if I can’t get online?’

If it isn’t possible for the person you’re helping to claim the voucher and make a booking themself, it is possible for anyone who supports them to do it for them, as long as they have permission.

Wherever possible, if a family requests multiple children onto a single activity, we request that providers aim to accommodate all of these, rather than only some. Our research shows that if only some of a family group are accepted onto an activity, it is likely to lead to cancellations or non-attendance from those who had been accepted. Please be mindful of this when making your allocations, and strive to offer a fair balance of bookings across your schedule of activities to family groups of all sizes.

We encourage your FEAST activities to be open to all, although FEAST can only fund those places for participants with a FEAST voucher.

Some exceptions may apply to our encouragement that provision be open to all – for example, where provision is tailored to a specific user group (e.g. SEND, young carers etc.) 

We are required by the Department for Education to collect certain information about those participants who attend but do not count towards your FEAST targets (e.g. on paid-for or otherwise funded places). This will be confirmed to you at contracting stage.  

First, you must collect all the information you need in order to make the child/young person’s participation in your activity safe.

In order for that child/young person to count towards your targets, you also need to add the child/young person’s unique 16-digit FEAST voucher to a booking you manually make on HolidayActivities. 

If the parent/guardian hasn’t yet received a voucher, please ask them to contact their child’s school. If the child does not attend school, or the school is closed, please ask them to email hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk.

It is you, the provider, who is responsible for marketing your FEAST activity, to ensure they reach the targets they agree with North Yorkshire Together. 

North Yorkshire Together provides marketing support through toolkits, ad-hoc social media and press activity, and via an online listing on the North Yorkshire Together website. 

Please note that in your marketing you should direct parents of eligible children to book their free place via the voucher sent to them by their school, using the HolidayActivities platform. More information about this is in the families FAQ page. 

In the first instance you should review the mitigation measures you included in your application (such as collaborating with other providers to find alternative venues/practitioners).  

If these do not enable your activity to continue as planned, North Yorkshire Together would encourage you to attempt to reschedule the activities. Activities could be rescheduled to a later date in that holiday period, or alternatively the following holiday period (with agreement from North Yorkshire Together). 

If neither your mitigation methods nor rescheduling (during that holiday or a later holiday period) are possible, we will negotiate with individual providers on a case-by-case basis the impact on their grant agreement. This will include the return of all or summative portion of your grant, in line with the achieved delivery of your targets. For example, if you reached 40% of your targets, it may be you are required to return 60% of your grant. 

In the first instance, please refer to North Yorkshire Council Cost of Living Support webpage, or call the council on 0300 131 2131, for full and further information. 

Other support may also be available, for example Cash for Kids – Cost of Living Grants: 

Grants available to charities, community groups and professionals to help disadvantaged children across the UK during the current cost-of-living crisis.  

Grants are for £50 per child per household. Professionals within a governing body (e.g. social services, GP, teacher, charity, community group etc.) are eligible to apply on behalf of families in need. Costs such as food, clothing (including school uniform) and household energy are supported by the grant but any other item or cost is considered if children’s most basic needs are to be met.  

Applications are accepted on a first come, first served basis and applicants are advised to submit early as the scheme will close when funds are depleted. 

You can also check out our Support Page for more resources. 

You can find information about support schemes and organisations which may be able to help on the North Yorkshire Council cost of living support page.

The Household Support Fund was set up by the Government to help people who are struggling with the increase in living costs and feeling the financial pressure of paying their bills. You’ll find more information about the Household Support Fund in North Yorkshire at the Household Support Fund page.

If you’re not eligible for the Household Support Fund but you are struggling to pay for food, energy and other essentials you may be able to get other financial support through schemes such as the North Yorkshire Local Assistance Fund (NYLAF) and a fund managed by North Yorkshire Citizens Advice and Law Centre that helps people struggling to pay their energy bills.

The North Yorkshire Council cost of living support page also contains advice on money, debt, benefit entitlement, free school meals and childcare costs as well as information about free Wi-Fi, digital support, travel and transport. The page also has information about energy saving, foodbanks and community-based support including Warm Welcome Spaces and local schemes depending on where you live.

North Yorkshire Citizen’s Advice and Law Centre provide free, confidential and impartial advice to help people find a way forward with whatever problems they face, including money and benefits. You can get advice in person, over the phone, on a web chat or by email by contacting North Yorkshire Citizen’s Advice and Law Centre direct.

Providers are be required to complete and submit both monitoring and evaluation regarding all those who attend your provision, whether FEAST-funded or otherwise.

You may find the best way to understand what you need to collect and submit is by reviewing the current Provider Monitoring form or the downloadable Word document version.

Please note you cannot submit your monitoring using the Word document: you must submit via the web form.

FEAST Monitoring

Monitoring is the collection of data. We’ve introduced HolidayActivities, a platform for managing your bookings, to streamline this process for activity providers.

Your FEAST monitoring comprises of:

• Specific information about every FEAST-funded participant who attends your activity – this is collected via HolidayActivities.
  • If the parent/guardian books directly, you do not have to do anything further (except following the rest of the below steps)
  • If they book via email/phone/face-to-face, you have to collect the information required by HolidayActivities correctly and in full and manually upload this onto the platform.
• The same information for paid-for participants – you can either manually collect and submit this information on HolidayActivities, or keep it on your own systems. This is a requirement from the Department for Education.
  • We do not need you to give us this specific information unless we ask for it. Please do not send us this unless we ask.
  • You can find the list of exactly what information you are required to collect in your Service Level Agreement
• Submission of every register for the holiday period in question on HolidayActivities
• Some broad level data about the total number of young people that attended, whether they were primary or secondary aged, whether they had special needs, were a refugee, asylum seeker or Ukrainian guest, and whether they were FEAST-funded or not
  • You will be able to work this out from the data collected via the first two bullet points
  • This will be submitted as part of your online Provider Monitoring Form.

The provision of this full information is a requirement of your contract for FEAST delivery.

FEAST Evaluation

Evaluation is your reflections on (and evidence of) how your activities went. This includes:

• Participants’ feedback
• Parental feedback
• Any wider impact your sessions have had on those attending
• Self-assessment on how you met the Department for Education’s HAF Framework
• Impact on your organisation – are you better equipped, increased capacity or confidence
• You experience working with North Yorkshire Together

This is all collected and submitted via one online form. You can access the FEAST Christmas 2023/2024 Monitoring Form here.

If you wish to prepare your answers in advance and save as you go, please download this Word document version. Please note you cannot submit your monitoring using the Word document, you must submit via the web form.

Financial Reporting

We reserve the right to request full financial reporting on your grant, which could include breakdown and proof of expenditure, including payslips, declaration of any additional income received, and confirmation of any unspent grant. You will be required to retain information to confirm the above for six years. 

Any questions?

If you have any questions or issues submitting your monitoring, please email providers@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk.