HAF+ National Design Sprint and Podcast

Research shows school holidays can be pressure points for some families. For young people from low-income households this leads to being less likely to access out-of-school activities, more likely to experience unhealthy nutrition and physical health and more likely to experience social isolation.

The UK Government’s holiday activities and food programme (HAF) since 2018 has been the response to this issue. Providing support to children aged from reception to year 11 (inclusive) in receipt of free school meals through holiday periods.

Northumbria University were commissioned to evolve the design of the HAF+ offer (for young people aged 11-16), with the existing programme setup not being as effective for their needs compared to younger children.

Co-creating solutions directly with young people from Gateshead, Birmingham, Northumbria and Brent during local area design sprints.

We were asked to support the delivery of the National Design Sprint, where all 4x regions of young people came together to develop a new national HAF+ Framework.

And to produce a youth-led podcast for the project.

Northumbria’s team was led by Geta Defeyter, Nick Spencer, Joyce Yee and Dr Iain Brownlee.

Working with the UK-wide young people and stakeholders during the design sprint across the following areas:

• Day in the life of a young person during HAF+
• Developing the Values, Principles and Features of the new HAF+ Framework
• Understanding and creating engagement model ideas, from physical activity to food delivery
• Supporting everyone involved to share ideas
• Exploring views on the current HAF delivery
• Considering local and national resources available The project was supported by Feeding Britain, Gateshead Council, Mayor’s Fund for London, Leading Link, Northumberland Communities Together and Street Games.

Coaches Corner members Cyril (21) and Toby (16) were the podcast hosts (their first time doing this), in conversation with the young people and organisations attending the National Design Sprint, talking about:

“Why do you think young people should be directly involved in the design of their experiences outside of school?”