School holiday activities and food packages for disadvantaged children in Harrow will be delivered by a voluntary organisation and not Harrow Council this year.

Councillors agreed to pass on responsibility for the £600,000 programme to the Young Harrow Foundation (YHF) at a cabinet meeting on Thursday (March 18).

Cllr Christine Robson (Lab, West Harrow), who is responsible for young people and schools at Harrow Council, explained this will allow the council to focus its resources on other areas while ensuring these services still go ahead.

She added she has complete confidence in the ability of the YHF, which she said has formed a strong relationship with the council over the past two years.

“We have chosen the Young Harrow Foundation to manage this for us because the council is still knee-deep in the response to the pandemic,” Cllr Robson said.

“We would not be able to take it on as well as we would like when we have so many other commitments.

“These are not going away any time soon, and they have a physical, financial and emotional impact on the people of Harrow.

“We have a good partnership with the Young Harrow Foundation, which has a good record of being effective and efficient.”

The holiday programme, which is funded by the Department for Education, covers at least four hours a day, four days a week across a week in Easter and Christmas and four weeks in summer.

It provides at least one healthy meal a day, alongside various “fun and enriching activities”, including physical ones, that provide children with “opportunities to develop or consolidate skills and knowledge”.

According to a Harrow Council report, the initiative must also seek to “improve children’s knowledge and awareness of healthy eating” and offer advice and training to parents on how to “source, prepare and cook nutritious and low-cost food”.

Of the £616,240 dedicated to the scheme, around ten per cent (£60,200) covers coordination – including staff roles and administration – and evaluation, while the remainder is used for activities.

Cllr Graham Henson (Lab, Roxbourne), the leader of Harrow Council, said this was another example of the local authority working well with the voluntary and community sector.

He said this had been evident throughout the Covid-19 outbreak, which enabled services to continue at a time when, without this relationship, things might have broken down.