In light of the limited budget available for the 2025–26 financial year, an additional reduction will be applied to the expense requests.

In addition to the restrictions already in place, a 20% cap on internal staff costs will be introduced, starting with the 2025 Summer Fund and continuing for the subsequent holiday funds.

We recognise that this decision - made after reviewing data from previous SHFF years - may have a significant impact on many groups’ applications. However, it will enable us to support a larger number of applicants overall

The School Holiday Food and Activities Fund aims to support third-sector and non-profit associations in providing free, healthy food, and engaging educational activities for children from low-income families during the school holidays. Over the years, the number of applications received at Falkirk Council for this fund has increased, and we expect further growth due to the current situation in the country. Unfortunately, the growth in the number of the applications has also seen a decrease in the amount of funding provided by the Scottish Government to the local authorities.

The Fairer Falkirk team acknowledges the incredible efforts of our groups in creating exciting programs for children and their valuable contributions. Considering the limited funding available and our commitment to assist as many groups as possible, we have decided to establish specific limitations on the activities that the School Holiday Fund can support to ensure that our limited funding achieves the maximum impact for our children and young people.

Starting from the 2023 Autumn holiday, the following activities will not normally be funded:

1. Food and supermarket vouchers, food parcels: while these aids provide food to families and children, they do not align with the core purpose of the School Holiday Fund, which is to provide nutritious meals linked with activities.
2. Inflatable games (e.g. bouncy castle) and balloon-related activities (e.g. balloon man): although popular among children, these activities are costly and are not necessary in delivering the primary objectives of the fund.
3. Console games: Console games do not promote physical activity and lack educational value.
4. Game vouchers (e.g. bowling): these are usually expensive and are given directly to families, potentially for use outside of school holidays.
5. Charged activities with animals (e.g. Animal man, Birds of prey, Zoo lab) and charged activities on the water (e.g. boat trips): while these activities are popular, their costs per head are high and they are not necessary in delivering the primary objectives of the fund.
6. Private cinema screenings: like the above activities, private screenings are costly per head and offer limited benefits.

For instance, if a group includes a fun day with a BBQ and a bouncy castle in their application, they can seek funding for food, materials, staff costs, and venue hire, but not for the bouncy castle itself.

Additionally, there will be restrictions on funding for day trips. While these trips provide valuable experiences for children, they can be expensive, especially due to transportation costs.

Day trips will be considered for funding if the amount requested to cover transport and entry/activity fees represents less than 20% of the total funding requested, with a maximum limit of £500.

Applications from groups primarily working with disabled children and children with additional needs may be eligible for a higher limit, recognising the challenges transport can pose in such cases.

We strongly encourage groups to use public transport (bus, train) instead of private transport whenever possible. Furthermore, we encourage groups to consider destinations within the Falkirk District and the Central Belt to familiarise children with local heritage and support local communities.

A restriction will also be applied to funding for venue hire costs. While we understand that some groups lack their own premises, high venue hire costs can significantly impact overall expenses. We request that venue hire costs do not exceed 20% of the total funding requested.

We realise that these changes may be disappointing for many. Whilst we appreciate and empathise with groups concerns, our primary objective is to support as many children and young people as possible, and to achieve this, we must prioritise activities that provide good value for money.

As mentioned earlier, you can still include these restricted activities/events in your programs; we will not fund them directly, but we will consider funding other eligible expenses, such as food, venue hire, and staff costs.

If you have any questions or doubts, please do not hesitate to contact us at fairerfalkirk@falkirk.gov.uk.