Support for families won’t stop at the school gates

This week, children head back to school and MPs head back to Parliament.

I’ve been on lots on great visits in Blackpool South over summer, meeting with residents, hearing from you directly.

One visit in particular sticks in my mind – the time I spent at the Holiday Activity and Food club at Revoe School.

Revoe is just one of 15 sports camps run by Blackpool Football Club Community Trust and serving 450 children across Blackpool. Children spent their time playing sports – like basketball and dance as well as football, doing arts and crafts and having free time. There was no major structure but there was stability – and a healthy meal – something many children would struggle to access without provisions like this, that run all across Blackpool in school holidays for children who receive free school meals in term time.

For years, as schools prepared to re-open, the previous Conservative government left families anxious over the programme’s future, with no promises it’d return the following year. They didn’t see the value of local support for families outside of the school day and our previous MP voted against providing them. He didn’t think twice about kids like the children I met at Revoe.

But this Labour government does.

We see the families in Blackpool South who are trying their best for their children and often having to rely on family and friends in the school holidays so they can work.

And because we see that, we know that support for families can’t stop at the school gates.

For many children, the school holidays mean adventure, rest, and quality time with family. But for nearly one in two children living in poverty in our town, the reality is very different.

Their parents face weeks of juggling childcare with work and stretching budgets to cover the basics like food. The security that school provides – the meals, the routine, the space to grow and thrive – suddenly disappears.

That's where Best Start Holiday Activities and Food Clubs will now come in.

They won’t just be a service, they're a lifeline.

Organisations like BFCCT serve up nutritious meals and engaging activities to hundreds of thousands of children every year. They step in when schools close, ensuring families don't face a cliff edge of support during the holidays. They give parents the consistency they need to keep working whilst knowing their children are safe, fed and having fun.

This government is shoring up HAF’s future by backing the programme with over £600 million for the next three years. A long-term investment in HAF, for the very first time since the programme began.

Under the new Best Start brand, these clubs will be part of something bigger. We're joining up support so families in Blackpool get what they need.

Free breakfast clubs in every primary school. Best Start Family Hubs in every community. Free school meals for every child whose family receives Universal Credit. Thirty hours of funded childcare a week for working parents.

This is about creating a proper foundation of support that works all year round.

That's the difference a Labour government with a Plan for Change makes.