after it was only extended for a year in March<\/a>, and after the programme was not specifically mentioned in the spending review.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHowever, the Department for Education has said it will now run until at least March 2029, with \u00a3600 million over the three years coming from the department\u2019s recent settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said:\u202f\u201cGiving every child the Best Start in Life is my number one priority, which is why we are delivering on our commitment to provide hundreds of thousands of children with 30 hours government-funded early education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Councils welcome extension<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Funding for the programmes is handed to councils, and although they are not directly overseen by schools, many clubs are held on school premises. Council chiefs had called for funding certainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amanda Hopgood, chair of the Local Government Association\u2019s children and young people board, said: \u201cWe are pleased the government has acted on our call to extend the holiday activities and food programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis has been essential in supporting vulnerable children, offering healthy, nutritious and affordable food while also providing vital wraparound, holistic support for families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She added the programme had \u201cproven highly effective by encouraging children to engage in higher levels of physical activity, improving their diets, as well as increasing their confidence, wellbeing and feeling of social connection, in particular reaching pupils who are persistent school absentees or at risk of absence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCouncils would not have been able to replace this funding if it was discontinued, which would have impacted on the most vulnerable children in their communities and risked losing experienced staff without adequate time to plan for future provision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cExtending the funding provides much-needed certainty and safeguards valuable support and expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Department will use \u00a3600m from its three-year spending review settlement to extend scheme to 2029<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":109082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[28,239],"post-theme":[],"class_list":["post-233905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dfe","tag-education-policy"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t