Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Club 365 project in spotlight
Coatbridge’s holiday provision at Club 365 was among the projects highlighted in a new report outlining advice for the Scottish Government on tackling school holiday poverty.
Representatives from the Poverty and Inequality Commission visited North Lanarkshire’s food and activity hubs during the summer break and spoke to youngsters, parents and workers, as well as to voluntary groups and council officials.
It formed part of their research into school holiday food insecurity, childcare and other pressures faced by families such as finance, transport and activity provision.
North Lanarkshire launched Club 365 in Coatbridge in April, setting up daily sessions at four locations in the town to provide food and activities for youngsters on every non-schoolday of the year, including each weekend.
The programme, for youngsters who are entitled to free school meals, has been incrementally rolled out across the local authority area since then, and will launch in Airdrie at Easter.
Commission members have now made three recommendations to the Scottish Government – that holiday clubs including “food as a core element, should be available for all children from lowincome families”; that Holyrood should work with councils to develop and fund holiday support for all the pressures faced by families; and that additional cash benefits should be introduced for families during holidays, matching the cost of school meals.
North Lanarkshire’s launch of Club 365 earlier this year made it the first in the country to cover all 175 public holiday and weekend days of the year, with the commission’s report noting of their Scotland-wide research: “There were few examples of provision that covered every week of the school holidays.”
It added: “All [ projects visited] had the provision of food and activities as a core part of their model; some had also incorporated providing additional food for families for weekends and evenings through offering food bags or encouraging families to take any that was left over.
“Although food was often the initial focus of projects around school holidays, it was clear that projects were addressing a wider range of family needs.
“Families face a range of pressures during the school holidays – these include food insecurity and childcare, but also relate to wider finances, play and activities, parenting, and social isolation.”
The report also noted: “Holiday provision for young people of high school age has been identified as a gap; there seems to be little targeted provision in many areas. Part of the reason is likely to be the reluctance of young people to attend organised provision and the increasing sense of stigma about poverty felt by children as they get older – however, some programmes seemed to be connecting well around activities such as football, dance and cooking classes.”
North Lanarkshire education convener Frank McNally said: “Poverty and inequality remains the burning issue of our time and while we still have much to do to ensure it is eradicated, Club 365 is making a real difference to the lives of some of our most vulnerable.”
He added: “Education is one of the best ways out of poverty, which is why our administration has delivered one of the highest school uniform clothing grants in Scotland, secured breakfast clubs in every primary school, rolled out free sanitary products in schools and are investing millions in improving our school estate.
“We’re doing the best we can with the powers we have to give our young people the best possible start; ahead of today’s Scottish budget announcement, it’s time the Scottish Government provide North Lanarkshire Council with an assurance that there will be no cuts to its budget for next year so we can continue to tackle poverty head-on.”