There were three main avenues we used when sharing and distributing communications.
County Council: At Gloucestershire County Council, we developed a communications schedule for each HAF holiday. This included social media posts and paid advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. Newsletter articles were published on internal bulletins to announce HAF news to colleagues who may be working with families that would benefit from the support and engagement of the programme.
We also had a parents HAF newsletter (3335 subscribers) that was published every 2 weeks from where communications start about the HAF period, until the end of the holiday. We had 2 press releases for each HAF period; one to announce the ‘soft launch’ (where families can view activities before they can book them, and where professionals can refer families with more complex needs to ensure they can get a HAF booking) and one to announce when bookings go live. We also sent regular communications of activities to our social care team.
In 2023, we produced 2 videos following the Spring and Summer HAF to highlight the programme and advertise the benefits to families in an engaging way. Regarding sending communications to schools, we learnt through delivery that the combination of GCC and district leads submitting communications to school at each HAF was overwhelming to them- so we made the decision to step back from delivering school communications and leaving this with our district leads which is described further below. This ensured a more localised approach rather than a central approach to school engagement.
District Leads: Our 6 district leads were also required to submit a communications schedule for review prior to each HAF period on how they are going to advertise their offer within their local district. As mentioned, this included communications to schools. District leads could form closer working relationships with their local schools by doing visits and talks at schools, putting banners with local HAF information, and creating localised post cards with HAF information that children can take home. This was a more ‘personalised’ approach from each district.
Since this approach started, we were able to see better engagement from schools and therefore an increase in numbers of children and young people attending HAF session. District leads also put out social media posts, local posters, advertisements and occasionally their own videos featuring the benefits of HAF.
Community Connectors: We commissioned 6 Community Connectors, 1 for each district, the aim of which was to better support the most vulnerable families to ensure the offer to them is prioritised and to remove any barriers that may be blocking an eligible family from attending HAF. Community Connectors support district leads in communications to schools by holding talks and drop-in sessions for families, should they wish to find out more or sign up to HAF.
The Community Connectors have also formed strong working relationships with each SENco so they were aware of the HAF offer and how it could support families during the school holidays. As mentioned, with the ‘soft launch’ Community Connectors were the ones to receive professional referrals so, therefore, they advertised this offer to local Children and Family centres, Social Care, Early Help and Schools etc. to increase referrals and engagement.
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