Huddersfield-created school holiday meals app to roll out nationally

The School's Out! app

An app developed in Huddersfield to help children from low income families with free meals during the school holidays has been so successful that it will now roll out nationwide.

The School’s Out! app was launched in 2019 and is the brainchild of Kirklees Youth Alliance (KYA), which provides support to youth organisations across Kirklees. The app was developed by Huddersfield-based digital design specialist, Torchbearer, which has previously picked up awards for its work with clients including Huddersfield Town FC and Creative England.

Parents using the app can book a wide range of holiday sessions and activities for their children that incorporate a nutritious meal, physical exercise and other enriching activities.

Last year 85 organisations hosted more than 2,600 sessions that were attended by approximately 12,000 children and more than 28,000 nutritious meals were served.

Following the success, KYA and Torchbearer have enlisted the help of Yorkshire-wide legal firm LCF Law to create a licensing model and agreements that will enable local authorities throughout the UK to start using School’s Out!

Pete Waugh, technical director at Torchbearer said: “When KYA approached us with the idea for the Schools Out! app, we immediately knew it could be a big success. We’ve designed it with an easy-to-use booking system, so parents can book their children onto sessions quickly and easily. After the session, parents can send feedback and rate events. It’s also a centralised monitoring tool for the council’s Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) team, negating the need for them to collate information from scores of provider organisations for the Department for Education (DfE).”

Waugh adds that, although off-the-shelf alternatives are available, School’s Out! is currently the only holiday activity and food (HAF)-specific web/app product, optimised for use on mobile phones, that is bespoke and can be adapted depending on specific requirements. These requirements include rebranding if a local authority wants to call it a specific name.

The government has now committed to providing a further three years of HAF funding from April 2022 which will see KYA continuing to support Kirklees Council with the 2022/23 programme and contributing to planning for 2023-25.

Long-established law firm LCF employs more than 125 people across offices in Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate and Ilkley.

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