Children in Neath Port Talbot, a post-industrial South Wales county of around 144,000 people still feeling the effects of the 2024 Tata Steel layoffs, are set to get free supervised play sessions and healthy food across every school holiday period for the next two years, funded by a Welsh Government grant worth roughly £104,000 in total.
The programme targets the borough's most vulnerable children: those from deprived communities in the South Wales Valleys, kids in rural areas with little access to commercial childcare, and children with additional learning needs. All sessions will be free to attend, staffed by qualified playworkers, and required to provide food or snacks at every visit.
The stakes are real. Wales has the highest child poverty rate of any UK nation, with around 28% of children living in poverty by some measures, and Neath Port Talbot consistently ranks among the most deprived Welsh local authorities. Several of its neighbourhoods fall in the most deprived 10% nationally. For families here, the 13-plus weeks of school holidays each year have long meant a gap in both childcare and reliable meals for children who depend on free school meals during term time. Rural upper-valley communities face the added barrier of poor public transport, making free local play sessions often the only practical option.
Source: NationGraph.
Wales has been grappling with this problem since well before the pandemic. The country pioneered a legal duty requiring councils to secure sufficient play opportunities for children, enshrined in the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010. Holiday hunger entered policy conversations more sharply around 2017, and Welsh Government responded with programmes like the School Holiday Enrichment Programme and, during COVID, the Summer of Fun and Winter of Wellbeing initiatives. The current Holiday Playwork Project grant, which funds this programme, represents a consolidation of those pandemic-era efforts into more stable, recurring support.
The council is now seeking a provider through Wales's public procurement portal to run sessions across Easter, Whitsun, Summer, October half-term and February half-term, with possible weekend provision where demand is identified. The contract runs from July 2026 to March 2028.
With the cost-of-living crisis still pressing on household budgets and the Port Talbot steelworks cuts continuing to ripple through local incomes, the programme offers a modest but concrete safety net. Whether Welsh Government funding continues beyond 2028 remains an open question.
