How do I find a holiday club for my SEND child?

Start with the Local Offer

Start with your council's SEND Local Offer, which every English council must publish: it lists holiday clubs and play schemes for children with SEND, plus the free HAF holiday programme for those on free school meals. The Local Offer is a website your council has to keep up to date by law, and that law says it must include leisure activities. You do not need a diagnosis or an EHCP to use it. Search “[your council] Local Offer” and look under holidays, play, or short breaks.

Check whether HAF covers you

The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme is paid for by the Department for Education and run by every council in England. It gives free holiday club places, with food, at Easter, summer, and Christmas. It is for children who get benefits-related free school meals, and councils must make reasonable adjustments so children with SEND can take part. Search “[your council] HAF” to find the booking page.

Two things the HAF-focused guides tend to skip. SEND places are limited, so a council cannot promise a place for every child, which means you should book the moment bookings open. And from September 2026 free school meals widen to every household on Universal Credit, so more families will qualify for free HAF places than before.

If you do not qualify for HAF: short breaks

Not on free school meals? There is a separate route the top results miss. Your council also has a duty to provide short breaks for disabled children, and that duty specifically includes leisure activities during the school holidays. It is based on your child being a disabled child, not on free-school-meals eligibility, so a working family that earns too much for HAF can still ask. Contact the council's disabled children's team or short breaks team and ask for their short breaks services statement, which sets out what is on offer and any criteria.

Check the club before you book

Once you have found provision, ask the questions a leaflet will not answer before you leave your child:

• Can they actually meet your child's needs, and have you talked through a typical day, triggers, and what helps?
• What are the staff-to-child ratios, and is there one-to-one support if your child needs it?
• Are staff DBS-checked, first-aid trained, and trained in safeguarding, and is there a risk assessment for your child?
• For provision for under-8s, and some SEND provision up to 17, is the club on the Ofsted register?

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.