HS

THOUSANDS OF FREE PLACES AVAILABLE FOR SCHOOL HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES

Manchester City Council is offering thousands of FREE places for children’s activities over the school holidays. In addition to the activities, each place booked will include a FREE meal during the day.

You must be a Manchester resident. See below to find out whether your child is eligible to take part and to book sessions;

3 STEPS TO BOOK ACTIVITIES

1. Register for benefits related free school meals – Click Here
2. Create a Family MCRactive ‘Go’ account – Click Here
3. Find and book your session on the Activity Finder – Click Here (Filter by Location, Provider, Date and more)

In order to book your place, users are required to have a Manchester Active Go account. Manchester Active Go is a new way to manage your health and activity across Manchester and will facilitate your bookings for sessions you’re interested in. If you have not created an account you will not be able to book any activities. 

To create your account, please CLICK HERE and follow the advised steps.

Once your account is set up, please scroll to the bottom of the page, or use our Activity Finder and follow the below steps to book your space:

Filter by

  • Location
  • Provider
  • Date
  • and Much more

Did you know that Free School Meals are changing?  

From September 2026, all families who get Universal Credit will be entitled to Free School Meals.

This means that over half a million children will get Free School Meals in England.

All these children will be split into two categories:

  1. Targeted Free School Meals. These are for families who get Universal Credit whose annual income is below £7400.
  2. Expanded Free School Meals. These are for families who get Universal Credit and whose annual income is more than £7400

If your family gets Targeted Free School Meals, then your children can also attend FREE holiday camps.

If your family gets Expanded Free School Meals, there is a range of other support that you can access here:

There are always lots of activities going on in Manchester during the school holidays that are open to everyone – and many are free!

You can find out more about them by visiting loadstodo.co.uk

In order for the system to automatically check your child’s eligibility for free holiday activities you need to make sure that your Go account is up to date and all your information is correct.

The system will automatically run checks against your child’s;

– Surname

– Forename

– DOB

– Postcode

It is very important that all this information is correct and up to date.

To create a Manchester Active Go account, click here

Welcome to the HAF (Holiday Activity & Food Programme) Annual Report 2025-26.

VIEW THE REPORT HERE

Manchester City Council’s ambition is to provide high quality youth, play and participation services and sustainable outcomes for children and young people and the delivery of the HAF programme is a key part of this.

Funded through the Department of Education the HAF programme is a targeted service supporting some of our most vulnerable young people and primarily focused those on means tested free school meals. In Manchester we also support children and young people in priority groups such as children with special educational needs and disabilities, cared for young people and young carers.