[Above] Cllr Jane Carr, Cabinet Member for Inequalities, with children enjoying a free football session at Portfields Primary School.
Milton Keynes City Council funded more than 106,000 hours of free activity sessions for local children and young people, as well as providing healthy meals and snacks over the school summer holidays. The City Council’s Summer of Play programme offered indoor and outdoor events in 50 locations across MK.
Working with local organisations such as schools, clubs and charities, the City Council provided sports, music, cookery, education and crafts with children and young people learning skills from football and tennis to African drums, horse riding and circus performances.
More than 26,000 individual sessions took place during August with each including a free healthy meal and snack.
“Our incredibly popular Summer of Play has been a welcome boost, especially to struggling local families. We know that the rising costs of living has a massive impact on children, and we wanted to ensure that all MK families had access to plenty of free events and meals over the summer period. I’d like to thank all those providers of activities and fresh food who worked with us to deliver the programme. We’re delighted to have built on the success of last year and will keep looking at ways we can support families in the year ahead.”
The Council is inviting all families who attended one or more sessions to give their feedback via a brief questionnaire.