Children's Minister visits clubs keeping youngsters happy and healthy over summer holidays

Video report by ITV News Meridian's Malcolm Shaw

A government minister has been in Sussex to see the work of special clubs set up to keep youngsters happy and healthy during the summer holidays.

Vicky Ford, the Minister for Children and Families, joined youngsters on the beach in Eastbourne who were taking part in a Holiday Activities and Food club.

It is one of many being run over the summer to keep boredom and a poor diet at bay.

The activities on the seafront are being run by the organisation Buzz Active. 

Watch: Kids say the clubs are keeping them active when they would 'probably be at home doing nothing'

They are a free-of-charge service for children who qualify for free school meals.

The Centre Manager of Buzz Active Eastbourne, Richard Wilson, said: "The cost is a big factor for the groups that are coming down.

"The parents and guardians wouldn't have been to afford to do activities at this level and also having the food option attached to that is giving them a meal during the day while they're burning all that energy."

The Holiday Activities and Food programme started in 2018, but it was after the football star Marcus Rashford began campaigning against child food poverty that the government expanded the scheme nationwide.

Asked if the project would've been expanded without the campaign by Marcus Rashford, the minister said: "It's a project that we'd started three years ago and had been trialing it, and then we also had a manifesto commitment to deliver a billion pounds worth of holiday childcare and wrap-a-round childcare. So this hits that need as well."

With holiday clubs costing £220m to run, the minister Vicky Ford admits she can't be sure they'll survive the government's autumn spending review, but says she is hopeful.