Setting up a government child care voucher scheme

Setting up the new government child care voucher scheme is a useful additional incentive for companies to add to their benefits package. It brings tax savings to employees, National Insurance savings to the employer and provides an attraction to potential employees and aids in retaining trained, experienced staff.

If your company is considering adopting a child care voucher system, then here are some of the things you should consider:

Find a reliable administrator

Your child care voucher scheme is administrated by a third party. At Fennies, we handle the administration of your scheme from marketing it to employees, to redeeming the vouchers from the child care providers. To run a successful scheme, you need to find a partner company that takes the time to understand your business and also knows the child care sector. This will help your scheme to run smoothly. The partner company will handle all of the administration for your scheme, with the exception of the changes to your payroll, and be a point of contact for everyone involved in the process; employer, employee and child care provider.

Market to your employees

If you are offering this scheme, you need to ensure that it is available to all employees. No matter what size of business you are running, you will need to inform all of your employees about the new scheme – this could be via email, or through marketing leaflets attached to payroll slips, or by a more formal presentation. Ensuring that all employees hear of the scheme is crucial, so that everyone who wants to can take advantage of it.

Market to job applicants

The child care voucher scheme benefit will be attractive to prospective employees. When you are advertising for a new position, or speaking to a recruitment consultant, make sure you include the scheme in your list of benefits. As both parents can claim the vouchers, it will be as attractive to fathers as mothers, and could be a key factor in recruiting talented and experienced staff.

Date: 08/12/2005