Give us a break

The Treasury is due to publish a consultation document that will explore new tax and national insurance incentives for employer-supported childcare this month (January). Until this document, Balancing Work and Family Life, comes out, it is hard to know what options the Government is considering.

Parents, childcare providers and employers alike would be delighted - and astonished - should there be a move to make all employer-supported childcare tax-free, a benefit which applies only to workplace nurseries meeting strictly applied criteria. But is the tight-fisted Treasury likely to loosen the reins to this extent?

Stewart Pickering, co-founder and commercial director of nursery group Kidsunlimited, is adamant that it should. He points out that on-site workplace nurseries are only appropriate where companies have high concentrations of staff in one location, so they may not suit some businesses at all. In other companies, the staff at headquarters will have access to the workplace nursery and enjoy the advantage of tax-free childcare, while their colleagues in the regions, using reserved places at private nurseries, do not. 'It's an appalling, discriminatory situation,'