The Leapfrog scheme has already won the business of high street chains Vision Express and Alliance and Leicester, representing a combined total of 11,000 employees. Staff from participating companies chose to take part of their salary in vouchers, which enables both the company and the employee to save money as the scheme is exempt from National Insurance.
Leapfrog calculates that a company with 100 staff signing up could look to make savings of up to 36,000 a year, while most employees with full-time childcare would make annual savings of around 600.
Parents can use the vouchers where they like - for example, with a registered childminder, local authority day nursery or out-of-school care scheme. However, if they choose a Leapfrog nursery, they receive a number of special perks, including a waiver of the standard registration fee, a further five per cent saving on nursery charges and their first month's childcare for free.
Vision Express employee services director Andrew Holt said, 'There is no way we can provide on-site childcare in a company nursery as we have branches throughout the UK, so a partnership with a national chain of nurseries is the perfect solution for our employees with young children.' Leapfrog believes UK employers who want to sign up to parent-focused policies to encourage staff retention but have been put off by the cost of providing childcare will be attracted to the venture. Managing director Sue Husbands said, 'Our scheme costs nothing for participating companies to operate, and helps reduce salary bills substantially.'
Established in 1998, Leapfrog already has 28 nurseries across Britain and plans to have a total of 60 open by the end of 2002.
Leading nursery group Busy Bees also operates a Corporate Childcare voucher scheme, which now has a 5m annual turnover. Busy Bees director John Woodward commented, 'This scheme is not exactly the same as ours, but it's similar. We've got a lot more clients. We don't see it as competition.'
