Stephen Kramer, managing director Europe, told Nursery World that thescheme, which began with one employer last year, had gone live fourweeks ago and was already proving a 'spectacular success'.
The Back-up Care Advantage (BUCA) programme enables parents working forcompanies who already have childcare links with the nursery chain toaccess the 'supplementary care'.
Mr Kramer said that they can do this in three ways: through BrightHorizon's own out-of-school facilities; through in-home care, 'typicallyprovided by a nanny'; or at one of the partner nurseries which thecompany has linked up with and vetted for quality, if its own nurserieseither are full or are not in a required location.
Mr Kramer said that most of the partner nurseries were smaller operators- 'chainlets' - rather than larger chains. He added, 'What you areseeing is a nice collaboration among people who are typically viewed ascompetitors, but in this non-traditional extension to childcare it makesperfect sense to collaborate.'
He said the childcare needs of families, once catered for adequately byplayschemes and holiday clubs, had evolved dramatically. 'There has beena huge shift in the way employees work. When you are trying to respondto new flexible working you can't do that through traditional caremechanisms,' he said. 'We are trying to make the care provision asflexible as the employers are making the employees' work schedule.'
Karyn Maddison, director of Sneakers Childcare, which operates eightsuccessful out-of-school clubs in the Midlands, confirmed that thegrowth of flexible working was something that providers wereincreasingly finding difficult to cater for. 'People who would have usedus four or five days a week may not require the same sort of hours ifthey are taking up flexible working arrangements,' she added.
Mr Kramer said that a growing number of employers were signing up to theBright Horizons scheme, including the Queen's bank, Coutts and Co. Hesaid, 'It's about flexibility and geography. They have employees workingdifferent patterns in different parts of the country. They have boughtinto it because we have a national network to provide a service whereverone of their employees lives and works.'
A promotional leaflet from the childcare company, which operates inEurope and the US, states, 'Highly-trained care consultants, available24/7, will source the most appropriate solutions for the individualconcerned and make all the necessary arrangements to confirm thecare.'
The service may be used by parents as an emergency back-up, withbookings taken on the day that the care is needed, or it may be inresponse to something planned, with reservations often taken a month inadvance.
