Nursery World - Vouchers swamp nurseries

The soaring popularity of the Government's childcare voucher scheme and the proliferation of voucher providers is becoming an 'administrative nightmare', nursery owners report. With no standard approach to issuing and redeeming vouchers, nurseries are having to deal with up to 14 different online and paper voucher systems.

With no standard approach to issuing and redeeming vouchers, nurseries are having to deal with up to 14 different online and paper voucher systems.

Although they are keen to accept the vouchers, which enable parents to meet nursery fees, owners express growing frustration over 'unreliable computer systems', 'unacceptable levels of customer support' and 'lack of communication from voucher providers'.

Lindsay Gillespie, manager of Claylands Nursery in Edinburgh, said, 'Paper vouchers are the worst. They take up to three weeks to process and go into our nursery account. Other companies send bulk payments for a number of different customers in one transaction, leaving us to try to guess whose is whose.'

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