Busy Bees returns to childcare voucher service
Melanie Defries
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Busy Bees, the largest childcare provider in the UK, is to go back into the childcare voucher market from December as part of the launch of a new range of employee benefits.
The vouchers, called Busy Bees Benefits, are to be officially launched next Tuesday (9 November) and can be used from the beginning of December. They will form part of a new employee benefits package the company will offer to employers.
From Easter 2011, Busy Bees plans to offer additional services, such as eye-care vouchers and private health care, under the Busy Bees Benefits brand.
Speaking exclusively to Nursery World ahead of the launch, John Woodward, co-founder and group managing director of Busy Bees, said, 'We are going back into the childcare voucher market because there was an overwhelming demand, and we already have 20 companies signed up. We started the childcare voucher years ago to make childcare more affordable and we had a great reputation. These difficult economic times could continue for several years and we believe we should help out parents as much as possible. Many parents make real sacrifices to give their children the best start and childcare vouchers are an important benefit for lots of working families.
'We're really excited that we are going back into the market. We are a childcare provider ourselves, so we understand all of the issues around childcare vouchers.'
Of the wider employee benefits package that Busy Bees plans to offer, Mr Woodward said, 'When we last ran the voucher scheme, there were a lot of employers who wanted us to provide a wider range of services so that they could just work with one provider. So we are responding to what these companies want us to do'.
Busy Bees launched its first childcare voucher scheme in 1998 before selling the business to share registration company Computershare in 2008 for £90m. More than 12,000 organisations and 100,000 parents were using Busy Bees childcare vouchers when the business was sold to Computershare.
As part of the sale agreement, Busy Bees was required to wait two years before going back into the childcare voucher market.
Parents will be able to use the new vouchers for all forms of registered childcare, but they will receive an extra discount if they use them at a Busy Bees group nursery. The group now runs 129 nurseries and provides care for more than 14,000 children.
