About Us

What is Employers For Childcare?

Employers For Childcare comprises a Social Enterprise and a registered charity. 100% of the profits from our Social Enterprise businesses – a Childcare Voucher company and High Rise (an indoor family adventure centre) are invested into our charity. Since 2008, we have invested £7.4 million from our Social Enterprise activities, into our charity, and helped parents to identify £105 million in financial support they didn’t know they were entitled to.

As a charity, our aim is to make it easier for parents with dependent children to get into work and to stay in work. We address childcare as a labour market and economic issue, as well as a social one.

Our charity’s work includes providing a Freephone helpline and outreach service through our Family Benefits Advice Service alongside carrying out research and lobbying work on behalf of parents.

Last year we helped over 11,000 people directly and carried out more than 4,400 personalised benefits checks – working parents who received one of these checks identified average savings of over £5,600.

Our Social Enterprise, Employers For Childcare Trading, provides a range of services to stakeholders:

EFC Trading   EFC Charity

Our History

We are a charity which developed from a community project set up in 1998, encouraging employers to implement family friendly policies in the workplace. Our Chief Executive, Marie Marin, who founded the company, identified the barrier that the lack of affordable, quality childcare presents to working parents. Our ethos was then, and remains today to address childcare, not only as a social issue but also as a labour market and economic issue.

Our Mission Statement

We donate 100% profit for social good.

Our Values

  • Integrity and Respect
  • Passionate and Professional
  • Ethical and Green

Learn more about our work

  • Who are we?

    Aoife Hamilton. Policy and Information Manager, explains a little about who Employers For Childcare are.

  • What is our aim?

    Marie Marin, Chief Executive, explains what is at the heart of what we do.

  • How do we make a difference to working families?

    Chris Briggs, our Senior Family Benefits Advisor, explains how our Family Benefits Advice Service makes a difference to the lives of working families.

Accreditation

Employers For Childcare is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (charity number 101176).

We have been providing Childcare Vouchers to clients since 2004 and were a founding member of the industry self-regulatory body, the Childcare Voucher Providers Association (CVPA). We guarantee our clients receive the highest quality service and that all funds processed by us are fully safeguarded.

We have also received the Cyber Essentials certification which is a Government-backed and industry-supported scheme which helps to protect against the growing threat of cyber attacks and provides a statement of the controls we have in place to protect our network. Having Cyber Essentials demonstrates our credentials as trustworthy and secure when it comes to cyber security.

We are also a member of Helplines NI which is a membership–led organisation consisting of over 30 different helplines operating across Northern Ireland.


 

Employers For Childcare member logohelplinesLogo 01 NEW Cyber Essentials square