Employers For Childcare office closed temporarily

Due to the ongoing situation with Coronavirus, the Employers For Childcare office is now closed, in line with Government advice and to safeguard the health of our colleagues and others. We are, however, still working remotely and are continuing to provide all of our services, including our charity’s Family Benefits Advice Service and the processing of Childcare Vouchers on behalf of parents, employers and childcare providers.

We have made a number of small changes to how we are working during this time – details as follows:

Family Benefits Advice Service

Our team of advisors are working hard to provide advice to parents, employers and childcare providers at this incredibly uncertain time. They can be contacted by calling 028 9267 8200 for free, impartial and confidential advice on a wide range of childcare and work-related issues. At this time, our Freephone helpline will operate for inbound calls from Monday-Friday from 10am-4pm.

Please do bear with us as we are receiving a large number of requests for advice, so if you can’t get though immediately, please leave a message and your contact number and one of the team will be in touch with you as soon as we can. Alternatively email hello@employersforchildcare.org, at any time, including details of your phone number, and one of the team will call you back.

Childcare Vouchers

For queries with regard to Childcare Vouchers, please call us on 028 9267 8200 and your call will be directed appropriately. Calls will be answered from 10am-4pm, but any messages left outside of these times will be responded to as soon as possible. Alternatively, email hello@employersforchildcare.org at any time and one of our Customer Service Team will respond as soon as possible.

We will keep this situation under review, and will provide any further updates as required.

Lobbying

We are continuing our lobbying work on behalf of parents, employers and childcare providers. This current crisis has demonstrated just what a vital role our childcare infrastructure plays in the economy and we need to make sure it is adequately supported to ensure it can survive the current situation, and continue to be sustainable when social isolation measures are no longer required. For updates on our work in this area, and our latest advice and guidance, please keep an eye on our website and social media channels.

High Rise

We have made the difficult decision to temporarily close our social enterprise indoor adventure centre High Rise. Keeping our lovely guests, some of whom have additional needs and underlying medical conditions, and our amazing staff team safe and well is our top priority. We believe it is in everyone’s best interest to close our doors for now.

For all those with bookings, we will be in touch as soon as we can to arrange to reschedule or refund – please bear with us as we work through these and keep an eye on our social media for regular updates.

From the Employers For Childcare team.