Free advice sessions for groups

Employers For Childcare’s Family Benefits Advice Service provides free, impartial and confidential advice to parents, employers and childcare providers on a wide range of childcare and work-related issues through a telephone helpline, face-to-face outreach and online presentations.

These advice sessions can be delivered through employers, childcare providers, elected representatives, libraries, parent groups or other support organisations such as Sure Start or Home Start centres. Depending on the group’s needs, sessions typically last half an hour to an hour, with one of our trained family benefits advisors delivering a short talk on an agreed theme, followed by the opportunity for parents participating to ask questions, or schedule a follow-up one-to-one telephone consultation.

Areas we can deliver advice on include:

• financial support with childcare costs
• support for new parents
• parental leave and entitlements
• support for parents of children with special or additional needs
• impact of changes in household circumstances or income on access to financial support

To find out more about this service, or to book a free advice session, email hello@employersforchildcare.org with details of your organisation, the number of people you would expect to attend and what type of advice and information you are interested in, and we will be in touch to discuss your needs and get a date in the diary.

For a free, personalised ‘better off’ calculation, identifying what financial support your family is entitled to, contact the Family Benefits Advice Service on 028 9267 8200. Last year, where we completed a personalised calculation for families, we identified an average of over £5,600 in available financial support.