Family Benefits Advice Service now offering online advice sessions for parent 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 Freephone helpline and face-to-face outreach service. As a result of COVID-19, and with current public health guidance preventing ‘in person’ consultations and advice clinics, we are delighted to launch a new online advice service.

These online 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. Lasting around an hour, one of our trained family benefits advisors will deliver 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 COVID-19 and financial support

Commenting on the new service, Aoife Hamilton, Policy and Information Manager at Employers For Childcare said: “Normally at this time of year our outreach diary would be full with the team delivering advice sessions to a wide range of group settings – from employer roadshows and well-being days, through presentations at childcare providers, to toddler groups or local libraries. We know this has been an incredibly challenging time for families and we want to make sure parents across the UK are accessing all the financial support they are entitled to, including with their childcare costs, no matter what their circumstances. These online advice sessions will play a key role in that, alongside our existing Freephone helpline, website and email advice service.”

To book a 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 Freephone 0800 028 3008. Last year, where we completed a personalised calculation for families, we identified an average of £3,500 in available financial support.

Here’s one of our Family Benefits Advisors, Brenda, with more information on this online outreach service: