Social Impact Report 2021/22

Our Social Impact Report highlights what we do as an organisation and the positive impact that our work has on parents, children, the economy and society as a whole. We are the only Social Enterprise Childcare Voucher company in the UK – reinvesting 100% of the profit we make back into our Social Enterprise and into our charitable work, which includes our Family Benefits Advice Service, research and campaigning.

It’s only through employers, individuals and others choosing to ‘buy social’ that we are able to continue making this investment and carry on this important work, on behalf of parents, employers and childcare providers. So thank you to the employers who have chosen to support their employees with their childcare costs by using our Childcare Voucher scheme. Thanks also to everyone who has visited High Rise family adventure centre, our newest Social Enterprise, which reopened in July and has since welcomed back thousands of excited children and adults for Clip ‘n Climb and soft play fun. With all the profits from High Rise invested in the work of our charity, every visit helps us to continue supporting families.

Since 2008, we have invested £7.35 million into helping working families as a direct result of our Social Enterprise trading activities. This year, we invested £245,000 from our Social Enterprise into our charity, meaning that for every £1 we invested in our charity, we identified a direct saving for parents of almost £47. This is positive social value in action!

Some of the highlights from 2021/22:

• We welcomed new employers to use our Childcare Vouchers, keen to work with us as the only Social Enterprise in the UK providing this service.
• We invested £245,000 in our charity through our Social Enterprise activities.
• We identified collective financial support of £11.6 million for those supported by our Family Benefits Advice Service.
• Our Childcare Voucher scheme delivered savings of £6.7 million for working parents and employers across the UK.
• Clients who received a personalised benefits check from our Family Benefits Advice Service identified an average of almost £5,000 in financial support they didn’t know they were entitled to.
• We delivered 128 free online and face-to-face outreach sessions to parents, employers and childcare providers – helping to ensure parents are claiming all the financial support they are entitled to with their childcare costs.
• We helped 10,000 people directly through our Family Benefits Advice Service, and many more indirectly including children, partners and other family members of those we engaged with
• We continued our work campaigning for a new Childcare Strategy for Northern Ireland that will deliver investment in our childcare sector, support parents to access and afford the childcare they need, and enable providers to deliver it sustainably.
• We maintained our focus on highlighting the value of our childcare sector to parents, the economy and society as a whole, in the media and the wider policy arena.