Social Impact Report 2020/21

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 by employers choosing to ‘buy social’ and support their employees with their childcare costs by using our Childcare Voucher scheme that we are able to continue making this investment and carry on this important work, on behalf of parents, employers and childcare providers.

Since 2008, we have invested £7.1 million into helping working families as a direct result of our Social Enterprise trading activities. This year, we invested £300,000 from our Social Enterprise into our charity, meaning that for every £1 we invest in our charity, we can identify a direct saving for parents of £12. This is positive social value in action.

Some of the highlights from 2020/21:

• 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 £300,000 in our charity through our Social Enterprise activities.
• We identified collective financial support of £3.5 million for those supported by our Family Benefits Advice Service.
• We supported parents, employers and childcare providers with the ongoing challenges of  Covid-19, working with elected representatives and policy-makers to secure over £30 million in funding to support the childcare sector in Northern Ireland to reopen and recover.
• Our Childcare Voucher scheme delivered savings of £8.2 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 £2,800 in financial support they didn’t know they were entitled to.
• We delivered 85 online 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 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 continued our work highlighting the value of our childcare sector to parents, the economy and society as a whole, in the media and the wider policy arena.