News in brief
Celebrating 20 years of Childcare Vouchers
This year marks the 20th anniversary since Accor Services launched the first childcare voucher to the UK workplace. Since 1989 Accor Services has gained a reputation as an innovator in the childcare voucher market and as part of our 'birthday' celebrations we're planning a number of events for our childcare voucher recipients, their employers and our people.
Our celebration begins with the release of a white paper, Engaging Working Parents, which brings together the experiences and best practice of employers, academics, childcare providers and leading charities when it comes to engaging working parents.
Top organisations shortlisted for supporting working parents
Congratulations to UK Border Agency/Home Office and Centrica who have been shortlisted in the Most effective benefits strategy for working parents and carers category at this year's Employee Benefits Awards. The winner will be announced on the 26th June.
Have you successfully managed to engage working parents within your organisation? If you think so, why not put yourself forward for the CIPD People Management Awards 2009?
The employee engagement category wants to know what it is about your organisation that makes your employees want to work for you and learn about the initiatives that encourage your people to 'go the extra mile'.
You can see more on this year's CIPD People Management Awards at www.cipd.co.uk/award - and don't forget, the closing date for entries is Friday 5 June 2009!
Re-engage during Childcare Week, 6th - 12th June
National Childcare Week - now in its 12th year - will take place from 6 to 12 June 2009. The event aims to promote the importance of investing in childcare, out of school activities and early years' provision.
Why not use National Childcare Week as an opportunity to re-engage with working parents in your organisation?
It's an opportunity to raise awareness of your family-friendly policies among your working parents and highlight the initiatives that are in place to help them - as well as employees generally within the business - to manage and balance their personal and professional lives.
Budget update 2009
Following the Chancellor's 2009 budget statement, there are no changes to the operation or tax treatment of childcare vouchers so the weekly tax and National Insurance exempt amount will remain at £55 per week (£243 per month).
However, there have been some other changes that may have an effect on the potential savings for individual parents. Your employees can use our Savings Calculators at www.childcarevouchers.co.uk to see how much they could save.
If you are an Accor Services client, your employees can also access our Tax Credit Estimator to work out if childcare vouchers are right for them.
Flexible working legislation
Working parents do not have a legal right to work flexibly or reduce their working hours, but since April 2003 legislation has meant that working parents do have the right to request flexible working. Employers have a legal duty to consider these requests and provide a business case if they cannot agree to employees' requests to work flexibly.
From 6 April 2009, the right to request flexible working is extended to parents of children aged 16 years and under.
If this new legislation has encouraged you to think about how flexible working might work within your organisation, consider the following questions to help you launch your own flexible working policy.
- What do you want to achieve from a flexible working strategy? A more engaged workforce or reduced absenteeism?
- How can you help employees better understand how flexible working will work in practice for them and the business as a whole?
- What type of flexible working arrangements will best suit your business?
- How will you manage applications for flexible working?
- Are there any roles within your business that may be difficult to deliver as part of a flexible working policy?
- How will flexible working, such as employees working from home, work in practice?
