Ministers offer help with workplace nurseries

The government has unveiled a £16.8m package of investment to assist SMEs with providing childcare for their employees.

Children, young people and families minister Beverley Hughes announced that the workplace nurseries capital programme will be delivered by Regional Development Agencies, led by the London Development Agency (LDA).

The scheme aims to make it easier for parents to balance their work and home lives, by helping employers provide childcare close to the workplace. It is also designed to enable SMEs to provide reliable and accessible childcare appropriate to the needs of their employees.

"We need to talk to parents about their childcare needs, but we also need to engage their employers. We want to ask them to help assess the childcare needs of their staff and raise awareness of the importance of family friendly policies," Hughes said.

"I want to see local authorities working closely with business as well as voluntary and private providers to ensure a diverse range of high quality care is available in every locality.

"Most good employers want to help families balance work and family life. Some are already providing childcare to make this happen - we want to take this further."

The government said that funds from the scheme will be allocated in areas where there is "most evidence of demand", for example in areas of economic growth and regeneration. Grants will be allocated in 2007, based on detailed proposals from SMEs.