Since the early 1990s, a small number of public service and public sector organisations have introduced child care support specifically for their employees, apart from other family-friendly measures already being offered on a wider scale. These organisations have, over the years, developed their own individual child care policies and arrangements.

Against this background, the National Audit Office (NAO) undertook a performance audit to evaluate the development and management of such arrangements, as well as to identify the key challenges and lessons learned from these experiences. Six public service and public sector organisations offering child care support were used as case studies. In addition, the Department for Social Welfare Standards (DSWS) was consulted on the National Standards for Child Day Care Facilities. NAO would like to convey its appreciation to the invaluable collaboration extended by these organisations throughout this study.

All case studies have been successful in providing access to affordable and reliable child care services for a considerable number of public employees. The development of such arrangements was part of an overall management drive and culture to improve work conditions. The operation of child care entailed a range of costs, depending on the type of arrangement that was put in place. In-house services required considerable investment and resources. On the other hand, alternative arrangements, such as offering staff an established allowance for child care or fully outsourcing the service to an external provider, helped to manage and cap annual expenditure on child care support and to limit the various demands placed on an organisation. Only a proportion of the total child care costs were, in practice, recovered. The interviewed employers, nevertheless, considered these expenses as necessary to fulfil their overall strategic and human resource objectives and priorities.

The NAO report presents a number of recommendations based on the critical factors and issues identified through the study. Using the services of the increasing number of existing child care facilities instead of embarking on projects to develop in-house centres at the workplace, in many cases, can be more feasible and a better option to employers for managing risks and the overall running costs to support the initiative. It is also important that regulatory legislation that provides DSWS with the required legal backing to act as a national regulatory body for child care services is enacted.

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