How to set up workplace nursery partnerships for your employees

TLDR/Key takeaways:

• Workplace nursery partnerships let employees save up to 40% on childcare through the tax exemption for employer-supported childcare
• You partner with local nurseries to offer employees direct access to salary sacrifice benefits
• The right provider handles partnerships, compliance and admin—making it simple to offer this high-impact benefit
• Look for providers with genuine nursery partnerships, transparent pricing, and solid regulatory credentials
• Gogeta powers direct partnerships between employers and nurseries, with full flexibility for employees and peace of mind for employers

Take the pressure off nursery bills

UK childcare costs are among the highest in the world. Working parents in your team are spending £1,500+ per month on nursery fees—money that comes straight from their net pay after tax.

Workplace nursery partnerships change this. By partnering directly with local nurseries, you can offer employees a way to pay for childcare through salary sacrifice, saving them up to 40% on costs through the tax exemption for employer-supported childcare.

This isn't just good for employees. You save on employer National Insurance, and you gain a powerful retention tool that matters deeply to working parents.

How workplace nursery partnerships work

The tax exemption for workplace nurseries is set out in Section 318 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003. There is no requirement for the nursery to be on an employer’s own premises - the legislation has always explicitly allowed employers to partner with commercial nurseries and offer the benefit to staff, as long as the ‘partnership conditions’ are met. 

What to look for in a provider 

The workplace nursery benefit is an incredibly powerful recruitment and retention tool, when it’s done right.For the tax exemption to apply, employers must be ‘partly responsible for managing and financing the provision of care’ at nursery partners. 

The difference between a good provider and a mediocre one comes down to how they facilitate those partnerships to meet the conditions. The best ones help you build genuine partnerships—where you're directly connected with local nurseries through proper partnership agreements, and where those nurseries benefit from the arrangement too.

Gogeta’s industry leading compliance framework fosters genuine partnerships between hundreds of employers and nurseries across the UK. Employers have access to real time partnership info and in-depth reporting in their partnership portals. 

The costs and savings

Employee savings: Parents typically save up to 40% on nursery fees through the tax exemption. For a family spending £1,200 per month on childcare (£14,400 per year), that's roughly £4,800 in annual savings. We charge employees a platform fee to manage the compliance for partnerships.. All savings in our calculators include this fee so there are no  hidden surprises. 

Employer costs: We charge nothing to employers. You also save on employer National Insurance on the salary sacrifice amount. This makes the benefit better than cost neutral.

Financial contribution to nurseries: As part of the partnership conditions, employers make an additional financial contribution to nursery partners, which is 12.5% of parent’s nursery bills. This is cost neutral to them due to the NIC savings.  

Setup time: With the Gogeta, you can be up and running in 24 hours and employees can start saving by their next nursery bill.

Is workplace nursery right for your business?

This benefit makes sense if:

• You have employees with young children (or planning to start families)
• You want to offer a high-impact benefit without high costs
• You're looking to improve employee retention and satisfaction
• You want to support working parents in a meaningful way
• You want to form partnerships with and benefit nurseries across the UK

You don't need to be a large corporation. Small and medium-sized businesses use workplace nursery schemes successfully. The key is choosing a provider who makes it simple.

Next steps: Getting started

Want to see how Gogeta's workplace nursery partnerships work? Get in touch, and we'll show you exactly how we handle partnerships, support nurseries, and make this benefit simple for everyone involved.