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There is no such thing as bad publicity!

In September 2009 Gordon Brown announced that he intended to scrap the very popular childcare voucher scheme and replace it with funding that would go towards free nursery places for two-years olds so that 250,000 children would benefit by 2015. This created huge levels of media interest. Over 90,000 individuals signed an online petition on the number 10 website, a number of MP’s stood against Brown on the plan and parents, employers, childcare providers and childcare voucher companies were lobbying to save the scheme. But my question is, did Gordon Brown believe that his plan would create the media coverage that it did and actually have a very positive impact on the industry? I think that Gordon brown really thought that this was a good idea and that it would be received well in the public eye as he was going to replace it with free childcare for two year olds for 250,000 children………….The last figure published suggested there was over 340,000 families benefiting from using childcare vouchers, 90,000 more families than in his new plan! Another point to consider is that his new plan was for two year olds………childcare vouchers can be used up to the age of 16! Why would a benefit that enabled families with children of all ages be scrapped for a scheme that benefited only 2 year olds? He also stated that no individual who was currently benefiting from the scheme would be worse off. However he planned to scrap the scheme completly from 2015. Therefore if I had a baby today and started to use chilcare vouchers, I could save £1,196 per year, but only for the next 5 years. My child would only be 5 years old and I could have had another 11 years using childcare vouchers, that’s £13,156 over the 11 year period I would have missed out on………..so how could Gordon Brown say no individual would lose out! Going back to my main point, Gordon Brown was trying to scrap this scheme in an attempt to claw back some of the huge amounts of debt the country is in and but his plan back fired and he has actually raised the profile of childcare vouchers to a different level. Parents who knew nothing about such a scheme were now chomping at the bit to find out how they could start, employers who didn’t even know they could offer a scheme to their employees now wanted to introduce a scheme and were coming under pressure from employees to do so. The story was constantly in the tabloid press and even on the 6 o’clock news. During the 2 month period between Gordon Brown making his announcment and being forced to make a u-turn the childcare voucher sector had far more press coverage then it has had since childcare vouchers were introduced as a tax free benefit in April 2005. Everybody now knows about childcare vouchers and at Apple we have experienced around 30-35% more incoming enquries than we would expect between Dec 09 and Jan 10. The majority of our new clients that have started a scheme recently have never used a childcare voucher scheme before and I put the majority of the increase down to the high quality exposure of childcare vouchers. As they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity!

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An Apple a Day

Posted by Marcus | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 05-03-2010

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If you’ve ever popped down to the shops and returned with much more than you went for, then you will know how Alderley Edge author and founder of Bearhunt, Malcolm McClean feels. He popped down to Costa for a Cappucino and came back owning a chunk of a new business.

He says “When I wrote To the Edge, which looked at how entrepreneurs think, I remember saying that living in this village is like having a masterclass at Harvard Business School every time you go out for a cup of coffee. The things you can learn just by listening to people are incredible. I’d met Stewart Pickering who co-founded Kids Unlimited and about 18 months ago he explained to me about his new enterprise Apple Childcare Vouchers. I was intrigued by the business model and when we met up for a coffee a few weeks back he explained that he was looking for investment to accelerate the business to the next level”.

Apple has developed a superior technology platform which enables it to reduce the costs to employers of providing childcare by about 50%. Malcolm says “It was quite spooky really because just as I was leaving the house to meet Stewart, my friend former Nottingham Forest striker Lee Glover, rang to ask my advice about an investment. I said don’t do it. We will do something together…I don’t know what it is yet but we will. When Stewart said, purely by chance that he was looking for investment, I asked a few questions, looked at some numbers and I bought a stake pretty much there and then for Lee and myself”.

Apple Childcare Vouchers is based in London Road and has just signed a deal with Honda to look after its childcare needs. Honda are in good company, they join an impressive and rapidly growing client list including Stoke-on-Trent College; The Authentic Food Company; Thomas Sanderson; Sharpstream Lifesciences and Equifax.

“Who needs Harvard Business School when you can have coffee in Alderley Edge?”

To learn more about Apple Childcare Vouchers visit their website.

Copies of Malcolm McClean’s books can be purchased online from Bearhunt.

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