University of Edinburgh: workplace nursery rollout
Halo briefing for today's call · 21 Oct 2026 · from the rollout plan, funding options and documentation pack
The opportunity
- About 18,000 staff. The University runs its own campus nurseries (for example Arcadia at King's Buildings and Easter Bush, about 100 places).
- The move: wind down the campus nurseries and open a workplace nursery benefit on Halo instead. Any eligible employee could pay nursery fees from pre-tax pay at registered nurseries across Edinburgh, the Lothians and beyond, including hybrid and remote staff.
- What they get: no gap in care for current campus families, the benefit open to all staff, and the admin kept off HR and Payroll. Halo runs the employer arrangements, minimum wage checks and the monthly nursery payments.
Funding options
All three options carry the same Halo service. They differ only in how the University contributes.
| Pay Outright | Subsidise | Auto Budget | |
|---|---|---|---|
| University commits | Funds the place in full | A set contribution per place | A fixed childcare budget in advance |
| Employee | No salary exchange for the funded cost | Salary exchange covers the rest | Depends on the allocation and the remaining cost |
| Halo fee | 15% of nursery fees processed, separate from the contribution | ||
Worked example (an illustration, not a quote): 15 places at £800 a month is £12,000 a month in nursery fees and a £1,800 Halo fee. With Pay Outright that comes to £13,800 a month, about £165,600 a year, before VAT and any payroll offsets.
Included in Halo's scope: the platform and audit tooling, a dedicated full-time co-ordinator, nursery liaison and enrolment admin, and the Nursery Programme (assessment, onboarding, training and governance). The University keeps payroll, eligibility and budget decisions.
Rollout: 12 weeks
| Weeks | Milestone | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Contracting and integration | Choose the service tier, sign the contract, receive HR and payroll data, agree the pension treatment |
| 3–4 | Launch and registration | Employee packs by email and staff portal; registration portal live |
| 5–8 | Nursery onboarding | Three waves: campus transition, then central Edinburgh and the commuter belt, then the wider Lothians |
| 9–10 | Payroll dry-run | Deductions checked against minimum wage; test run with University Payroll |
| 10 | Go / no-go | Dry-run passed, a signed nursery for every enrolled family, comms ready |
| 11–12 | Go-live | First pre-tax deductions; first monthly payments to nurseries |
Decisions to get from the University
- Funding option and contribution (Pay Outright, Subsidise or Auto Budget), and the service tier
- Payroll system and provider, and the monthly cut-off date
- Pension schemes (USS, Lothian Pension Fund): how pensionable pay is treated after the pre-tax deduction
- Campus nursery closure dates per site, and how many families are affected
- Union consultation: who the contact is and when it happens
- Data processing agreement and the staff privacy notice for registration data
- Who their HR, Payroll, Finance and comms leads are
Things to remember
- Staff using Tax-Free Childcare must leave it to use the benefit, and only one parent per child can use it.
- It's for children under 5. Each employee pays one fixed monthly amount through payroll; extras are billed to the parent directly.
- Compliance rests on the workplace nursery exemption (Section 318, ITEPA 2003). The employer keeps its financing and management role, and Halo provides the evidence trail.