For employers
Workplace nursery benefit. You run it, Halo powers it.
You run your own workplace nursery benefit; Halo is the software that makes it simple and keeps it on solid compliance footing. Cost-neutral to run — guaranteed.
What Halo Pay is
A 30-year-old benefit, finally within reach.
The workplace nursery benefit has been part of UK tax law for over thirty years — written so that any working family who needs it can reach more affordable childcare. Yet hardly anyone has been able to use it, because running it properly has always been complicated.
Halo is the first compliance platform in the UK built to take that complexity off the table — so an employer can run their own workplace nursery programme simply, quickly, and on solid compliance footing. The point is to make this genuinely useful support easy to give, and every bit of good that comes with it easy to pass on to working parents.
How it works
Simple to manage. Powerful for your team.
Set up
Set up your employer dashboard in minutes. We help you understand what's needed to run the workplace nursery benefit properly, with supporting documentation and best-practice tips. No software to install.
Help employees connect their nursery
Our advanced AI system guides your employees through connecting their nursery — and our team does the work to bring each nursery onboard.
Run it your way
Your team pays nursery fees from pre-tax salary through your own payroll. You run the programme; Halo's advanced employee and nursery application helps your people engage meaningfully and efficiently with their nursery, with ongoing Family Circle engagement throughout.
How it meets the statute
Two focus areas, one purpose. Built to meet Section 318.
The workplace nursery exemption (Section 318 ITEPA 2003) turns on two conditions. Halo is the software that makes both manageable to meet — so you can run the benefit properly.
Focus Area 1
How the financing works
The exemption requires the employer to be wholly or partly responsible for financing the nursery provision their employees use. Halo is built with that in mind — audit-ready, so the financing side is recorded as you go.
Focus Area 2
How Family Circle works
The exemption also requires the employer to be involved in managing the provision. Family Circle is how that happens: ongoing online and in-person engagement between your team and their nurseries, so the employer is genuinely party to the management of the provision — the management condition, addressed in practice.
These are the two conditions the exemption turns on — but they aren't the whole picture. Halo's platform also takes care of the wider checks that keep a programme on solid footing, like National Minimum Wage impact checks, so nothing slips through.
See it live
See it live.
Not a mock-up — the real employer dashboard, shown with sample data. This is the exact view you'd use to manage the benefit, populated with a sample company's data. Click through and explore.
Beltane Labs × Halo — live dashboard
Open the dashboardGet started
Want to know more? Connect with our team.
Tap connect and our onboarding agent picks it up — it takes a few details, helps you book a call at a time that suits, and sets up your employer dashboard so you're ready to go.
Connect
Our onboarding agent takes a few details about your organisation — no long form.
Book a call
Pick a time that suits on Cal.com. We walk you through it and answer anything.
Dashboard ready
We set up your employer dashboard so the benefit is ready for your team.
Activate Halo Pay for your team
Leave your details and our onboarding agent picks it up straight away — it takes a few details, helps you book a call when it suits, and sets up your employer dashboard.
No software to install · transparent pricing, quoted before signing · cancel anytime.
Legal
What Halo Pay is. The legal bit.
The legislation
Section 318 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 provides a tax exemption for workplace nursery benefits. Established in 2003, it lets an employer partly finance and manage nursery provision, with the cost met from employees' pre-tax salary. Halo is the software designed around these rules, so an employer can run the benefit properly.
How the saving works
The arrangement runs through Halo Pay: your employee meets part of their nursery cost from pre-tax salary in exchange for the workplace nursery benefit. That lowers their taxable pay, so the saving appears on their payslip from the first month the arrangement is active.
See what your team could saveCoverage
Every registered nursery. No curated list.
Any nursery registered with Ofsted in England or the Care Inspectorate in Scotland qualifies. Employees choose the nursery that best suits their family.
Chains & groups
Large nursery groups and chains, right through to every other registered group setting.
Independents
The local nursery your employee prefers — if it's registered, it qualifies.
Full-day & sessional
Morning sessions, full days, wraparound care — all eligible regardless of attendance pattern.
Compliance
Audit-ready. From day one.
Halo captures the compliance evidence your finance team needs. Ongoing Family Circle engagement between your employees and their nurseries is designed to meet the legislation's management requirement — Halo schedules, records, and stores the audit trail. Your team doesn't need to become tax experts.
Family Circle engagement
Halo facilitates the ongoing engagement between your team and their nurseries, designed to satisfy the management requirement.
Minuted & stored
Minutes are generated and stored in your employer dashboard — ready to share with your accountant or HMRC on request.
Financing evidence
Halo records the employer's financial contribution to nursery provision — helping to fulfil the financing condition.
Always accessible
A complete, time-stamped compliance record per employee, per nursery, per quarter. Exportable as PDF anytime.
Wondering how this compares to handing the whole thing to a third party? Our guide on running your own benefit vs a broker-run arrangement explains the difference.
New to this? Our step-by-step guide to setting up a workplace nursery benefit walks through the conditions and how to get it live — or read how the compliance works in detail.
FAQ
Common questions, straightforward answers.
- Is this the same as Tax-Free Childcare?
- No — it's a different, employer-run benefit under Section 318 of the 2003 Act. In many cases the two can be used alongside each other, depending on your family's circumstances.
- What does it cost us to run?
- Halo is a software platform with transparent pricing, quoted before you sign. There's nothing to install — you run the benefit through your own payroll, and we give you the documentation and best-practice support to do it properly.
- Which nurseries are included?
- Any setting registered with Ofsted in England or the Care Inspectorate in Scotland. There's no curated list — your employees choose the nursery that suits their family.
- What is Family Circle engagement?
- Ongoing engagement between an employee and their nursery that Halo facilitates and records. It's designed to satisfy the management requirement and creates the audit evidence your finance team needs.
- How long does setup take?
- Typically a matter of days. There's nothing to install — we help you understand the requirements and give you the documentation and best-practice support to run it through your own payroll.
- Does the employee need to tell their nursery?
- No change is needed from the nursery — they carry on exactly as before. Halo handles the connection between payroll and the nursery behind the scenes.
- What happens if an employee leaves?
- The arrangement ends cleanly when employment ends. Existing terms are honoured through to the end of the period.
Give your team the nursery benefit.
The software that makes the workplace nursery benefit manageable to run. You run the programme; we make it possible.