The company nursery welcomes the children of employees on or near the premises during their working hours. This private structure – controlled like a municipal crèche – makes it possible to cope with the shortage of childcare. Some employers are working together to create an inter-company crèche.

The company nursery is attracting more and more employers. Despite the cost that it represents for the company, this type of structure is developing a little more each year. A form of childcare that is advantageous in all respects, the company crèche is particularly popular with young parents.

Management of the company nursery

There are two models of structures:

• The company nursery, created on the initiative of an employer.
• The inter-company crèche, on the initiative of several employers who wish to pool the costs of creation and operation.

Company crèche or inter-company crèche, these types of childcare are necessarily private structures. Their creation and management are provided by:

• The company or companies itself.
• A company or a third-party association specializing in setting up business nurseries.

The company crèche is subject to the same rules of creation and operation as the public crèche: prior authorization from the President of the departmental council, compliance with health and safety rules and regular checks by the departmental maternal and child protection service. (PMI).

Note: many public establishments – hospitals in particular – have company nurseries.

The conditions for admission to a collective crèche

• The age of the child: the child is admitted to nursery from two months old and up to four years old, the age of entry into kindergarten.
• The parent’s job: to be able to register the child, one of the two parents must be an employee of the company.

Good to know: some company nurseries open places for children whose parents do not work in the company.

Reception conditions for young children

A major advantage of company nurseries or inter-company nurseries, their premises are either at the address of the offices themselves, or in direct proximity. Parents drop off their child without making a detour on the way to their place of work.

The child is welcomed by early childhood professionals at the rate of: one professional for five children who do not walk, one professional for eight children who walk.

Naturally, the opening hours of this private crèche adapt to the parents’ office hours.

As part of childcare, early childhood professionals attached to the company crèche ensure the health, safety, well-being and development of the children entrusted to them.

The crèche is administered by qualified supervisory staff:

• A director: pediatric nurse, early childhood educator or doctor.
• Early childhood professionals with an early childhood CAP, a childcare assistant diploma or early childhood educator.
• Housekeeping staff.

The structure can be subsidized by CAF.

• When the company crèche is subsidized by CAF, parents pay a preferential hourly rate calculated on the basis of their income and their family situation (1).
• When the crèche is not funded by CAF, parents do not benefit from a preferential hourly rate but can receive financial assistance from CAF: the free choice of childcare system (Cmg) of the Paje system.

In any case, parents benefit from a tax reduction for expenses incurred for the care of their young child.

The employer, for his part, also benefits from several financial aids and tax measures intended to encourage the establishment of a crèche.

Unlike other collective crèches, the company crèche generally has enough places to accommodate all the children… whose parents are employed by the company!

Insofar as some company nurseries or inter-company nurseries accept children whose parents are domiciled in a close geographical area, it may be wise to find out about the existence of such nurseries near their home.

The most advantageous form of childcare, the company crèche has only one major drawback: not every company has one yet …