Everything important. In the tin.
A calm, supportive app for childminders — compliance, records and daily life in one place, so you can get on with the children in your care.
Join the waitlist →Be the first to know when Tea Tin launches.
A year free for the first 50 childminders Join the waitlist early and your first year is on us, in return for telling us what works and what does not.
Built by educators, for educators. Tested by childminders.
Screens from the app in development. Children and names are invented, and the wording of the framework change is illustrative, not a real one.
What's inside Tea Tin?
Six parts that work together, so anything you write down once turns up everywhere it matters. Everything below is built and working.
Your day
One screen each morning with what needs doing, and a register that fills itself in from the hours you agreed.
Each child's record
Everything about a child in one place, entered once and shown wherever it matters.
Parents
Parents fill in the forms on their own phone, and sign for accidents and medicine on yours at the door.
Paperwork
What Ofsted asks about, with prompts and examples so you are never facing a blank page.
The guidance, watched
Every morning at 7 it checks the 39 documents you answer to, and tells you only when one has really changed.
Invoices
Billed on the hours you sold, not the hours they came, with funded hours shown separately.
From us
Hi, we're the people behind Tea Tin.
We're a husband and wife who are both teachers, and our three boys have all been through childminder settings.
Working in schools, we know just how much is expected of a childminder when it comes to compliance. It's like running your own small school, but with just one of you. We wanted to find a way to take that headache away, and keep you on top of everything, so you can get on with what you're great at and what you love: spending time with the children in your care.
We think childminders are brilliant, and we're so grateful for everything you do, for the children in your care and for the families who rely on you.
S & H x
Be the first to know.
Leave an address and you will hear from us when there is something real to try — and not before. No newsletter.
The first 50 childminders get a year free. In return, we ask for your honest feedback as you use it — what is confusing, what is missing, what would save you time — so we can make Tea Tin as easy and as useful as it can be.
Your address is used only to tell you when Tea Tin is ready and, if you are one of the first 50, to ask for your feedback during your free year. It is not passed to anyone else, and it is deleted the moment you ask. How we look after it.
Fair questions.
- Who is building it?
- Tea Tin Ltd, registered in England and Wales. It is built by a husband and wife, both educators, whose three boys have all been through childminder settings. Our children's childminder has worked with us on it from the start, telling us what helps and what does not.
- Is it approved by Ofsted?
- No, and nothing is — Ofsted does not approve software. Tea Tin reads what they publish; they have not asked for it. And it helps you keep your records rather than taking over the responsibility for them: you are still the one answerable to Ofsted, so please keep reading what they publish as well, not only what we say about it.
- What will it cost?
- Not decided. The intention is one monthly price with nothing held back for a bigger plan. The first 50 childminders on the waitlist get their first year free, and nobody on the waitlist is charged without being asked first.
- What is the free year in return for?
- Your feedback. The first 50 childminders to join get a year's subscription free, and we will ask you now and then what is working, what is not, and what you wish it did. You know what would help your business far better than we do.
- How do I know if I am one of the 50?
- It goes by the order people join, and we will tell you. Joining twice does not help — the first time is the one that counts. Anyone is welcome on the list, but if you are not a childminder in England you do not take up one of the 50 places.
- When does the free year start, and what happens at the end of it?
- It starts the day your account is made, not the day you join the list — so if launch takes longer than we hope, your free year is not eaten up by the waiting. We will tell you before the twelve months are up, and then you decide. You are never charged automatically. If you would rather not carry on, you can still download everything you have put in. It is one free year per childminder, and it cannot be passed on to someone else.
- What happens to the children's records?
- Each childminder's records sit in a separate database rather than all mixed together, so another setting's children can never appear in yours. That is built, not promised.
- Is it only for England?
- For now. Scotland and Wales have different regulators and frameworks, and doing England properly beats doing three nations thinly.
- When does it launch?
- No date yet. The app is well along, but we want it to be as close to perfect as possible before we open it up. Join the waitlist and you will hear from us the moment it is ready. If it never launches at all we will tell you and delete the list, rather than leaving you wondering.