Everything important. In the tin.
A calm, supportive app for childminders — compliance, records and daily life in one place, so you can prioritise the children in your care.
Join the waiting list →Be the first to know when Tea Tin launches.
A year free for the first 50 childmindersJoin the waitlist before Tea Tin opens 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.The screens are the app as it is today. Children and names in them are invented.
See it working.
Three minutes of the app as it is today. The captions are in the film, so you can watch with the sound off.
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, sign for accidents and medicine on yours, and, if you choose, see their child's day as it happens.
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 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
One plan. Everything in it.
£10 a month, or £100 a year — twelve months for the price of ten. No VAT, and nothing held back for a bigger plan.
- Your first month is free. You add a card when you start, and the first payment is taken the day the month ends.
- The first 50 on the waiting list get their first year free instead. Nobody is ever charged without being asked first.
- Nothing to pay while you get registered. Your free month starts once Ofsted has registered you and you add a card.
- Cancel whenever you like, from Settings. You keep the rest of the month you have paid for, and nothing more is taken.
- Your records are always yours. Download everything at any time, free, even after you stop paying.
Join the waiting list
Tea Tin is being built now, and tested by childminders. Leave your email and we will tell you when it opens.
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. The fifty places close on the day Tea Tin opens, whether or not all fifty have gone.
You’re on the list. We will email you when Tea Tin opens, and not about anything else.
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 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 you joined the waiting list, not the order people make accounts — so your place is yours from the moment you join and you do not lose it by setting up later. 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. Places close the day Tea Tin opens.
- What if fewer than 50 people have joined when you open?
- Then fewer than fifty free years are given out, and the rest are not handed round afterwards. The offer is for people who took a chance on Tea Tin before it existed, so it closes when it stops being a chance. If one of the fifty never takes her place up, it simply goes unclaimed. After we open, everybody gets the same first month free.
- When does the free year start, and what happens at the end of it?
- It starts the day Tea Tin opens properly, not the day you join the list — so the waiting never eats into it, and if you help test it beforehand that time is free too and does not count. All fifty years begin and end together. 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 if a payment does not go through?
- Usually it is an expired card. Everything keeps working for 14 days while you sort it, and we tell you by email and in the app, with the dates. After that the app winds down, but the register, allergies, emergency contacts, recording an accident and giving medicine keep working. If it is still unpaid it closes on day 46, and your download stays free throughout. Nothing is owed after it closes.
- Can I take my records with me?
- Yes, whenever you like. One download holds everything you have put in, in ordinary files that open without Tea Tin. It is never behind the paywall, not even for a day.
- 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.