The childminder app made by two teachers and our children’s childminder

Why we made it

We’re a husband and wife, both teachers, with three boys. All three have been looked after by the same childminder. Our eldest was the first child she ever minded, when she was at home with her own young children; she has our youngest now.

She takes the children outside every day, whatever the weather: woods, fields and National Trust places. She knows each of them as well as we do. And at the end of the day, when the children have gone home, there is the other half of the job: the register, the observations, the accident forms, the policies, the risk assessments, the invoices, and keeping up with whatever Ofsted or the Department for Education changed this month.

Working in schools, we know how much is expected. Childminding is like running your own small school with just one of you. Tea Tin started as a way to take some of that weight off her. It grew into something for childminders across England.

An app for childminders in England

Everything a registered childminder keeps, in one place on the phone, tablet or laptop you already have. No app store: it is a website you add to your home screen.

• Your day. A daily register and attendance record that fills itself in from the hours agreed with each family, a warning before ratios go over, and meals with allergies shown first.
• Each child’s record. Contacts and who may collect, allergies, medicine and accidents, observations linked to the seven EYFS areas of learning, and the two-year progress check.
• Parents. Registration forms filled in on the parent’s own phone with no login, and signatures for accidents and medicine at collection.
• Ofsted paperwork. 35 childminding policies with prompts and examples, risk assessments, first aid, DBS, insurance and complaints, kept together for when Ofsted inspects.
• The guidance, watched. Every morning at 7am Tea Tin checks more than 35 documents childminders answer to, and tells you only when one has really changed. You can see what changed on our guidance updates page.
• Invoices. Billed on the hours sold, with funded hours (the free 15 or 30 hours) worked out and shown separately.

See what’s inside the app →

How we build it

• It does the work, not just the form. Where the app can fill something in from what it already knows, it does, so you are not typing the same thing twice.
• England first. Built around the EYFS and what Ofsted asks of childminders in England.
• Your records are yours. Download everything at any time, free, even after you stop paying.
• Honest about what it is. Ofsted does not approve software, and Tea Tin is not approved by Ofsted. It helps you keep your records; you remain the one answerable to Ofsted.

The company behind it

Tea Tin is made by Tea Tin Ltd, registered in England and Wales (company number 17501939). Our director is Harry Holder. If you have a question, an idea or something that does not work, write to us at hello@teatinapp.com; a person reads every email.