Thank you for visiting tiney, a childcare service and community built around modern families.
These are the terms and conditions on which we provide our users (you) with access to the functions of our website (Site) and mobile application (App) and offline services (Offline Services) (which we’ll collectively refer to as our Services).
1. How the Terms Work
These Terms of Use apply to anyone using our Services, whether they are just browsing our Site or whether they are a registered account-holder with us.
In addition, there are supplementary terms and conditions which may apply to you if you have registered an account with us as a tiney childminder (a Childminder), as a prospective Childminder, or as a parent or guardian (a Parent). Our terms include the following:
- General Terms of Use: this document, which applies to everyone using our Services;
- Childminder Terms of Use: these apply to tiney Childminders who have registered with us, and to prospective tiney Childminders who are using those elements of the Services which are available prior to registration (like onboarding or training content);
- Parent Terms of Use: these apply to parents or guardians who have registered with us as purchasers of childcare;
- Privacy and Cookie Policy: this policy describes the personal data which we may collect from users of our Services and explains how we may use it. It also describes how our Site makes use of cookies;
- The Childcare Agreement: Here at tiney we provide a community to unite Parents with Childminders. However, the contract for the provision of childcare is between the Parent and the Childminder alone, without us being party to that contract. To facilitate the process of contracting we have a standard Childcare Agreement which has been designed to be simple and fair for both parties. The Childcare Agreement can be entered into between the Parent and Childminder on paper, or as an e-contract using the Services.
For ease of reference, we’ll call all of the terms which apply to you collectively as the Terms. By using our Services you are agreeing to the Terms.
2. Who We Are
We or us means Tiney Limited, trading as tiney, a company registered in the United Kingdom under number 11194291 whose registered offices are at International House, 12 Constance Street, London, E16 2DQ. Our VAT registration number is 315 5615 16.
We are registered with Ofsted as a Childminder Agency with Unique Reference Number (URN) CA000038.
If you wish to contact us, you can email us using the contact functions of our App or Site or at community@tiney.co or by calling 020 4579 9034.
If you are using our Services as a Parent or Childminder, then the identity and contact details of any Childminder or Parent with whom you are contracting will be made available to you before you enter into the Childcare Agreement with them.
3. Our Services
Our obligations
We will provide the Services in accordance with the relevant Terms. Some functions will only be available to users (whether Parents or Childminders) who have registered with us.
Your obligations
In using our Services you must comply with the Terms that apply to you (so if you are a Parent these will be the Parent Terms of Use and if you are a Childminder, or a prospective Childminder, these will be the Childminder Terms of Use). However, there are a few general obligations and provisions that will apply to all users of our Services, as follows:
- you confirm that you are authorised to contract with us on the relevant Terms, and to conduct any activities which you may conduct through your account. This means in particular that if you are an individual you are over eighteen years old or supervised by a parent or guardian and that if you are opening an account on behalf of a company or other business you are authorised by that business to act on its behalf;
- you may only use our Services for lawful purposes. You may not use it in any way that breaches any local or international law, for the purposes of fraud, or to transmit unsolicited advertising or spam;
- any information you submit at any time (whether registering for an account with us, completing forms, responding to requests or otherwise) must be true and not misleading;
- you must not misuse our Services by introducing viruses or other malicious code to our Site, App or systems, nor try to gain unauthorised access to them, to any related systems or servers or to any related source code. You must not attack our Site through DDOS or otherwise. As you probably know, breaching this provision would be a criminal act, which may oblige us to report you to law enforcement and provide them with such information as we may have about you; and
- you must keep your account and password login details secure, and not allow anyone else to use your account. If any activity takes place on your account then you are responsible for it. You must let us know immediately if you discover or suspect that someone else has accessed your account.
We will use any personal data which you provide to us in accordance with our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
4. Termination
Termination by you
You may terminate the contract between you and us in relation to the Services in accordance with the Parent Terms of Use or Childminder Terms of Use (as applicable).
Termination by us
If you are in breach of the Terms, we may take any of the following actions:
- issuing you with a written warning specifying the breach and requiring its remedy; suspension or permanent withdrawal of your account and your use of our Services, and/or termination of any contract between you and us on the Terms;
- taking legal action against you; or
- disclosing your personal information to law enforcement authorities.
We also reserve the right to terminate any contract between you and us, and suspend or terminate your account, by written notice to you at any time. We will try to give you reasonable notice, and to exercise this right only in circumstances where termination is appropriate (for instance because we are unable to continue to provide our Services, or because we have received complaints about you from other users). However, nothing in our relationship with you guarantees your continued use of our Services.
Effect of Termination
Termination of the contract between you and us will not affect any rights or remedies of the parties in existence at the time of termination. For instance, if at the time of termination one of us owes the other any sums, then they will still be owed. Any of the Terms which expressly or impliedly survive termination (such as obligations of confidentiality) will continue in force.
5. Intellectual Property Rights
Rights in our content
The intellectual property rights in all of the content on and in our Services belong either to us or to whomever licensed that content to us. You agree that you won’t copy or make any use of it without having first obtained our permission or permission from whomever owns the relevant intellectual property rights. Uses which are expressly permitted by law (for instance, if you print off a copy of an article or these Terms for your personal reference) are OK.
You may also take excerpts from articles or posts on our Site to create your own content referring to our Site, provided that you do not repost the entire article or post or a substantial part of it and provided that you include a link to the original article or post.
Otherwise, if you would like to make any use of any of our content (maybe you would like to spread the good word about tiney) then please contact us so we can discuss this with you.
6. Our Liability to You
At tiney we act as a Childminder Agency to support the training and development of childminders, ensure their suitability and promote quality and standards of childcare. However, we do not provide childcare ourselves. We act as a platform or marketplace to connect Childminders with interested parents. Because our role is limited, we limit and exclude our liability to an appropriate degree. This section explains the ways in which our liability to you is limited and excluded.
- Where we don’t limit or exclude our liability – We do not limit or exclude our liability for anything for which we cannot lawfully limit or exclude our liability. For example, we do not limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud. This statement takes priority over the rest of this section and the rest of the Terms.
- No implied terms – We provide access to our Services on the terms set out in these General Terms of Use and the other relevant Terms. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we expressly exclude any and all conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, under common law, or otherwise.
- We’re at the mercy of the Internet - You understand that there is some inherent instability in communications networks and that we may need to take down or maintain any of our Services from time to time. For that reason, you accept that access to our Services is permitted on a temporary basis and we will not be liable if it is unavailable for any reason. At the same time, our Services are provided “as is” and without any warranty. For example, while we do our best to correct defects, we do not warrant that our Services will be uninterrupted, free from errors, or free from viruses or malicious code.
- Third parties – We are not responsible or liable for the actions of third parties or your interactions with them. Third parties may include, for example, other users (whether Parents or Childminders), or social media service providers, or the developers of any device or software which you use to access our Services or any technology used to support our Services (such as the messaging functions provided by Sendbird, the payment processing services provided by Stripe, or third party data hosting services).
- No indirect or consequential loss – We expressly exclude any liability for any indirect or consequential loss, damage, costs or expenses incurred or suffered by you in connection with your use of our Services. We are not liable for losses, damages, costs and expenses that are not foreseeable to both you and us at the time you open your account with us or which are not caused by our breach.
- No liability for business losses – We expressly exclude any liability for any loss, damage, costs or expenses incurred or suffered by you (in each case whether direct or indirect) if that liability comes within one of the following categories: loss of business, loss of revenue, loss of contract, loss of data, loss of reputation, or loss of profit. In short, we are not liable for business losses.
- Limited liability – Our total aggregate liability to you in connection with your use of our Services will be limited in all circumstances (whether arising in negligence, including tort, breach of contract or otherwise) to a maximum sum. Our liability will not exceed the revenue derived by us in connection with your use of our Services during the six (6) months prior to the event giving rise to our liability. For example, if you are a Childminder, then our total aggregate liability to you will not exceed any fees charged by us in connection with your childcare services during that six-month period. If you are a Parent, then our liability will not exceed the fees charged by us to you during that six-month period.
7. Indemnity
If we are subject to any third-party claim as a result of your breach of any of your obligations under the Terms, or as a result of your negligence, misrepresentation or other wrongful act, then you will indemnify us against that claim. Indemnifying us means you will indemnify us and hold us harmless against all costs, expenses, losses, damages or liabilities suffered or incurred by us as a result of or in connection with that third-party claim, including (without limitation) any legal and professional fees. You also agree to provide us with all reasonable assistance and information we may request from you in order to enable us to defend and settle the claim and mitigate our (and your) liability. If we receive any third party claim against which we are entitled to be indemnified, we will notify you and we will consult with you in managing and settling that claim.
8. Disputes and Governing Law
The Terms and any contract between you and us on the Terms, are governed by the law of England and Wales.
If any dispute arises between you and us in connection with your use of our Services, then you and we will attempt to resolve that dispute through discussion. If we are unable to resolve the dispute by discussion, then the courts of England and Wales will have exclusion jurisdiction over any claim relating to your use of our Site or any connected contract. However, if you are not resident in England or Wales then we reserve the right to bring proceedings against you in any court in your country of residence.
If any dispute arises between a Childminder and a Parent, then that is a matter for them rather than us. We strongly encourage you to resolve those disputes by discussion (and we will support the resolution of any disputes as best we can), but ultimately the conduct and forum of any dispute will be governed by the Childcare Agreement.
9. Links
Linking to our Site. You can link to our Site provided that you do so in a way that is fair and legal. You can’t link to our Site in order to damage or take advantage of our reputation or to suggest any false form of association, endorsement or relationship between you and us. You may not “hotlink” to our Site or to any content on it, nor embed or frame any part of our Site or any such content on any other site. If we ask you to stop linking to our Site then you must do so immediately.
Third party links. Our Services contain links to various third party sites and resources. We have no control over these or over any service provided by those third parties. You use them at your own risk. In particular, where our Site integrates any third-party social media functions, then your use of those functions is governed by the applicable terms of the relevant social media provider (like Facebook or Instagram).
10. Revisions
We may revise these General Terms of Use (or any of our other Terms) at any time. You should check our terms for changes from time to time, but if the revisions are material then we will notify you of them using the contact details you have provided to us or by messaging your account. By continuing to use our Site you will be accepting our revised terms.
11.General Legal Provisions
Entire agreement
Any contract between you and us on the Terms, together with any supplementary contracts or terms we issue to you and agree with you from time to time, will constitute the entire agreement between you and us. Supplementary terms could include, for example, the terms of the offer and registration commitments we agree with Childminders as part of their onboarding, the terms of loyalty schemes, or terms applicable to specific processes like de-registration or the use of particular tiney platform features or benefits.
You acknowledge that in contracting with us you do not rely on any representation or warranty not set out in these Terms or any of those supplementary contracts or terms.
Assignment
We may transfer our rights and obligations under our contract with you to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens. You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under your contract with us to another person if we agree to this in writing.
Severance
Each of the provisions of the Terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them (or any part-provision) are unlawful, the remaining provisions (or part-provisions) will remain in full force and effect.
No waivers
If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these Terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breach, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date.
Agency
If you are a Childminder, then you are appointing us as your agent to invoice Parents on your behalf and perform the other activities we are authorised to conduct on your behalf under the Childminder Terms of Use. Otherwise, nothing in the Terms creates any relationship of agency, partnership, or employment between you and us. Neither you nor we are authorised to enter into any commitment on behalf of the other, except as expressly set out in the Terms. All Childminders will at all times remain companies or sole traders independent from us.
Third Party Rights
Except as expressly provided, a person who is not a party to any contract under these Terms shall not have any rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any of them.
Last updated: 12th July 2022