Parent Terms of Use

Please note: These Terms have been updated and the version below comes into effect on 19th August 2026. You can view the previous version or read a summary of the key changes.

By using tiney, families can find safe, trusted and high quality early years childcare in their neighbourhood that perfectly matches their needs. Every tiney setting follows a comprehensive and robust set of standards, designed to ensure excellent care and to reflect our philosophy of play-centred, family-style learning.

These Parent Terms of Use set out your rights and responsibilities as a parent or legal guardian to ensure the best possible experience for you and for the childminders you engage.

In these Parent Terms of Use we may use capitalised words and phrases. When we do, these have the meanings given in our General Terms of Use, which apply to our contract with you in combination with these Parent Terms of Use.

1. How It Works

At tiney, in our role as a registered Childminder Agency, we support a community of Parents and Childminders, offering Parents high quality, family-style and play-centred education and care for their children through carefully selected Childminders whose childminding business is regulated and supported by our Services, including:
1. the training and regulatory oversight for safe and effective education and care of children; and
2. tools and support infrastructure to simplify contracting, billing, messaging and the other day-to-day aspects of running a childminding business and engagement between Parents and Childminders.
However, the contract for childcare services is between the Childminder and the Parent – we are not part of that transaction, although we may facilitate it. The contract between the Childminder and the Parent will be made on a standard agreement to which we require all our users to adhere (we call this the Childcare Agreement).

2. Your Information and Privacy

To access childcare and education services from any tiney Childminder, we will require you to provide necessary personal information in order to create an account and inform the Childcare Agreement (see more details below). This information will include your name, contact details, and details of your family. You will be asked to provide an email address and password, and to provide your mobile phone number as part of the onboarding process.
You must provide truthful and accurate information at all times. Any incorrect or untruthful information provided may result in temporary or permanent expulsion from our Services, along with any other legal rights available to us in accordance with these Terms and applicable law. We reserve the right to take any action necessary with respect to your access to the Site and our Services as a result, including reporting you to relevant authorities or making a claim against you in certain severe situations.
By way of reminder, our General Terms of Use set out certain terms relating to the information you provide to us and to account security, and our Privacy Notice sets out details of how we may use that information.
Our Privacy Notice also describes how we may use personal data relating to your children which is stored in our platform. For the most part, that data is stored in order to help you and your Childminder work together and communicate easily. We may if necessary use that data ourselves for quality and safeguarding purposes or in case of emergency. You should make sure you've read and understood that Privacy Notice, not just for your own peace of mind but on behalf of your children. If your child is of reading age, our Privacy Notice also includes a child-friendly notice which they can read themselves and which you should provide to them.

3. Working with us and with our Childminders

The Childcare Agreement and your account

Once you agree with a tiney Childminder that they'll provide you with childcare and education services, the Childminder will initiate the creation of a Childcare Agreement between you and the Childminder.
As part of this process, you will be required to create an account with tiney. This is a prerequisite to view and sign the Childcare Agreement.
As part of this process, we will also solicit from you and from the Childminder all necessary information which is required to be documented in the Childcare Agreement (such as the details of the Parents and children, details of care to be provided, hours, fees and additional charges, and any special arrangements).
Once the information has been gathered and terms have been agreed, you and the Childminder will enter into the Childcare Agreement and you shall comply with all terms and obligations in it. If there are any specific contractual arrangements which you wish to agree with the Childminder in relation to your engagement, please communicate these with the Childminder and we may be able to accommodate them, but we cannot guarantee it. The Childcare Agreement may not be varied without our prior written approval.

Services and benefits

Once you sign the Childcare Agreement and create a tiney account, you'll be able to download the tiney App and log into it.
The tiney App offers Parents a range of features designed to help you see the progress of your child in the setting and keep in touch with the Childminder. This functionality may change and evolve from time to time, but typically it includes:
- the ability to see "journal" entries posted by the Childminder about the experience and progress of your child;
- the ability to see when your child has been signed in and out of the setting;
- the ability to communicate with the Childminder via chat; and
- the ability to see invoices for the childcare services the Childminder provides.
We may offer certain support services and benefits to our Parents from time to time, as such support and benefits will be made clear to you in the account creation and onboarding process. However, where we introduce you to third-party providers (such as 24/7 GP providers), we are not responsible for the performance, availability or quality of those third-party services.

Funded Placements (if applicable)

tiney supports and accepts Local Authority "Funded Placements". This section sets out the Parent's rights and additional responsibilities with regard to the onboarding process where a Parent is eligible for funded placement childcare and wishes to obtain a Funded Placement through tiney.
It is a condition of Funded Placements, in addition to fulfilling all of our other registration criteria and having a registered account with us as a Parent, that you provide the following details to the relevant Childminder on request:
1. details of the type of funding you want to claim (funding types may be based on child age and guardian income criteria);
2. how many hours per week you want to claim from the childcare setting;
3. how the funded hours will be allocated across the week;
4. whether or not the Funded Placement will be during term-time only, and if not, whether the funded hours will stretch into the term-holiday periods;
5. any additional hours required over the funded allowance, and any funding eligibility criteria, if applicable, including eligibility codes;
6. the Parent's National Insurance information (to enable tiney to perform an eligibility code check); and
7. any other details required by tiney, the government or the Local Authority to provide access to a Funded Placement.
You acknowledge that Parent funding eligibility can affect the start date of the funded care. You will need to reconfirm your eligibility periodically (for example, every 3 months) as requested by the government and the Local Authority, and your eligibility may therefore change between school terms. As a result, the Childminder (and tiney) can't guarantee that any funding will be claimable if eligibility is not maintained. The Childminder will notify you in the event that eligibility cannot be confirmed, and you may discuss alternative options with the Childminder, including requesting a different contract type, or amending the start date of the Childcare Agreement to meet funding eligibility requirements (if possible).
Assuming funding eligibility is confirmed, the Childcare Agreement will be produced and signed by the Childminder, following which it will be sent to you for review and e-signature.
Funded Placement contract requests must be made with as much notice as possible before the start of the school term. Any contract requests submitted after the start date of a new school term may not be able to be agreed, due to the headcount deadline dates imposed by the relevant Local Authority. tiney will not be liable to the Parent for unsuccessful or unsubmitted claims in these circumstances.
Once you have followed the steps above, the rest of the steps in relation to creating and signing a Childcare Agreement and creating your account will be the same as for non-funded placements, as described above in this section.
Additionally, for Funded Placements, the Parent must provide the following details during onboarding and before the start of the school term in order to guarantee that the headcount submission deadline for that term can be met:
1. the child's full legal name, date of birth, ethnicity, gender, and first language;
2. the Parent's full legal name, date of birth, and National Insurance number;
3. the Parent's consent for applying for EYPP uplifts, if relevant;
4. the number of hours of allowance to be used at this setting (if less than all hours);
5. if the child is also using funded hours at another setting, the name and contact details for that setting, and the hours to be claimed with them; and
6. any additional details required by tiney or the Local Authority to access Funded Placements.

Fees and billing

Just like many nurseries and some childminders, we may charge you a fee on certain types of childcare contracts or for specific services provided. Full details are available on the tiney Pricing page. We reserve the right to vary the fee from time to time. Any changes will not apply retrospectively to services already purchased or agreed.
The rates payable by you for the Childminder's services will be as agreed in the Childcare Agreement, and you agree to make timely payment of those amounts to tiney (who handles invoicing and processes payments on behalf of Childminders). For ease of billing, rates will be invoiced monthly on a fixed basis, based on your needs anticipated in the Childcare Agreement. If any balancing adjustment needs to be made to reflect fewer or more hours' care provided in any particular month, then we will make that adjustment in the subsequent month's invoice. Any agreed additional fees incurred during any month (such as late pick-ups, meals, outings etc.) will be added to the following month's invoice, or may be invoiced separately, depending on the Childminder's preference. In some cases a Childminder may request an alternative billing frequency (e.g. weekly or flexible packages of hours) or for fees to be invoiced in arrears (i.e. after the care has happened); however, this is only available on the request of the Childminder who is providing the care, and is not generally available for all contracts or guaranteed.
You are responsible for payment of your invoices, and we will not be liable for late or non-payment. In the event of any dispute, we will provide you and the Childminder with reasonable assistance to help come to a satisfactory conclusion. Payment may be made by a variety of payment methods depending on your circumstances, including credit/debit card, bank transfer, childcare vouchers, student finance or any other methods communicated to you and agreed by us.
When you make a payment for an invoice, we will attempt to reconcile that payment against open invoices held in the Childminder's account and associated with your Childcare Agreement. We do this automatically in most cases, but sometimes this can take up to 2 business days. When a payment is successfully reconciled, the Childminder's fees are transferred to an e-money account held legally in the Childminder's name.
As part of our agreement with our Childminders, we charge each Childminder a Membership Fee (a fixed percentage or lump sum of each payment made by Parents, or in the case of Funded Placements by Local Authorities). This is an arrangement between tiney and the Childminder and does not change the amounts payable by you under your Childcare Agreement.
In the case of Funded Placements, in nearly all cases tiney will invoice the relevant Local Authority on behalf of the Childminder for the amounts due to be claimed for the following month of care. tiney will also submit a monthly invoice to you which will itemise any fees payable by you over and above the funded hours for the following month of care (showing the funded hours as line items set to a £0 rate). You shall pay any and all such fees to tiney.

Your and the Childminder's general obligations

In order to ensure a uniformly excellent user experience, we require all Childminders to comply with certain standards (if you wish to review these, they are set out in the Childminder Terms of Use).
As a Parent, we likewise require you to treat our Childminders in a professional and courteous manner. Under the Childcare Agreement, each Childminder may decline to provide further services if they are subject to abuse, and if we receive complaints of that nature we may likewise decline to provide you with our Services and terminate your account with us.
You must also comply with all your obligations under the Childcare Agreement.

Using our Services

It is a condition of the Childminder's continued use of our Services, and their registration with us in our capacity as an Ofsted-registered Childminder Agency, that the Childminder uses our App and Services in connection with any childcare services they provide while they are registered with us. This is in part to ensure that we are able to meet our regulatory and safeguarding obligations in monitoring the services they provide.
Any parent or guardian who wishes to use childcare services provided by a tiney-registered Childminder must be referred to tiney so they can be onboarded to our platform and follow the family onboarding process described above.
For the avoidance of doubt, if a tiney Childminder provides any childcare services without using our App and Services — including but not limited to contracting with parents or guardians not onboarded onto the tiney App, taking care of additional children not onboarded onto the tiney App, and accepting payments not into their Tiney Wallet without our prior agreement — we will terminate their contract with us, in accordance with the Termination clause in the Childminder Terms of Use. Such termination will automatically give rise to termination of the Childcare Agreement between you and the Childminder. You agree to notify us if you become aware of any tiney Childminder acting in breach of these provisions.
You must use all available functions of our Services in your dealings with Childminders wherever possible. In particular:
1. all messages between you and the Childminder relating to your childcare services should be sent using the secure messaging features of our App wherever possible;
2. all bookings and rescheduling should be made using the relevant features of our App wherever possible; and
3. all invoicing shall be conducted through us.

Reporting

In the unlikely event that a serious concern arises relating to a Childminder's compliance with statutory requirements, whether related to the Early Years Foundation Stage or the Childcare Register, we are required by law to follow formal procedures, which may involve notifying external bodies such as the Local Authority or, where appropriate, Ofsted. You agree to cooperate with us in relation to any such process.

4. Term and Termination

Termination by you

Our contract with you will be formed on your acceptance of our Terms. You may terminate that contract at any time by no less than six (6) weeks' written notice to us. You must notify any relevant Childminder of such termination at the same time.

Termination by us

We may terminate our contract with you as described in our General Terms of Use. You acknowledge that we may also terminate our contract with the Childminder (as described in those General Terms of Use) and that any such termination will automatically give rise to termination of the Childcare Agreement between you and the Childminder.

Effect of termination

On termination of our contract with you, we will immediately cease to provide you with the Services. We will make any data hosted by us on your behalf (such as messaging data) available to you for transfer within thirty (30) days. After that thirty (30) day period, we will not be under any obligation to you to preserve any data or records relating to your services (but may do so to the extent necessary for our own lawful purposes or to comply with applicable law).
Termination of our contract with you will automatically give rise to termination of the Childcare Agreement at the same time, in accordance with its terms.

5. Liability and Indemnity

Please refer to section 6 of the General Terms of Use (Our Role and Liability to You), which sets out various limitations of liability, in addition to this section.
tiney is not in any way responsible for the provision or receipt of childcare services by a Childminder. Any claims in relation thereto must be made directly against the Childminder or Parent concerned. tiney will not be a party to any dispute between a Childminder and a Parent. Any complaints or claims must be made directly to/against the party concerned, and tiney accepts no responsibility for those parties' compliance with their obligations.
As described in our General Terms of Use, we act as an intermediary and are not a party to the Childcare Agreement itself. The Childminder delivers their services directly to you under the terms of that agreement. While we are not responsible for the day-to-day performance or delivery of individual childcare arrangements, as a registered Childminder Agency we have a duty to uphold the safeguarding and quality standards of the Childminders we approve and regulate.
If you have concerns about a Childminder's conduct, including safeguarding breaches or failure to deliver agreed services, you should raise these directly with the Childminder in accordance with the Childcare Agreement. You should also notify us of any safeguarding concerns, concerns regarding the quality of provision for children, or serious care concerns, as these may affect the Childminder's continued registration with tiney. We will investigate and take appropriate regulatory action in line with our safeguarding and quality assurance procedures.
We do not guarantee the performance, suitability, or availability of any individual Childminder. Accordingly, we do not accept liability for loss or damage arising from the acts or omissions of a Childminder, except where we have failed in our own duties as a Childminder Agency, including in relation to safeguarding oversight.
We do not issue refunds for disputed invoices or substandard care unless we determine, in our sole discretion, that a refund is appropriate in the specific circumstances. Any such refund is made as a gesture of goodwill and does not constitute an admission of liability on our part. In such cases, we may seek to recover the refunded amount from the Childminder.
Our total aggregate liability to you in connection with your use of our Services (whether arising in negligence, including tort, breach of contract or otherwise) will not exceed the fees payable by you in connection with the childcare services during the six (6) months prior to the event giving rise to the liability.
If tiney is 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.

6. Revisions

We may vary these Parent Terms of Use from time to time. Where a variation is material, we will give you at least 30 (thirty) days' notice in writing (by email notification or through the tiney App, messaging service or any other contact method made available by us and selected by you) before it takes effect. If you do not accept a material variation, you may, within 30 (thirty) days of being notified of it by us (Review Period), terminate this contract on written notice to us. Your continued use of our Services after the Review Period will constitute your acceptance of the variation. Minor or non-material variations — for example, changes that do not materially reduce your rights or increase your obligations, or that we make to reflect changes to our Services, correct errors or improve clarity — take effect when we publish the updated Terms; we may notify you of them by any of the methods above, and your continued use of our Services after the change constitutes your acceptance of it. Any variation required by applicable law will be effective immediately.
In the event of any conflict between the current version of these Terms and any previous version(s), the provisions current and in effect shall prevail unless it is expressly stated otherwise.

Document version: v2, published 19th August 2026

Previous versions:

v1 (published 29th April 2021)