Childcare Days - Nursery Management Platform with Live Ratios and Funded Hours
Nursery Management Platform for a Bristol Nursery Group
Designed and built a clickable manager console for a group of 11 day nurseries in and around Bristol: today's rooms against the ratio rules, every child's record in one place, staffing by half hour, and the term's funded hours claim to the local authority.
Most of our work is under NDA. Per agreement, we can share the work but not the company details - all names and identifying information shown here have been changed.
Impact
Dashboard, children list with the child quick view, child record with 10 tabs, rota and ratios, and funded hours. Moving a child or a staff member, or marking someone sick, updates the numbers.
Each room from 07:30 to 18:00 shows children, staff counted in ratio, required staff and a status, from versioned ratio rules held as configuration. Students and staff on break are not counted.
22,936 funded hours across 4 entitlement types at configured council rates, with hours capped at what each child is booked for, 12 codes to reconfirm within 30 days and 4 invalid or in grace.
4 rooms, 19 staff with qualification levels and first aid expiry, 3 ratio rules, families with collectors, health, consents and booking patterns, today's register and 4 headcount returns.
The Problem
Sparrowgate grew from 3 nurseries to 11 in six years, and each site kept its own way of working. Registers were paper sheets a room leader totted up to check ratios, diaries went home as handwritten slips, funded hours lived in a spreadsheet the finance team rebuilt every term, parents rang the office to book an extra day, and finding accident, medication or attendance records for an Ofsted inspector took a manager the whole morning.
Our Solution
Childcare Days gives each nursery manager one console for the day: which rooms are within ratio right now, who is expected but has not arrived, which accidents, doses and allergy plans need follow-up, every child's record in one place, staffing against the ratio rules by half hour, and the term's funded hours claim with eligibility code status for every child.
The Challenge: Ratios, Funding and Records Across 11 Nurseries
Sparrowgate cares for about 900 children aged 0 to 5 with about 260 staff. Group day nurseries in England follow the EYFS statutory framework and are inspected by Ofsted, so ratios, care records, funding and children's data all have rules behind them.
Ratios That Change by the Hour
Staff to child ratios differ by age band and staff qualifications, and the framework has changed in recent years. Children arrive and leave at different times and staff take breaks, so a paper register totted up once a morning could not show when a room went short.
Funded Hours Rebuilt Every Term
Funded childcare is paid through the local authority, some entitlements need an eligibility code that parents reconfirm periodically, and headcount returns are due each term. Parents cannot be charged for funded hours, and invoices often went out wrong once they were taken off.
Children's Data Needs Particular Care
Photos need parent consent per use, and a photo with other children in it can only be shared if every child tagged has the right consent. Health, allergy and safeguarding information is limited by role, and safeguarding concerns sit in a log only the DSL and deputies can open.
Records an Inspector May Ask For
Attendance, accidents, medicines and staff deployment must be quick to find when an inspector asks. Each of the 11 sites kept them on paper in its own way, so pulling them together took hours.
Our Approach: From Nursery Rules to a Clickable Console
Spec and Rules Research
Mapped 9 roles and 49 screens across the manager console, a practitioner tablet for each room, a parent app and public enquiry pages, and the data model for rooms, versioned ratio rules, children, collectors, consents, health records, bookings, attendance, care records, safeguarding concerns, funding, headcount returns and invoices. Wrote down the rules the design follows: the EYFS framework and key person, Ofsted's Early Years Register, Working Together to Safeguard Children, funded childcare, Tax-Free Childcare, UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Clickable Demo on a Production UI Kit
Built 5 key manager console screens on a production dashboard kit: the dashboard with KPIs, rooms right now, a 12-week occupancy chart, expected but not arrived and care follow-ups; the children list with filters and quick view; the child record with the one-month notice rule; rota and ratios with move staff and mark sick; and funded hours with check codes and reminders. Ratios, occupancy and the dashboard derive from the same bookings and rota, so the numbers agree. All actions run on local state.
What a Production Build Adds
GoCardless Direct Debit, Stripe card payments, the Xero bank feed for Tax-Free Childcare matching, Postmark email, Twilio SMS, push notifications, photo storage in the UK region, Microsoft Entra ID sign-in and file exports for the Bristol City Council provider portal. The practitioner tablet with PINs and offline registers, the parent app, the safeguarding log in a separate encrypted store, an append-only audit log, and the remaining console screens such as the waitlist, incidents, medication, billing runs and inspection records.
Why It Works: The Day's Numbers From One Source
Ratios Are Configuration, Not Code
Each ratio rule carries its version, its source and who confirmed it, so a framework change is a settings update rather than a code change. Required staff is worked out for every half hour from the rule, and warnings flag short slots, reliance on a student and slots with no paediatric first aider.
Every Screen Tells the Same Story
The dashboard, room tiles, rota timeline and occupancy chart are all computed from the same bookings, register and rota. A live ratio chip in the top bar turns amber when a room is at its limit, and moving a staff member or marking sickness recalculates every room.
Funding That Cannot Over-Claim
Funded hours per child are capped at the hours actually booked, each claim line is hours times weeks times the configured council rate, and code status shows valid, reconfirm due, grace period or invalid. The headcount deadline appears in Needs attention 14 days ahead.
Follow-Ups Surface on Their Own
Children booked with no check-in by 10:00 and no absence reported, accidents awaiting a parent's signature, medication doses due with a two-person check, allergy plans close to expiry and starters without a key person all appear on the dashboard and link to the child.
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Enterprise Software Engineering - Human + AI
Contact Us
Locations
Global Headquarters
21 Merchant Road, 3rd Floor, Singapore 058267
Main corporate office and leadership operations
North America Office
548 Market Street, PMB 12345, San Francisco, CA 94104
Client operations and business development
India Office
402 Shivalik Shilp II, SG Highway, Ahmedabad 380015
Engineering and delivery center
© 2026 - Copyright. All Rights reserved Oceanlab