Employing or working with a family member or friend as a voluntary or self employed tiney assistant enables you to increase the number of children in your tiney home, and therefore your revenue, and it also provides you with a valuable extra pair of hands.

You can offer more varied activities, go on group outings or offer multiple school pick ups. For some tiney home leaders an assistant will simply offer extra cover on rainy afternoons, meaning you can leave smaller children at home while you do the school run!

All tiney assistants must be 17 years old or over.

You need to let us know before your assistant starts work with you. To begin the process of registering an assistant, you must always initially send over the following details:

You can do this by selecting 'i need help registering an assistant' - ‘i have found an assistant’ through the bot messenger in the app, or directly sending the above details of your applicant to our dedicated inbox at assistants@tiney.co.

Please note that without these details sent over, the team may not have received your application for your assistant and this record will not have been created.

Your assistant should not begin working at your setting until all of their background checks have been returned, training has been completed by your assistant and you have been issued with their official letter of registration by tiney.

The time it takes to go through the process of registering an assistant can take up to, and in some cases longer than, a few months on average, please note that this is solely dependent on checks and training; this does vary, however once these have been cleared we will be able to fully register your assistant.

Before you work with a tiney assistant, it’s important to know what’s expected of you and your tiney assistant.

Whether your tiney assistant is there to support meal times and school runs or takes on bigger Key Person responsibilities for a small group of children, you must first register them with tiney.

Registering a tiney assistant is simple. All tiney assistants working in tiney homes must complete a series of checks and training before starting work.

You need to contact the team via the tiney app with the assistants details (as listed above)

We will then add them as a 'new household member' in your tiney app. Even though they are not a new household member, this form would need to be filled out, as this is what allows us to collect their address history and consent to perform required background checks. When filling in this form, please select 'Assistant' as the relation to yourself, regardless of the individual's relationship to yourself.

Along with providing the above details for background checks, you will also need to apply for a DBS check for your assistant. This application is done separately of the information you provide above, so please follow the instructions below to complete this application.

Each DBS Check costs £44 per assistant, you will be asked for payment at the end of the process.

As a Childminder Agency, we have a duty to make sure that all the children in your care are safe and protected. We are legally required to run a criminal background check on all people aged 16 and over who will regularly be in your home nursery. This makes sure we've done our due diligence and keeps the children in your care safe.

In order for tiney to accept an existing DBS Certificate, it must be an Enhanced Child Workforce DBS that either was issued within the last three months or is currently registered with the DBS Update Service. If the DBS is on the Update Service, a copy of the physical DBS must also be sent through to us, with consent from your assistant so that we can check this against the DBS Update Service, or we would not be able to accept this. Please note that if the existing DBS certificate was applied for through tiney and dated within the last year, this should be fine to accept. If your assistant has a DBS in place, then please do send us through a copy.

Each assistant should have the following details ready to enter into the portal

During the DBS check process you will be asked to upload photos of multiple documents that provide your identity. Valid documents include:

When taking photos of the documents, please make sure you submit clear photos with good lighting. If we can cannot see the documents clearly, you may need to resubmit.

Your assistant will need to complete the DBS portal.

Your on-boarding assistants must have passed all required checks and will not be registered as an assistant until all of these checks have been cleared. We must ensure that all required checks have been sent back to tiney before your on-boarding assistant can start working at your setting at all.

There can often be delays with these checks, and the time these take to be sent back to us does really vary from local authority to local authority. Unfortunately the time these take to come back to tiney is completely out of our hands, and local authority checks can sometimes take up to months to be returned, however we can assure you that we absolutely do all that we can to get these sent back to us.

All tiney assistants must complete safeguarding and paediatric first aid training.

You are responsible for providing your tiney assistant with additional training to ensure they’re familiar with your policies and procedures.

This is the full 12 hour paediatric first aid course. If your assistant has completed this course within the last 12 months then please forward a copy of their certificate to us - they may not need to do the training again. The course is made up of 6 hours online training and 6 hours in-person.

Tigerlily is the provider we use for first aid courses. Please use the link below to find a location, date and time for the course.

https://tigerlilytraining.co.uk/first-aid-courses/full-paediatric-first-aid-blended/

Once you have found the best date and time for your assistant, you or your assistant can purchase a voucher code from the tiney shop for a discounted price for First Aid Training with Tigerlily.
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Once completed, please send your assistant's first aid certificate through the app or to our dedicated inbox at assistants@tiney.co.

Here is the safeguarding workbook, which is to be manually completed.

We’ll send you an official letter as confirmation of the successful registration of your tiney assistant once all their background checks, DBS and training are complete. When this has been received they will be able to be left alone with the children for up to 2 hours. You'll need to keep a copy of the letter on your files

Before you register a tiney assistant, you must be confident they are competent in the areas of work they undertake. If they’re taking on Key Person responsibilities, you’ll need to find out about their interests and experience in childcare beforehand. Your tiney assistant must also have sufficient understanding and use of English to ensure the well-being of children in your tiney home - for example they must be able to keep records in English and summon emergency help.

Whilst we offer training for your tiney assistant in safeguarding and first aid, you’re responsible for ensuring they are familiar with your policies and procedures, including giving them training in your tiney home’s safeguarding policy and risk assessments.

Remember that if you are paying your assistant, it is a legal requirement to pay them at least minimum wage.

You’ll need a policy for working with tiney assistants and this may be checked at your annual inspection visit.

Should you become aware of a change in your tiney assistant’s circumstances, it’s your responsibility to inform us and we’ll review their registration. Similarly, if a tiney assistant leaves your setting, you need to let us know.

[ ] Assistant details sent to tiney

[ ] Assistant details input in to the app

[ ] DBS application submitted

[ ] DBS certificate sent back to tiney once received

[ ] First aid online complete

[ ] First aid in-person booked and completed

[ ] Safeguarding workbook completed and returned to tiney

Please make sure that all documents are sent back via the assistants@tiney.co email address to enable us to easily track the status of the application.

Want to find out more? You can watch this webinar recording of a session led by Sam Beech, a tiney home leader, on working with an assistant and how she does it!
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