What is tiney's guardian joining fee?
As an Ofsted registered agency, tiney is responsible for maintaining the ongoing quality assurance and compliance checks for your childminder, as well as providing added value and services to families like yours. When you sign up with a tiney registered childminder you pay a one-time joining fee of £59, which goes direct to tiney.
The joining fee covers our essential set up costs and administration, including our team's time spent on registering families, establishing contracts, liaising with different payment schemes and local authorities, allowing us to enrol your family with tiney. It also entitles you to access our customer support and unlocks our services and benefits - including the tiney app.
If you have more than one child enrolled at a tiney home, you will only pay the joining fee once. Please note that the tiney joining fee is separate from any settling in or other childcare charges you may have arranged with your childminder.
What benefits do I get when I choose tiney?
Our welcome pack full of useful information about how tiney works, what you can expect from your childminder and how to use the tiney app
Invaluable tiney rewards for families, including free online GP appointments for you and your family (including prescribing services*), as well as free financial, SEND, legal, and counselling phone services
Access to the tiney app where you’ll be able to easily manage and pay for your childcare
Ongoing payments support from our team - including help with all tax-free childcare and funded hours schemes
Access to tiney’s education tools, including an online journal where you can keep up to date with your child’s progress and our library of at-home ‘tiney tips’ to inspire great learning opportunities in your own home
A full export of your child’s learning journal at the end of your enrolment, giving you a record of their development milestones and special moments
Exclusive discounts with our partners at Stella, Play Makes Sense, Child’s Play, Farewill, Noala and others
Access to our parent webinar series with tiney’s education team and free downloads such as our tiney sustainability and anti-racism guides
Our parent phone line and messaging service for any queries you may have
*Depending on circumstances some fees may apply on certain prescription types
Which contract types are exempt from the joining fee?
The first 2 families to sign their contract will be exempt from the joining fee
Any wraparound care only contracts (meaning care before and/or after school for school-age children)
Contracts utilising the local authority-funded for 2 year olds with families on additional support (sometimes known as the 15 "free" hours for two-year-olds - this is not the same as funding for working families*).
Contracts utilising local authority funding with no additional fees to the guardian**
Emergency care contracts
Short term contracts for care lasting less than 60 days
Sibling contracts (for new or existing children). Parents of siblings will only pay to join once.
* Contracts using funding for children of working parents (defined as earning over minimum wage and under £100k/yr) will not have the joining fee waived, unless they meet any of the other criteria.
**Contracts using local authority funding may include subsistence fees or fees for hours of care used in addition to the funded hours. The joining fee will not be waived on these, unless they meet any of the other criteria above.
Your childminder will let us know if your contract falls into one of the above categories and your parent registration process will skip the fee-paying stage.
When do I have to pay?
If your contract does not fall under one of the above categories, you will be asked to pay the tiney joining fee as part of your contract signing process.
As soon as your provider has signed a draft contract at their end, it will be sent to you by email - at which point you will be taken through our onboarding steps. You will be asked for some important information about your child, as well as how you intend to pay for the childcare. Finally, you will be shown a summary of the contract and then you will be able to pay your fee by debit or credit card (note that this is separate to however you intend to pay for the childcare itself). When you have paid successfully, you'll then be able to sign the contract and care can begin!
