Setting Carers Free – What Parent Does for You

Strange Time for Daycare

If you were to ask us what life has been like since 2019; we’d tell you it’s been (cautiously) productive, if a bit impersonal. Literally overnight, the world woke up to the uncanny realization that life, whether we liked it or not, was going to change.

For some of us, like the writer of this fun little piece; online streaming became an actual lifestyle, socializing turned into luxury and the outside world might as well have been deep space.

If you were, however, a typically busy child care owner or educator; things got a lot more complicated. The world might have slowed down, but to us, that’s no excuse for missing out on the joys of guiding children along their crucial early years learning journey.

Luckily, we were ahead of the curve. Whether it was lucky foresight on our part, or a genuine dedication to giving childcare staff the life they deserve; it became time for Parent.

Parent? Like An Actual Person?

In a sense, but no.

Way back in the gentler year of 2015, we saw a strange gap in child care management. To cut it short: there were plenty of software and tech solutions, but they didn’t really solve enough problems. Childcare is an exceptionally involved and human undertaking, one that necessitates a healthy amount of communication, education, passion, excitement, and most of all, presence.

Being parents, educators, and generally caring people ourselves, we saw the need for an ecosystem that grows alongside you and your children, not just a system to keep track of attendance. We created Parent, a cloud-based child care management solution, with a clear and powerful purpose: to set carers free. Free from the sea of paperwork, repetitive tasks, and office upkeep that keeps them from doing what they do best: be with the children, and to see that they have the necessary foundation to grow into happy, healthy adults.

Why Should You Care?

Short answer: because we care.

Longer answer: because we tailor every single feature and functionality to the needs and wants of today’s early childhood education centers. All while guaranteeing safety and efficiency in a time of uncertainty.

Parent is a growing ecosystem with the simple purpose of letting you focus more on the kids, and less on everything else. Rich communication tools; robust HR and staff management tools; comprehensive reporting and surveying tools; streamlined room management and painless, paperless payment are only some of what Parent has in store for every childcare center looking to make life easier.

Better Communication

If you want life to be easier and more productive for everybody involved; you’ll want to make sure that parents know their children are happy, healthy, and getting the care they deserve.

Parent has a powerful collection of communication tools that help keep everyone in the loop of what’s going on at daycare, anytime and anywhere.

Dashboard – A fun and interactive overview of everything you need to know, Parent’s Dashboard increases engagement and operations efficiency, allowing admins to manage each room and group easily, as well as add statuses; manage check-ins and check-outs; view individual profiles; add posts with media; send messages and more.

Instant Messaging – Why wait till they’re home to see how they’re doing? With Parent, all users can seamlessly get in touch with each other using our Instant Messaging system. Owners, educators, staff, and parents can easily communicate with each other to find out the latest happenings, be informed of any changes or incidents, and stay safely closer to the ones that matter most. Parents also have the option of disabling parent-to-parent communication should they choose to.

GDPR Compliance – We aren’t just concerned about the children; we also care about your safety. Parent is GDPR compliant, meaning that all live instant messaging is secured by data encryption. All data shared on Parent adheres to GDPR guidelines.

News and Updates – Stay updated on your child’s activities as well as news related to their childcare center with Parent’s Newsfeed. Users can comment and react to content such as observations, assessments, scheduled events, holiday feedback notes, inspirations, closing days, and more. See what we mean by a child care ecosystem? Parent is dynamic in everything it does.

Zoom Integration – Parent is all about convenience and ease. You can arrange meetings and conferences with your staff or between teachers, parents, and children in a click with full Zoom integration so that you can easily connect with the right people at the right time, all the time.

Better Planning

The most crucial aspect of any business is its ability to plan ahead as well as handle on-the-go demands. Child care is no different, and for educators to actually educate; they need better tools for their trade.

Parent’s rich ecosystem of growing features is all about making life easier for everybody. Whether it’s scheduling, reporting, documentation or meal plans; Parent has it covered, so that you can cover what matters most.

Daily Reports – At the end of each day, Parent sends you a detailed report of your child’s daily activities, meals, nap times, bathroom visits and mood with a detailed report. Stay informed of pick-up and drop-off times, trips, and check-in information at all times with Parent.

Incident Reporting – When an accident happens while your child is at daycare, you’d naturally want to know. Using Parent’s Ouch status on the Dashboard, an admin or teacher can report a description of the accident and link it to a child’s profile, so you get updated immediately if an incident occurs at the nursery.

Holiday Feedback – Save time on redundant tasks with Parent’s Holiday Feedback feature. Set periodic feedback reminders for parents to respond to their child’s attendance during the year’s holidays. Parents will periodically be notified before the holiday to reply, allowing them to choose the days their child will attend, set drop off and pick up times, and add custom comments pertaining to their child or specific availability for pickup and drop off.

Document Center – Paper has to go, but your information has to stay safe and available at all times. Parent makes documentation a breeze with its innovative Document Center, allowing users to upload, organize and share important documents with staff and other stakeholders.

Food Plan by Apetito – Always stay up to date with your little one’s nutrition and get updates on their daily and weekly menu, lovingly and professionally prepared by Apetito. Staff can create meal plans and plan ahead more efficiently while you stay updated every step of the way.

Calendar – Access the calendar to get an overview of scheduled items like events, holidays, closing days, meal planning, and more. When enabled, you can enter your child’s attendance, check their meal plans, events, and their weekly schedules.

Better Quality

The main reason behind why we want to set carers free is so that they can pour all of their creative energy into the children. With Parent’s evolving child development features, educators can continuously focus on spending quality time with the young ones.

Child Development – Track child development and growth with the observations feature. Choose from a wide array of curriculums in order to track each individual child’s progress and keep parents up to date on their child’s day-to-day improvements. Create easy print-outs of each child’s journey for future reference and later education phases.
Curriculums – Enjoy a range of diverse early childhood curriculums with Parent with constantly updated materials and information. Parent offers multiple curriculums including EYO, ELDA, ELECT, HDLH, LPFO, ECEC, EYFS 2021, and FPKG. Each curriculum includes its own set of development criteria that Parent streamlines for consistent observation, assessment, and future checking.
Inspirations Library – Diversify your center’s activities with Parent’s Inspirations Library module, allowing educators to gain inspiration from each other’s approach to an activity, share experiences with and apply comments for more varied activities.

Better Financials

Finances are already a chore on their own, and if there’s ever a chance to make that trouble go away; we’re always on it. Parent’s billing and invoicing features let your child care function seamlessly without having to spend too much time manually calculating every little detail.

Product Management – Create individual attendance plans and manage all sessions, items, charges, and packages on one screen. Include extra supplementary info such as tax types, discount types, and pricing groups.

Customize Packages – Easily manage individual child payment plans with Parent’s Customize Packages feature. Create individual child plans with custom durations, pricing, taxes, and discounts. Respond to inquiries and waitlists per your center’s availability. Make ad-hoc additions, receive and review requests for sessions & purchases, set up sessions, and schedule billing changes in minutes.

Schedule Periodic Plans – Eliminate the hassle and human error with Parent’s Schedule Periodic Plans feature, allowing authorized users to create daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual plans for each child; schedule due dates and automate charges for different fees;  Send invoices to beneficiaries in one go and send regular automated reminders for payments in-app or via mail

Apply for Subsidies – Subsidies allow admins to add subsidy related inputs manually, or create an algorithm for automatic calculation. They can easily separate individual funding requests and the necessary resources per child, and get a quick overview of pending, paid, or sent invoices.

That’s a Lot

Indeed it is, but there’s so much more that Parent does for childcare centers all over the world. No matter what might be going on in the universe, and no matter how it pans out for us all; kids shouldn’t have to worry about anything but growing.

We’re all sons and daughters before we became parents. We know how much a child’s early years mean in the grand scheme of their life, and we want to give everyone involved the best possible experience. Parent is here to set carers free, and we’re fully ready to show you what we can do.

Parent is available on Google Play and  App Store for smartphones, tablets, and online via our portal.