It has been an exciting year at tiney - and in early years! As 2024 comes to a close we wanted to share our year in numbers, and an end of year message for our tiney community. Check out the numbers below, and read on for the story behind them!
It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a little over a year since the new increase in funded hours for early years has been announced as the largest change in early years funding in a generation. The Department for Education (DfE) estimates that, as a result of these changes, by autumn 2025, around 70,000 new childcare places will be needed.
Since the election, I’ve been really pleased to see the new government continue with this funding increase and to push early years as one of their top priorities, especially with their mission to ensure every child has the “Best Start in Life”.
This fits with growing research on children’s brain development during their “First 1000 Days” showing that there is more neurological development during these three years than during the rest of their lives combined.
Our tiney childminders are absolutely crucial to this mission. Thank you to all of you! The leadership you show in your joyous and safe environments has already helped over 12,843 children develop in ways that set them up for a great start in life and in education. On behalf of your parents and guardians but ultimately on behalf of the children you help, we are hugely grateful for your amazing work this year!!
2024 was yet another year when Ofsted Childminder numbers continue to tumble at an alarming rate, yet tiney continued to grow. We are very grateful to now be the most popular and largest Childminder Agency in the country and to have onboarded about 40% of all new childminders in England over the past 12 months. On childcare spaces alone, tiney is now the fourth largest provider of childcare in the country with over 7,415 childcare spaces - the equivalent of about 300 reception classes (with 467 reception classes filled in total since we started tiney in 2019!)!
While 2024 was a time of huge change in early years, we were pleased at tiney to get a very positive Ofsted inspection that showcased our work supporting our community.
However, we are well aware that there’s still much more to do. All of our elves (well our product, community and ops teams) will continue to spend 2025 working with our current community and trainees to roll out more features of our app and wider support to enable you to run the most successful childminding businesses possible.
Even with all of the thousands of children we are caring for, as tiney grows, the most important results for me are the individual stories of children receiving a brilliant early education as part of the movement of tiney educators. This year, I have been lucky to meet many of you and the children and see the wonderful activities that you are leading day in and day out. Thank you for all of your energy and commitment to the children constantly relying on you.
Have a wonderful New Year ahead!
If you'd like to be a part of next years numbers, then you can find out how to become a childminder with us by booking a call, or find a place for your own child by looking for care in your area.
