Places and the waiting list
Which rooms have space and from when, as you keep it updated, and a waiting list place with the start date, days and sessions the family wants. Offering a place stays with the manager.
AI chatbots for nurseries and childcare centres.
A chatbot on your nursery's website that answers parents' questions about places, fees and sessions, books tours and adds families to the waiting list. It asks as little about each child as it can.
Discuss your chatbot
What parents ask before they visit.
Do you have a place from September, how much is a full day, do you take the funded hours, what do the children eat, can we look round and how does settling in work. Some parents start looking before the baby is born. Your manager answers these between room checks and staff cover. The chatbot answers from your fees, sessions and policies, and books the tour.
What parents ask a nursery, in their own words.
Most come before the first visit. The last group is about one child, and a person answers it.
Places and starting
- Can I put my baby on the list before she's born?
- Do you have anything for 3 days a week from January?
- What age do you take them from?
- How do I find out where I am on the waiting list?
- Can twins start on the same day?
- Do siblings get priority?
Fees and funding
- How much is a full day compared to a morning?
- Do you take the 30 hours?
- Can I pay with Tax-Free Childcare?
- Do you accept state childcare subsidy?
- Is there a registration fee or deposit?
- Do I still pay when we're on holiday?
A normal day
- Do you cook meals on site?
- Do I need to bring nappies and wipes?
- How often do they go outside?
- Will I get photos of what she did during the day?
- What time is the latest pick-up?
- What did your last Ofsted report say?
Questions about my child
- He's not walking yet at 14 months, is that a problem?
- She has a severe nut allergy, can you cope with that?
- Can you give him his inhaler?
- My son might be autistic, will you have support for him?
- My ex isn't allowed to collect her, how do you handle that?
What the chatbot handles.
What it may say is written down before we build.
Tours and show-rounds
It books a visit at the times you set, or takes a request for the manager to confirm, and sends directions, parking and what to expect on the day.
Fees, sessions and funded hours
Day and session prices, what is included, such as meals and nappies, and how funded hours or childcare schemes work at your nursery, in the words of your own fee policy.
Settling in
How settling-in sessions work, what to bring, how the key person system works and drop-off and collection times, from the pack you give new families.
Holiday clubs and wraparound care
If you run a breakfast club, after-school care or holiday clubs, it gives dates, times, ages and prices from your timetable, and takes bookings or waiting list places the same way as for the nursery rooms.
Changing days or sessions
Current families asking to add a day, drop a session or move up a room are told your notice period and how changes are charged. The request goes to the manager, who checks ratios and the room diary before agreeing anything.
Jobs and student placements
People looking for work or a student placement write in too. The chatbot gives your vacancies page and how to apply, and keeps those messages out of the inbox where parent enquiries arrive.
An example conversation.
Monday, 9.50pm. A parent going back to work in September wants a place for a baby who will be 11 months old by then, and has questions about funded hours and an allergy.
What your team gets. The manager has a Thursday tour and a waiting list entry: baby room, three days a week from September, month and year of birth only, and a note to talk about a dairy allergy on the tour. No health details were taken in the chat.
- Visitor: Hi, do you have a place in the baby room from September? Three days a week.
- Chatbot: The baby room is full for September at the moment. I can add you to the waiting list for three days a week, and the manager offers places in the order set out in our admissions policy. Would you like to visit first?
- Visitor: Yes please. Do you take the 30 hours?
- Chatbot: We take government-funded hours for children who are eligible, and our fees page explains how they work here and what is included. You can check whether your family qualifies on the government's childcare website.
- Visitor: Great. She has a dairy allergy, is that OK?
- Chatbot: Our team looks after children with allergies, but I can't tell you how we would manage hers. The manager will go through it with you on the tour, and the details go on the health form you fill in if a place is offered, not in this chat.
- Visitor: Makes sense. Can I come on a Thursday morning?
- Chatbot: Thursday at 10am is free for a tour. Shall I book it?
- Visitor: Yes, please.
- Chatbot: I just need your name and phone number in the form below, plus your daughter's month and year of birth. Her first name is optional.
- Visitor: Done.
- Chatbot: Your tour is booked for Thursday at 10am, and you are on the waiting list for three days a week from September. The manager will text to confirm and send directions.
Where it stops.
It does not comment on a child's development, health or behaviour, and it does not offer or promise a place. Questions about a particular child go to the manager or the child's key person. Anything that sounds like a safeguarding concern goes to your designated lead at once.
What it will not do
- It never promises a place, a room or a start date before the manager has offered one.
- It never confirms to anyone whether a child attends the nursery, even to a relative.
- It never asks for a child's full date of birth, health details, photos or home address.
- It never decides, or guesses, whether a family can get funded hours or a subsidy.
- It never comments on a child's development, sleep, eating or behaviour, even when a parent asks for reassurance.
- It never gives out a member of staff's surname, phone number or social media.
When a person takes over
- Anything that suggests a child may be at risk goes to your designated safeguarding lead at once, with the conversation attached.
- A parent who mentions a court order, or someone who must not collect their child, is passed to the manager straight away.
- A parent upset about an accident or an injury at nursery goes to the manager, who calls them back.
- Questions about additional needs or support go to your SENCo or inclusion lead, who replies to the parent directly.
- A social worker, health visitor or other professional asking about a family is told nothing, and the manager gets the message.
After the conversation.
Each enquiry reaches the manager with the start date and sessions filled in.
Into your nursery software
Tour bookings and waiting list places go straight into your nursery software if its API permits, and to the manager's inbox if not.
Follow-ups
Tour reminders, a thank-you afterwards with your registration link, and a check that families on the waiting list still want their place.
Automation that pairs with it.
The admin from a parent's first message to a child's first settling-in session, run from your nursery software where its API allows.
Waiting list check-ins
At the interval you choose, families on the waiting list are asked whether they still want a place and whether their start date or days have changed. Families who do not reply are listed for the manager before anyone loses their place.
After the tour
The parent gets a thank-you with your registration form and fee policy. If nothing comes back by the date you set, one reminder goes out, and then the enquiry is closed politely.
Funding code reminders
In England, parents with funded hours must sign in to their childcare account every three months to confirm their details. Families get a reminder before each date you record, so the check is not missed.
Paperwork before settling in
Once a place is accepted, the family gets your registration pack, health and consent forms and the settling-in dates, with reminders until each form is back. Forms go through your nursery software or form tool, never the chat.
Invoices and reminders
Invoices leave your nursery software each month on your chosen date, and an unpaid one gets a single reminder. Questions about funded and paid hours on an invoice go to the manager, with the invoice attached.
What we need from you.
Your parent handbook and fee policy hold most of this. The safeguarding route needs your designated lead to agree it.
Rooms, ages and sessions
Your rooms by age, the sessions and days you offer, opening hours and which rooms have space and from when. A list or an export from your nursery software works, and one person keeps it current.
Fee and funding policy
Day and session prices, what is included, registration fees, deposits, notice periods and how funded hours or childcare schemes work at your nursery, as written in your fee policy.
Waiting list and admissions rules
How you order the waiting list, whether siblings or staff children get priority, how places are offered and how long families have to accept one.
Policies parents ask about
Your illness, allergy, collection, sleep and food policies, and the parent handbook. The chatbot quotes them, links to the full document and adds nothing of its own.
Who handles what
Your manager, deputy, designated safeguarding lead and SENCo, the way each prefers to hear about things and who covers when they are away. Safeguarding needs a named person and a backup.
Nursery software
Your nursery software, such as Famly, Brightwheel or Procare, and who manages it. Whether tours and waiting list entries can be written straight into it depends on its API, which we look at before the build.
Recent parent enquiries
Enquiry emails and messages from the last few months with names, children's details and dates taken out. They are the questions we try the chatbot on before launch.
If the website needs work too.
Parents shortlist nurseries from their websites before they book a visit, and the chatbot reads the same pages. The basics are in what a small business website needs.
A page for each room
Each room or age group with its daily routine, meals, sleep, outdoor time and what parents bring. Parents want to picture their child's day before they visit.
Fees and funding
Session and day prices, what is included and how funded hours or schemes such as Tax-Free Childcare work with you. A clear page saves the manager the same call every week.
Registration and inspection
Your registration details and a link to your latest inspection report, such as Ofsted in England, or your state licence in the US. Parents look for this, so put it where they can find it.
Tour booking
Tour and show-round times, directions and parking on one page, with real free slots shown where your nursery software allows it.
A waiting list form that says how the list works
The form asks for the parent's details, the child's month and year of birth or due date, the start date and sessions. The confirmation explains how your list is ordered and when families are contacted.
Your staff
The manager and room leaders with real photos, qualifications and how long they have been with you, if they agree. A parent touring a baby room is looking at the people as much as the room.
Real photos of the rooms and garden
Photos of your rooms, garden and food, taken without children's faces unless parents have agreed in writing. Parents notice when the photos are not of your nursery.
What a nursery chatbot asks about a child.
A nursery enquiry is about someone who cannot speak for themselves. The chatbot asks the parent for their name and a phone number or email, and about the child only for what a tour or waiting list needs: the month and year of birth or due date, the start date and the sessions. A first name is optional. Health, allergies, development and family circumstances are left for your registration forms.
When parents are separated, it takes details from the parent who writes and asks nothing about the other parent. It never tells either parent that the other has been in touch, and anything about who may collect the child goes to the manager.
Under the GDPR, a waiting list is personal data like any other, so it needs a retention period. Entries for families who never take a place are deleted on the schedule you set, and the conversations are open only to the staff you choose.
Questions we hear.
Can the chatbot offer a place?
No. It says which rooms have space, as you keep it updated, and adds families to the waiting list. Offering a place, and agreeing the start date, stays with your manager.
What does it ask about the child?
Only what a tour or waiting list place needs: the month and year of birth or the due date, the start date and the sessions wanted. A first name is optional.
Can it explain funded hours?
It explains how funded hours work at your nursery, in your own wording, and links to the official government page. Whether a family is eligible is for the parent to check there.
Can parents tell you through it that their child is ill?
It points current families to the way you already take absences, such as your parent app or phone line. If they write in the chat anyway, the message goes to the manager straight away.
What stops it promising places we do not have?
It answers availability only from the room list you keep up to date, in your wording, such as "space from January in the toddler room". When the list says full, it offers the waiting list and a tour. It never offers a place itself.
Can it tell parents where they are on the waiting list?
Only through your parent app or portal, where parents log in, if your software shows it. In the chat, anyone could be typing, so it explains how the list is ordered and passes the question to the manager.
Does it work for childminders?
Yes. Childminders get the same questions about places, hours, food and fees, usually while caring for children. The chatbot answers those in your words and books visits for after the children have gone home.
What if a parent asks about our inspection report?
It links to your latest report on the inspector's website and gives its date, without summarising or defending the findings. If a parent wants to talk about it, the manager calls them.
Will it send parents photos or updates during the day?
No. Photos, daily notes and sleep or nappy records belong in your parent app, where only that child's parents can see them. The chatbot points current families there and handles nothing about a child's day.
Can parents book settling-in sessions through it?
Only once a place is accepted. Then the settling-in dates the manager sets go out with the registration pack, and requests to move one go to the room leader. Before a place is offered, settling in is explained but not booked.
More for nurseries and childcare.
Solutions
- Booking chatbotTakes booking requests on your website, even after closing time.
- Enquiry follow-up automationRoutes every enquiry and chases the ones nobody answered.
Guides
- Auto-replies for new enquiries, with messages to copyInstant replies for forms, email, Instagram and quotes, each with a reply time you keep.
- How to run a cancellation list that fills empty slotsWho goes on it, who gets the slot, the offer text, how long to hold it, and the tools.
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The services behind it.
Send us your parent pack.
Add your room list and a few questions parents asked on recent tours. The consultation is free, over Google Meet, a voice call or text.