Highlights from Connect Childcare in 2024
Wow, can you believe we’re nearing the end of another year? 2024 has flown by, and what a busy, exciting time it’s been for the Connect Childcare team and the wider early years sector! We’ve shared so many incredible moments over the past 12 months, and we’re thrilled to reflect on the milestones we’ve reached together.
From innovative product updates to inspiring sector collaborations, here’s a look back at what we’ve achieved in 2024.
Product updates and developments
It’s been a fantastic year for product growth at Connect Childcare. With 44 software updates—a 19% increase from last year—we’ve been hard at work improving your experience and delivering new features you’ve been asking for.
Here are some highlights:
- Onboarding T&Cs for Enquiries and Onboarding: Streamlining the sign-up process for new families.
- A New Medication Event: Making medication tracking safer and more efficient.
- Advancements to Our Open API: Enabling smoother integrations with your favourite tools.
- The “Published Events” Report: Giving nurseries better visibility and control over key activities.
We’re always listening to your feedback and looking for ways to simplify nursery management. 2025 is shaping up to be another exciting year as we build on these updates and introduce even more helpful features.
Supporting the early years community
At Connect Childcare, we’re passionate about helping early years professionals thrive in their roles. Here are some of the ways we’ve supported the sector in 2024:
- Blogs: We’re proud to have published a whopping 143 blogs on our website this year—that’s an average of 3.4 articles per week! Each blog is carefully crafted to offer guidance, inspiration, and support to early years professionals.
- Webinars: We hosted six expert-led webinars with early years professionals like June O’Sullivan, Jamie Victoria, and Alison Featherbe. Your wonderful feedback has inspired us to plan even more for 2025.
- Connect in the Community: Our very own Santa Carl has been out and about once again this year, spreading festive cheer at nurseries in our local area. From handing out gifts and sharing cookies to reading stories and singing Christmas songs, he’s brought plenty of smiles and Christmas magic.
- Training: We provided hands-on training to 572 settings, helping hundreds of nurseries get the most out of our software.
- ParentZone Growth: We hit an incredible milestone—236,000 weekly ParentZone users! More families than ever are connecting with their children’s learning journeys, and nurseries are strengthening their partnerships with parents.
It’s all about making life easier for early years professionals and helping nurseries build stronger connections with families. Your feedback is invaluable, and we’re working on exciting updates for our parent app in the coming year.
Showing appreciation to our loyal customers
We love finding ways to thank our customers for their support. This year, we updated our customer referral scheme to make it even better:
- Recommend Connect Childcare to a friend in the early years community.
- When they book a demo and become a customer, you’ll receive a £50 Amazon voucher as a thank-you.
- If they manage multiple sites, you could earn up to £100!
It’s our way of showing our gratitude for helping spread the word about Connect Childcare.
A commitment to supporting our customers
Big improvements are on the way for our helpdesk! Behind the scenes, we’ve been hard at work creating brand-new content, updating helpful videos, and giving the entire platform a fresh, modern look.
These updates are designed to make it even easier for our customers to find the answers and support they need. We’re excited to launch the new and improved helpdesk in the new year—keep an eye out for it coming soon!
While we’re on the topic of customer support, a big shout-out goes to our incredible customer support team. They’ve truly embodied our ethos—big enough to deliver, small enough to care. This year, they’ve gone above and beyond, achieving an outstanding 95.1% CSAT rating and resolving over 13,000 support tickets.
We’re dedicated to providing you with the help you need, whenever you need it!
Launching the ABC of Nursery Management Guide
We were thrilled to release a brand-new edition of our ABC of Nursery Management Guide this year, building on the success of our 2022 version.
This practical, ad-free guide is packed with nearly 80 pages of tips and advice for nursery managers, including:
- Expert Insights: Covering everything from A to Z of nursery management.
- Actionable Advice: From familiar names and new voices in the sector.
- Additional Resources: Links to further tools for ongoing development.
We hope this guide inspires and empowers nursery managers across the UK—it’s designed to be your go-to resource.
Shining a light on early years staff wellbeing
Staff wellbeing has never been more important, which is why we launched ‘A Look into Early Years Staff Wellbeing’—a detailed report exploring the latest trends in mental health and workplace wellbeing within the sector.
This report provides valuable insights into how early years professionals feel about workplace support and shares practical steps to create a more positive and inclusive environment for nursery teams.
It’s all part of our commitment to supporting not just the nurseries we work with, but the incredible people who make this sector so special.
The return of the nursery managers quiz
Do you remember our Nursery Managers Quiz from 2020? This year, we brought it back—bigger and better than ever!
Being a nursery manager involves juggling so many responsibilities, and this quiz is a light-hearted way to celebrate your strengths. It’s designed to help you uncover your management style and perhaps even learn a few tips for leading your team more effectively.
It’s just for fun, but who knows? It might just spark some fresh ideas to take your nursery to the next level.
Here’s to an exciting 2025!
As we look back on an amazing 2024, we want to thank our customers and everyone in the early years sector. Your hard work, passion, and dedication inspire everything we do at Connect Childcare.
We’re already looking forward to what’s next! Stay tuned for even more exciting developments in 2025—we’ve got big plans in store.
Download our FREE wellbeing report!
Use the button below to download our free report or rewatch our latest webinar featuring The Childcare Guru!
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About the Author
Content Marketing Executive at Connect Childcare