Kids Allowed has worked in partnership with parents and staff to create an online space where they can interact and keep up to date with everything going on in the organisation.
It has been a big project and all parts were finally completed early this year with the launch of the parent section. This came after the success of the launch of the team section in late 2011.
The website is bright and colourful and divided up into the sections Home, About Kids Allowed, Our Centres, Easy Life Services, Booking, Parents Allowed, Team Area and Contact Us.
Customers are able to view the latest news on the home page, including the video blog of Kids Allowed chief executive officer Jennie Johnson, and do the usual things such as request a brochure, read the latest Ofsted report or book a place online. The organisation's Facebook pages are very well used and Kids Allowed plans to add a Twitter feed to the website.
The most visited page is the newsletters section. Every week a newsletter specific to each nursery goes out to the entire customer and team base. Meanwhile, a useful feature in the parent section is the list of the most popular and requested recipes. These recipes are now being accompanied by short videos of the nursery chefs preparing meals.
Plans to develop the website further include adding more personalised sections to the parent area for finding real-time updates about a child's day and their room. Kids Allowed will also develop the team area using feedback from users to enable colleagues to request holidays online and view their shifts and the rota for the following week.
It also aims to add much more video content, from fun activities the children enjoy to reviews of nursery equipment.
Highly commended
Footsteps Nursery and Pre-school, West Midlands
A review of how information is shared with parents led to the Footsteps website being refreshed earlier this year. The result is a well-designed website illustrating a strong brand and consistent approach. It also helps raise the profile of the early years sector by providing professionally-produced literature shared with parents on a day-to-day basis.
Officreche, Brighton
The website brings together a flexible multi-room timetable system, securely-stored member and child details, a blog and a payment system, plus general information. There is also an online booking system. The website was designed and tested with sleep-deprived parents in mind.
Finalists
Clever Clogs Day Nurseries, Brentwood, Essex
Kiddi Caru Day Nurseries, central and southern England
Kids Planet, north west England
Criterion
Open to early years providers (nurseries, schools, pre-schools and childminders) whose websites are informative, accessible and innovative.
