Terms and conditions

These terms cover two things: using this website, and a plain-English summary of how our bookings work. They are set by Charlotte Pennington trading as Happy Little Guests (“we”, “us” or “our”), a sole trader based in Redditch, Worcestershire.

• You may use this website to find out about our services, get a quote and manage your booking. Please do not misuse it: do not try to get into areas you are not authorised to use, interfere with how it works, or upload anything harmful.
• The staff area is only for our carers and administrators.
• The links we email you for your booking agreement, questionnaire and child registration are private. Please share only the registration link, and only with the families of children coming to your event.
• The words, photos, logo and design of this website belong to us or are used with permission. You may view and print pages for your own use, but please ask before copying or reusing them.
• We work to keep the website accurate and available, but we cannot promise it will always be free of errors or interruptions. Prices and information can change; the price that applies to you is the one in your confirmed booking.
• If we link to other websites, we are not responsible for their content.

The calculator on our home page gives an instant estimate from the hours, the number and ages of children and the venue postcode you enter. Travel is estimated from the postcode as a road distance from our base, so we check it in your written quote. It is an estimate only, not a booking, until Charlotte has spoken to you and confirmed it. Our current prices are:

Short & sweet

£450 for 4 hours with 2 carers.

Full event

£700 for up to 6 hours with 2 carers.

Extra hours

£110 per hour after 6 hours for the 2 carers, plus £40 per hour for each additional carer.

Extra carers

When the number of children needs more than 2 carers to keep to the ratios: £170 per extra carer on a Short & sweet booking, or £250 on a Full event.

Under 2s

Babies are cared for at one carer to every 3 under 2s, and a carer looking after a baby never has more than 3 children in all. Your two included carers cover them when that works for your numbers. If it does not, we add a carer at the extra carer rate.

Travel

Included up to 20 miles from our base. Beyond that, £1 per mile each way, estimated from the venue postcode.

VAT

We are not VAT registered, so there is no VAT.

Once Charlotte confirms your booking, the price in your booking agreement is fixed unless the booking changes (see section 8).

1. You get a quote and send us your enquiry. We email you a copy with your reference. Nothing is booked yet and there is nothing to pay.
2. Charlotte contacts you, usually within 2 working days, to talk through the details and check availability.
3. When everything is agreed, Charlotte confirms the booking and we email you the booking agreement and your first invoice.
4. You read and sign the booking agreement online. It is the contract between us and takes precedence over this page.
5. Paying the deposit holds your date. Once it arrives, we send you a short questionnaire about your day and a link for parents to register each child.

The booking agreement is in English. Before you sign, check the details in it; if anything is wrong, do not sign, just reply to our email and we will correct it first. Once you sign, we keep a copy and email you a signed PDF, and you can reopen the agreement from your link at any time.

Where the exemption from Ofsted registration needs it, we give Ofsted at least 14 clear days' notice of the event in writing. If you book with less notice than that, your crèche can only run for 4 hours on the day. That is a legal limit we cannot extend.

• Deposit: 25% of the total, due within 7 days of signing the booking agreement. Paying it holds your date.
• Balance: due 28 days before the event.
• If you book less than 28 days before the event, the whole price is due within 3 days of signing the booking agreement.
• If your payment reaches us too late for us to give Ofsted 14 clear days' notice, your crèche will run for 4 hours on the day. The price stays the same.
• Pay by bank transfer to the account on our invoice, using the invoice number as the reference. We do not take card payments. We are not VAT registered, so there is no VAT.
• If a payment is more than 7 days late we will remind you. If it is still unpaid 14 days after the due date, we may release your date and treat the booking as cancelled by you (see section 6).

You can cancel at any time by emailing hello@happylittleguests.com. What you pay depends on how close to the event you cancel, because by then we have turned away other bookings for your date and committed staff to it:

More than 28 days before the event

You lose the deposit. Nothing else is due, and any balance already paid is refunded within 14 days.

28 days or fewer before the event

You lose the deposit and 50% of the balance is due.

14 days or fewer before the event

You lose the deposit and the full balance is due.

The deposit is non-refundable to the fullest extent the law allows.

Postponing instead

If you move the event to a new date within 12 months, tell us more than 14 days before the original date, and we are available, your deposit moves to the new date at no charge.

The 14-day cooling-off period

Because a booking is for a specific date, the 14-day cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 does not apply (regulation 28(1)(h)). The cancellation terms above apply from the moment you sign.

• If we cancel for a reason within our control, we refund everything you have paid within 14 days. That refund is the limit of what we owe you in that situation.
• If something outside our control (such as staff illness, severe weather or road closures) means we cannot provide all or part of the service, we do everything reasonable to find replacement staff. If we still cannot provide part of the service, we refund a fair share of what you have paid for the part we did not provide.
• We can stop the crèche early, or decline to take a particular child, if in our reasonable judgement the room, the numbers, or a child's behaviour or needs make it unsafe to carry on, or if we cannot reach a child's registered adult. No refund is due for time not provided for these reasons.

• Tell us as early as you can if the date, venue, hours, or number and ages of children change. We will do our best to accommodate it and confirm any change to the price in writing before it applies.
• If you add hours or children after your booking is confirmed, we confirm the new price in writing and send a supplemental invoice for the difference, which you pay the same way as your other invoices, by bank transfer using its invoice number as the reference.
• More children on the day than booked: we may have to turn extra children away if taking them would break our staffing ratios. If we have spare staff we can take them for £250 per extra carer.
• Longer on the day than booked: £110 per extra hour for two carers, plus £40 per extra hour for each additional carer, if staff can stay. We invoice this after the event.
• The 4-hour rule: if a change of date or venue gives us less than 14 clear days' notice to tell Ofsted, your crèche can only run for 4 hours on the day.

• Staff at the legal ratios at all times, including during breaks: one carer for every 3 children under 2, every 5 two-year-olds, and every 8 children aged 3 or over.
• An enhanced DBS check and safeguarding training for every member of staff, and at least one person on site with a current paediatric first aid certificate.
• Public liability insurance. We will show you the certificate if you ask.
• A service exempt from Ofsted registration under the Childcare (Exemptions from Registration) Order 2008. We keep the notification and Ofsted's reply on file for your booking.
• Planning, travel up to 20 miles from our base, set-up and pack-down, all toys, games, crafts and materials, and a signed register of when every child arrives and is collected.

Not included: food, drinks, nappies and wipes. Parents bring these for their own children unless we agree something different in writing.

• A clean, private room or a clearly sectioned-off area at the venue, warm (18°C or more), with toilets and hand-washing nearby and no passing traffic from other guests. We need access 45 minutes before the start to set up and 30 minutes after the end to pack down.
• If the space is not suitable and nothing else is available, we may be unable to run the crèche, and the full price is still payable. We are happy to help you check the room with the venue beforehand.
• Parents and carers must stay at the venue the whole time their child is with us and be reachable by phone straight away. The crèche cannot run without this. If a parent leaves the venue, their child leaves the crèche with them.
• Our child registration link, shared with every family at least 14 days before the event, so each child's details reach us at least 7 days before. We may decline a child whose registration is missing on the day.
• The venue's fire and evacuation procedure, and the name and number of a venue contact for the day.
• Accurate information from you and your guests. You are responsible for any damage to the venue or our equipment caused by you or your guests beyond normal wear and tear.

• Illness: a child who has had sickness, diarrhoea or a temperature in the 48 hours before the event, or who has a contagious illness, cannot attend. If a child becomes unwell with us, we contact their registered adult straight away and ask for them to be collected.
• Allergies and food: we rely on what parents tell us at registration and never give a child food or drink other than what their parent provided or approved. Craft materials can contain common allergens, so please tell us about contact allergies too.
• Additional needs: children with special educational needs and disabilities are very welcome. Tell us at registration what helps each child and we plan for it. If a child needs one-to-one support we discuss staffing with you in advance; an extra carer may be charged.
• Behaviour: we use positive, age-appropriate approaches and never physical punishment. If a child is persistently distressed, or their behaviour puts them or others at risk, we ask their registered adult to come to the crèche.
• Accidents: we give first aid where needed, record every accident or incident, and tell the registered adult at collection, or straight away if it is serious. In an emergency we call 999 first, then the registered adult.
• Safeguarding: our staff are trained to recognise and report concerns about a child's welfare and have a legal duty to do so. Our safeguarding policy is available on request.

Drop-off and collection

A parent or carer signs each child in. We only release a child to an adult named at registration, or to another adult who gives that child's collection password. We will not hand a child to anyone we believe is unfit to care for them, including through drink, and will contact the registered adult instead.

If a child is still with us after the booked finish time, overtime applies. If we cannot reach any registered adult within 30 minutes of the finish time, we involve the venue manager and, if we have to, the police or local authority, as our safeguarding policy requires.

We take photos and short videos at our events to show what we do, and may use them on our website and social media. We never show a child's face: children are photographed from behind, from a distance, or with faces out of shot, and we do not use names. If a parent would rather their child was not photographed at all, they can tell us at registration and we will keep that child out of every shot. We are happy to share event photos with you afterwards.

We look after the children in our care with reasonable skill and care.

Otherwise, as your booking agreement sets out, the most we are liable to you for under a booking is the total price, and we are not liable for loss of enjoyment, loss of profit or other indirect losses. Please label belongings; we are not responsible for lost or damaged items unless we were negligent. Nothing here takes away your legal rights as a consumer.

Tell the lead carer on the day and we will put it right there and then if we can. Afterwards, email hello@happylittleguests.com within 14 days of the event. We acknowledge within 3 working days and give a full response within 14 days.

We use your details and the children's registration details only to run your booking, meet our legal duties and keep a record of the event. Our privacy notice explains what we collect, who sees it, how long we keep it and your rights.

English law applies to these terms and to every booking, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in your local courts. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies. Nothing here takes away your legal rights as a consumer.

We may update this page from time to time, and the date at the top shows the latest version. Changes do not alter a booking agreement you have already signed.

Business

Charlotte Pennington trading as Happy Little Guests

Based in

Redditch, Worcestershire. Our full postal address is on every booking agreement and invoice, and we will give it to anyone who asks.

Email

hello@happylittleguests.com