Nursery group Busy Bees is working with software platform Famly to develop a Busy Bees app which will roll out across its 351 UK settings.

The software is currently being trialled in Busy Bees sites in Scotland and will be rolled out in England and Wales in 2025. The new app aims to support parents and educators to work together to support children’s education. It will allow parents to maintain regular communications, find ideas for activities to try at home, access invoices and book extra sessions.

Chris McCandless, chief executive for Europe at Busy Bees, said: “The response we’ve seen from parents and practitioners in our pilot centres has been extremely positive, and we look forward to being able to offer the app to more Busy Bees families across the UK, and to working with Famly to extend its functionality in future.”

Famly plans to add ten new engineers and designers to its product team a result of the deal, and aims to develop a number of key elements of their platform throughout 2025 including improvements to functionality around calculating funded hours, accident form reviews, enhanced curriculum features, and general enhancements to the billing experience.  It is also beta testing a new custom reporting feature that aims to give nurseries more control over their data.

Anders Laustsen, Famly chief executive, said “It’s such an honour that Busy Bees has trusted us with one of its most important tasks: connecting thousands of educators and tens of thousands of families every day as they work together to educate and care for their children. What’s more, I cannot wait for those staff to feel the benefit of a system that gives them time back on the stuff that really matters.” 

Founded in Denmark in 2013, Famly is used by over 6,000 nurseries in the UK.