Terms of Service
In effect since 22 September 2026 · Version 2
Who these terms are between
These terms are between Little Bees, operated by Swarm Labs.io ("we"), and the nursery that subscribes to it, or the person who creates an account to trial it. They are not between Little Bees and a parent: a parent's relationship is with their nursery, and their rights over their child's data are described in the privacy notice.
Using the public website, including Nursery Intelligence, is covered by the shorter section at the end of these terms.
What the service is
Nursery management software: child and family records, attendance, staffing, compliance, invoicing, and a portal through which a nursery communicates with parents. Some parts are add-ons and are available only where a nursery has subscribed to them. What is included at each price is set out on the pricing page on the day a subscription starts or renews.
Your data stays yours
A nursery's data belongs to that nursery. We hold it to provide the service and act on the nursery's instructions, as its processor under the UK GDPR. We do not sell it, and we do not use a nursery's children's data to advertise to anybody.
Data can be exported in a portable form for the report types the software supports, at any time during a subscription. How it is protected, where it is held and how long it is kept are set out in the privacy notice and the safeguarding statement, which form part of these terms.
Accounts and access
A nursery is responsible for who it gives access to, for keeping sign-in details private, and for removing access when a member of staff leaves. Safeguarding records are visible only to the staff a nursery designates, and that designation is the nursery's decision.
Payment
Subscription. Nurseries pay monthly in advance, priced by the number of children on roll, the locations and the add-ons chosen, at the rates published on the pricing page on the day the subscription starts or renews. Prices exclude VAT unless stated. Payment is taken by card through our payment provider, Stripe.
Refunds. A subscription can be cancelled at any time and ends at the close of the billing period already paid for. Fees for a period that has started are not refunded, except where we have failed to provide the service and cannot put it right, or where the law requires a refund. A trial costs nothing and asks for no card.
Fees a parent pays a nursery. Where a nursery takes payments from parents through Little Bees, that money is the nursery's and is collected into the nursery's own account with the payment provider. Little Bees is not the merchant and is not a party to the arrangement between a parent and their nursery. We charge no platform fee on those payments unless the nursery has been told otherwise in writing; the payment provider's own processing charge is separate and is passed on at cost.
Ending a subscription
A nursery may cancel at any time from its account. After cancellation, its data is retained for 365 days and then destroyed, unless the nursery asks for it sooner or a retention obligation requires longer. A lapsed trial is destroyed after 31 days. Financial records are kept for six years regardless, because HMRC requires it.
We may suspend or end a subscription if it is used to break the law, to harm children, or to attack the service, or if fees remain unpaid 30 days after they were due, having told the nursery first wherever we reasonably can.
What we undertake
To keep the service available, to protect the data as described in the privacy notice and the safeguarding statement, to tell a nursery without undue delay — and within 48 hours — if we become aware of a breach affecting its data, and to give reasonable notice of changes that materially affect how the service works. Our current and past availability is shown on the status page. We aim for the service to be available at all times; we do not promise a specific percentage, and planned maintenance is announced in advance where it will be noticed.
What we do not undertake
The software supports a nursery in meeting its obligations; it does not discharge them. Ratio calculations, compliance reports and safeguarding records are tools, and the nursery remains responsible for the decisions it takes using them, for the accuracy of what it enters, and for its own statutory duties, including those under the Early Years Foundation Stage framework and its local safeguarding procedures.
Liability
Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law.
Subject to that, we are not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, or indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability to a nursery arising out of the service in any twelve-month period is limited to the subscription fees that nursery paid us in that period. A nursery on a free trial has paid nothing, and our liability to it is limited accordingly.
Changes to these terms
Where these terms change materially we will tell subscribing nurseries at least 30 days before the change takes effect. Every published version of this document is retained with the date it took effect, so what was agreed at any given time can be established rather than recalled.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.
The public website
Anyone may read littlebees.io, including Nursery Intelligence. The inspection and registration information there is published by Ofsted and reproduced under the Open Government Licence v3.0; our plain-English descriptions of what each grade means are ours and are not Ofsted's criteria. We work to keep it accurate and current, and we say on every page when the information it reports was published, but we do not warrant it and it is not advice. Anything you decide about a setting should be checked against Ofsted's own register. How a setting can have its page corrected, or object to it, is in the public listings policy.
You may link to any page. You may not scrape the site in a way that degrades it for others, or republish its pages as your own.