§ Questions
Nursery compliance questions, answered
Inspections, staff checks, documents and pricing. Plain answers, cited to the EYFS statutory safeguarding and welfare requirements where it matters.
What is a single central record?
The single central record (SCR) is the register of pre-employment and suitability checks - identity, DBS, barred list, right to work, references, qualifications. Schools must keep one by law; well-run nurseries keep one too, because inspectors ask for it early and expect it current. DullDocs generates yours from the evidence itself, so the register can never drift from the documents behind it. Full guide: the single central record.
How often are Ofsted inspections?
Registered early years providers are normally inspected at least once within a 4-year window, and newly registered settings within around 18 months. Inspections come at short notice - typically a call the day before. DullDocs exists for the gap between "not now" and "tomorrow": re-run your readiness before every window instead of scrambling on the day.
How do I prepare for an Ofsted inspection?
Know what evidence you should have, check what you do have, and close the gap before the phone rings. DullDocs turns that into a working checklist per setting, cited to the EYFS statutory framework, with a report you can hand over on the day. See our Ofsted inspection checklist.
What checks do nursery staff need?
DBS with barred-list check, identity, right to work, references, qualifications and ongoing suitability - plus training such as paediatric first aid and safeguarding. DullDocs tracks these per person, chases what's missing, and feeds your single central record.
Does DullDocs only cover Ofsted paperwork?
No - and it's usually why groups choose us. Alongside EYFS safeguarding and welfare evidence, DullDocs tracks the premises compliance inspections also touch: fire risk assessments and drills, gas safety, electrical (EICR and PAT), insurance, food hygiene and more. Every item is cited to its actual source - an EYFS 2025 paragraph, or the regulation that really governs it. One calendar, one report, no second system.
Do we have to connect our OneDrive?
No. Plenty of settings prefer not to link anything: drag and drop documents in batch, email them in, or photograph paper. If you do connect Google Drive or OneDrive it's read-only, and we only ever read the documents you choose to add - nothing is crawled.
Who reads our documents - a person or AI?
AI, with a human in the loop. When you add a document, OCR reads it and picks out what it is and its issue and expiry dates. Above a 90% confidence score it's filed automatically; anything less waits in a review queue for a person. You can override or correct anything, any time.
How does DullDocs know what we're missing?
At onboarding we ask specific questions about each setting - do you have boilers, do you serve food, do you use hoists - and build a checklist of exactly what that setting should hold, mapped to the EYFS statutory framework and the regulations behind the rest. Anything missing or expiring is flagged, and shows in your reports until it's fixed.
Does it track renewal dates?
Yes. Dates are read from the documents themselves (or set by you), and the DullDocs calendar reminds you before things expire - as often or as rarely as you like.
Can our risk assessments and daily checks live in it?
Yes. Templates for risk assessments (trips, events, activities), a Projects area for the evidence around them, and custom recurring checks - a daily fire walk, a weekly room check - with reminders and chase emails per site or per staff member.
What do our site managers see?
Only their own setting. Access is role-based: owners see everything; a site manager sees their site's checklist, documents and staff, and nothing else.
Will DullDocs make us Ofsted compliant?
No software makes you compliant, and you should be suspicious of any that claims to. DullDocs makes you evidence-ready: it shows what you should have, what you actually have, and lets you prove it - cited, dated, exportable. The compliance itself stays yours; we make it provable.
Where is our data stored and is it secure?
Encrypted in transit and at rest, storage connections are read-only, and no customer data is ever used to train AI models. Our full trust pack - hosting, processors, retention, deletion - is available to any customer who asks.
How much does it cost?
£19 per setting per month while founding spaces last, rolling monthly - no lock-in, cancel whenever, with a discount for paying annually. Groups pay the same simple per-site price.
Run a free readiness scan
Add your documents and DullDocs flags what's missing or expiring - DBS, first aid, policies, certificates - so you're ready before Ofsted calls.