Parent FAQs

If at any time you forget your password, you can reset it by clicking the “forgotten password” button on the login page. An email will be sent to you at the email address linked to your password-protected account and all you need to do is simply follow the instructions in the email.

KalliKids asks for some relevant information so the team can send you details of local activity providers, Meet-Me Days and newsletters. You will never have to give your financial earnings, your shopping habits or your inside leg measurement!

You can become a KalliKids member by giving only your email address and a password and this will still enable you to bookmark favourite activity providers.

If you would like to attend Meet-Me Days, request Meet-Me Days or activities, benefit from local deals, promotions and news, or even receive news on new provider accreditations in your area, you will need to provide your postcode.

If you would like to receive ideas for birthday parties and relevant clubs for your children then you will need to tell us the names and birth months of your children (we don’t need the full dates of birth).

KalliKids is committed to ensuring that all information and data is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, the KalliKids team has put in place physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information collated.

You can find further details in the Privacy Policy.

As a KalliKids member, you can personalise your preferences for updates on activity providers, Meet-Me Days and newsletters at any time by logging into your password-protected account.

For example:

• If you want to hear of newly accredited providers of boys sports local to you, you can set up your preferences to receive updates.
• If you feel your child would benefit from meeting a tutor, coach or even a party entertainer prior to choosing the activity provider, you can set your preferences to show you are interested in Meet-Me Days.

Yes! KalliKids membership for parents, grandparents and families is completely free and it takes less than a minute to join. As a member, you can bookmark your favourite accredited activity providers, receive news on activity providers local to you and attend Meet-Me Days to inspire your children with new ideas.

Families who become members can benefit from all the KalliKids services as well as finding quality family and children's activities quickly and reliably.

As a KalliKids member, you can bookmark favourite accredited activities, receive news on local activities relevant to you and receive local newsletters. You can also sign-up to Meet-Me Days and bring the kids along to be inspired.

You can become a KalliKids member in seconds. Just simply click on the “Join now” button.

If you have a Facebook account, you can even sign-up using your Facebook details with no re-typing.

An account activation email will be sent to you to ensure the email address is correct. Once you have clicked on the link in the email, you will be a KalliKids member.  You will then be able to benefit from all the KalliKids services.

Meet-Me Days are about inspiring you and your children and meeting accredited activity providers without any obligation either side.

At your local Meet-Me Days you will find a mix of accredited activity providers: baby and toddler activities, academic tutors, music teachers, party entertainers, photographers and much more. You may go along to find a sports club and find that your children are inspired to learn base guitar!

Meeting someone in person can give children a lot more confidence in trying something new and going along to a class, a lesson or training session.

Example

John and Helen feel that their son Richard, 9, could do with a little help on Maths but know that Richard is very shy and does not like being out of his comfort zone. So when they receive an email from KalliKids about the next local Meet-Me Day and see that Martin, a well-rated maths tutor, will be there, they decide to go along with Richard after school. At the Meet-Me Day, Martin has brought some fun quizzes and challenges using balls, sweets and plasticine. Richard is a little reticent at first but after 10 minutes starts to quietly do one of the challenges. Martin doesn’t intervene too early but waits until Richard is a little stuck. Martin then gives Richard some hints and Richard ends up solving the maths problem based on plasticine. John and Helen take great comfort in this interaction and arrange some trial maths tuition sessions with Martin.

Meet-Me Days are therefore an easy way to meet local providers face to face, who are recommended by other families and understand what they do and what they are about. Your children can have fun there too and simple refreshments will be available.

The accredited activity providers you can find at KalliKids have been awarded accreditation following:

• Three references taken by the KalliKids team from families who have used the service.
• Review by the KalliKids team of documents proving qualifications, memberships, CRB, insurance and identification.

All activities and organisations are run by people and sometimes problems happen and sometimes personalities and expectations do not match. A party entertainer loved by many families may not be loved by another family who do not like slapstick. A tutor may often be late due to school-run traffic, one family may find this unacceptable but another family may be more focused on the quality of his teaching.

As such things happen and as the activity providers are independent organisations/people, it is not possible for KalliKids to guarantee service quality. Each activity provider is independent from KalliKids and your arrangement with them is between you and them.

What KalliKids can guarantee is that all activity providers on KalliKids.com have been referenced by three families who recommend that service and proof of qualifications and other documents has been provided. In addition, families have the opportunity to provide additional ratings and feedback on the website which gives families even more information to ensure they select the right activity provider for them.

Every family and each person within it is unique. Every activity provider and each person in the team is unique too. The selection of an activity provider is therefore very personal and can depend very much on what the activity is, how long your family will be in contact with the provider and what you are really looking for.

You can find some hints and tips in the KalliKids resources for families: on each of the expert pin boards and general guidance in selecting an activity provider.

You can check accreditation awards in three ways:

• Ask the activity provider to show you their certificate which shows the start and end dates of accreditation.
• Type the KalliKids URL (website address) of the activity provider into your browser bar – if they are accredited they will appear in the results list.
• Search for that type of activity provider in your local area – if they are accredited they will appear in the results list. 

The KalliKids service is all about bringing together families with trusted and approved activity providers who are checked and referenced. If, despite the recommendations from families and the checks during the accreditation process, an activity provider does not deliver a good service (either consistently or through a one-off event), KalliKids may consider terminating the accreditation of an activity provider. The final decision is at KalliKids discretion. The circumstances of each case will be reviewed for its merits and KalliKids may speak with parents and the activity provider before coming to a conclusion.

The three referees shown on an activity provider’s profile are current or past customers of that activity provider who KalliKids have personally spoken to during the accreditation process.

KalliKids speaks with each referee and documents and summarises the conversation. The referee then confirms in writing the comments and ratings for the activity provider's profile.

If you would like to be a referee for an activity provider, whether a sports club, a place to go, a music teacher or a maths tutor, you can recommend an activity provider that merits accreditation.

To earn accreditation, an activity provider is referenced by three families and their documentation is reviewed by the KalliKids team.

After that, KalliKids accreditation is a bit like a car MOT: on each anniversary of accreditation, the documents that require renewal such as insurance, DBS/CRB and professional body memberships are reviewed again by the KalliKids team. If an activity provider chooses not to renew a document (for example, a party entertainer decides not to renew his or her first aid training), KalliKids will update the party entertainer’s profile to say he does not hold a current first aid qualification. 

If an accredited children's activity provider at KalliKids.com is shown with a DBS/CRB check for a particular person this means:

• the KalliKids team have seen that document
• it was not dated more than three years before KalliKids accreditation or renewal
• the check showed no disclosures (or only minor disclosures considered by KalliKids as acceptable).

KalliKids is a very new service for families and is just starting out in many areas. Finding and accrediting good quality activity providers takes time to do properly so it will take us a while to cover the whole country in depth.

If you are looking for a specific activity, let us know and we will do whatever we can to find a quality activity provider, check and reference them and award accreditation. You can do here on the KalliKids website: suggest an activity to be accredited.

If you know of a quality activity provider who you recommend to other families, please send their details to the KalliKids team so they can be contacted regarding accreditation. You can do here on the KalliKids website: recommend an activity provider.

If you would like to be part of the KalliKids team and help build KalliKids in your area, please contact the KalliKids team.

You can add your review and ratings to an activity provider’s profile by:

• Going to their profile and clicking on the “Give your feedback” button
• Going to their profile and clicking on the “Customer reviews” tab

Your review and ratings are a combination of free-text comments and ratings out of 5 stars on four criteria:

• Quality of service
• What the Kids think
• What the Adults think
• Value for money

You can choose how you want to be identified to other families, for example:

• Liz, Mum of Holly (5) and Suzie (2) in Brighton
• Liz, Mum of two in Brighton
• Mum of two in Brighton.

If you have visited a great family venue, such as the local children’s farm, or have booked a great birthday party clown or academic tutor, you can share that with other families by recommending that provider for KalliKids accreditation.

You can do this very simply by clicking “Make a suggestion” tab which appears on many KalliKids.com pages. A short simple page appears where you input the Provider’s name and contact details. KalliKids will then contact the provider and let them know that they have been recommended for potential KalliKids accreditation. You can make this recommendation in your own name or anonymously.

Yes and we would love you to do that. Your experience, or your child’s experience is very helpful to other families who are looking for activities for their children.

If you are an adult who did this activity as a child, you may have advice on:

• Why you liked playing that instrument or sport or learning that skill
• How you still use the things you learnt in adult hood.

As a parent who chose that activity for your own son or daughter, you may have advice on:

• The kind of children that would like the activity
• The calming or exhilarating influence it had on your child.

Your children may have lots to say too. For example:

• How much do they like learning or playing?
• What did they enjoy as a beginner and how is that different now?
• Do they like being part of a team or a class or do they like the individuality of one to one lessons?

Take a look at the expert pin boards and decide which one you would most like to contribute to.

A CRB check is a document provided by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) on an individual person showing their conviction history. CRB checks are needed by certain people working, or seeking to work with children or vulnerable adults. The CRB was an executive agency of the Home Officeand merged into the Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) in December 2012.

Some activity providers may not have a CRB or DBS check. For example, music teachers and tutors who do not work for a school, children’s charity or for a child-focused business may not be able to request a DBS or CRB on themselves. Other activity providers may choose not to request a DBS or CRB as in many situations it is not obligatory, it costs money and some activity providers believe that a DBS or CRB is not the most important thing for parents.

KalliKids is all about giving families as much information as possible. Therefore, KalliKids activity provider profiles show clearly if the person and team have a current DBS or CRB check that has been reviewed by the KalliKids team. KalliKids accepts DBS and CRBs as current if they are under three years old at the date of accreditation.

You can find out much more about DBS checks at the Home Office website.

There were three levels of disclosure resulting from a CRB check: Basic, Standard and Enhanced.

Basic CRB

Basic disclosures show any unspent criminal convictions but do not show spent criminal convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings. The term “spent” means that a rehabilition period has passed since the person was convicted of a crime. The rehabilition period varies according to the age of the person at the date of the crime, the type of crime and the length of any time in prison (custodial sentence).

Standard CRB

Enhanced CRB

At all levels, if an event is shown on the CRB, a short description will be included about its nature. 

A DBS check is a police record check on an individual person.

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) merged into the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) in December 2012.  CRB checks are now called DBS checks.

A DBS check shows incidents on an individual's police record. A DBS check is needed for certain people in certain environments when working with children but is not obligatory in all circumstances. Indeed, an individual person cannot request a DBS check on themself.

There are three levels of DBS check and they each show varying levels of disclosure:

• Standard check - details of an individual’s convictions, cautions, reprimands or warnings recorded on police central records and includes both ‘spent’ and ‘unspent’ convictions
• Enhanced check - the same details as a standard check, together with any information held locally by police forces that it is reasonably considered might be relevant to the post applied for
• Enhanced with a barred list check: this is an enhanced check and shows if the individual is on any barred list. This level of check is restricted to certain job roles and in many circumstances is not available to KalliKids activity providers, whether teaching sports, music, running bay classes or offering party entertainment.

The profiles of all KalliKids providers will show whether the team members are DBS or CRB checked or not. To earn KalliKids accreditation, an activity provider is not obliged to hold a DBS or CRB check. This is because in many cases, a DBS or CRB check is not a legal obligation and some activity providers do not want to incur the related cost.

The Disclosure and Barring Service gives guidance to all people working with children on who must have a DBS and who does not need one and you can find out much more information on the Disclosure and Barring Service website.