Terms and conditions

1. Who we are, and these terms

Obsly is a software service that helps early-years practitioners write up their observations. It is provided by Oliver Rice, trading as Obsly (“we”, “us”, “our”). Obsly is run by a sole trader based in England and Wales; it is not a limited company.

These terms are a contract between us and the setting whose account uses the Service (“you”). By creating an account, or by using the Service, the person acting for the setting confirms they are authorised to accept these terms on the setting’s behalf. If you do not accept them, do not use the Service.

2. Some words we use

• Service — the Obsly application and everything we make available through it.
• Setting — the nursery, childminder or other early-years provider that holds an account. Also called the account.
• Manager — a user with administrative rights over a setting, including billing and staff.
• Practitioner — a user who captures notes and creates observations.
• Your content — the notes, child records and other information you or your staff put into the Service.
• Observation — the written record the Service drafts from a practitioner’s note.

3. What the Service does — and does not do

A practitioner records what she saw a child doing, in her own words, and the Service drafts that note into a written observation with the relevant framework wording attached. The practitioner reviews the draft, edits it as she sees fit, and saves it under her own name.

The Service is a drafting assistant, not an assessor. It does not observe, judge, score or track children, and it does not make or replace any professional judgement. Every observation is the work and the responsibility of the practitioner who signs it off. The Service is not your system of record: you remain responsible for keeping your own statutory early-years records.

4. Your account and your staff

• A manager sets up the account and invites staff by email. Each user has their own login; logins must not be shared.
• You are responsible for keeping login details secure, for everything done under your account, and for making sure your staff use the Service in line with these terms.
• You must give accurate account information and keep it up to date.
• You must tell us promptly if you believe an account has been accessed without authorisation.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use the Service unlawfully, or to put unlawful, harmful or infringing content into it;
• upload personal data you have no lawful basis to process, or use the Service in a way that breaches data-protection law;
• share, resell or provide the Service to anyone outside your setting;
• attempt to access the Service by any means other than the interface we provide — no scraping, scripting, bulk automation or circumvention of limits;
• copy, reverse-engineer, or attempt to derive the underlying models or source of the Service, except to the extent the law does not allow us to prevent it;
• interfere with the Service’s security or its availability to others.

6. Fair use

The Service is not metered per practitioner, and there is no charge per observation — you pay for the staff who use it, not for how much they write. There is a single, generous setting-wide daily ceiling on how many observations can be generated. It exists only to guard against runaway or automated use, and a setting working normally will never come near it.

The current figure, and what happens in the rare case a setting reaches it, are set out in our Fair usage policy, which forms part of these terms. If a setting reaches the ceiling, generation pauses until the following day; nothing already captured is lost, and no one is charged for reaching it. We may adjust the figure if the cost of generation changes materially, and we will keep it well above ordinary use.

7. Plans, fees and payment

• A free plan is available for one practitioner and up to five children, with no payment details required.
• Paid plans are billed monthly in advance through our payment provider, Stripe. You authorise us to charge the plan fee to your chosen payment method until you cancel.
• You can cancel a paid plan at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; fees already paid are not refunded for part of a period, except where the law requires it.
• We may change our prices. We will give reasonable notice of a change to a plan you are on, and an existing subscription is treated in line with our repricing approach; if you do not accept a change you may cancel before it takes effect.
• Fees are exclusive of any applicable taxes, which are added where they apply.

8. Intellectual property and your content

We own the Service and all rights in it. You keep all rights in your content. You grant us the licence we need to host and process your content in order to provide the Service, and for no other purpose than providing and supporting it.

Framework statements reproduced in the Service are taken from Development Matters, which is published by the Department for Education under the Open Government Licence v3.0, and are reproduced under that licence.

9. Drafted observations

Observations are generated with the help of an automated language model and are a starting draft, not a finished record. They can contain mistakes, and they may attach or omit framework wording that a practitioner would judge differently. The practitioner must read every draft, correct it, and take responsibility for what she saves.

We do not warrant that a draft is accurate, complete or fit for any particular purpose, and a draft is not professional, legal or regulatory advice. Nothing in the Service is endorsed by Ofsted or by any regulator, and we make no claim that using it satisfies any inspection or statutory requirement.

10. Data protection

For the personal data of children and staff that you put into the Service, you are the data controller and we act as your processor. You are responsible for having a lawful basis for that data and for any notices or consents it requires. We process it only to provide the Service and in line with data-protection law and our separate data-processing terms.

To keep the information sent for each observation to a minimum, the Service applies automated steps to remove children’s names from a note before it is sent. We take reasonable care over this, but it relies on automated matching and cannot be guaranteed to be complete or accurate in every case. It may not catch, for example, a misspelt name, names run together or written without spaces, a name that is not on the child roll, a nickname, or the name of an adult or another child. The practitioner reviews the note before pressing Create and is responsible for checking it and removing anything that should not be sent. To the extent the law allows, we give no warranty that name removal will be complete and accept no liability arising from information that this process does not remove.

11. Suspension, cancellation and closing an account

A manager can close their setting’s account at any time, from within the Service. Closing stops billing and locks the account; it does not, by itself, delete anything, and a manager can reopen a closed account later.

We may suspend, cancel or close any account at our discretion — for example where we reasonably believe these terms have been breached, where use puts the Service or other users at risk, where fees are unpaid, or where we are required to by law. Where it is reasonable to do so we will tell you first, but we may act without notice where the circumstances require it. On suspension or closure your right to use the Service ends and any current billing period is treated in line with section 7.

12. The data of a closed account

While an account is closed we would normally keep its data as it was, so that the account can be reopened. How long a setting’s own statutory early-years records should be kept is the setting’s judgement, and the Service is not your system of record — if you need records out of a closed account, a manager can reopen it, export the individual child records they need, and close it again.

We reserve the right to permanently delete the data associated with a closed account at our discretion, at any time and without notice. We give no guarantee to keep the data of a closed account for any particular length of time, and there is no fixed period after which deletion happens or before which it will not. Once data has been deleted it cannot be recovered. You are responsible for keeping your own copies of anything you are required to retain before closing an account.

13. Availability and changes to the Service

We work to keep the Service available and dependable, but we provide it “as is” and do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may change, add to or withdraw features, and we may carry out maintenance that makes the Service temporarily unavailable.

14. Our responsibility to you

Nothing in these terms limits any liability that cannot be limited by law — including liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud.

Subject to that, we are not liable for loss of profit, loss of goodwill, or any indirect or consequential loss, and we are not liable for your failure to keep your own statutory records. Our total liability to you in any twelve-month period is limited to the fees you paid us for the Service in that period.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. Where a change is material we will give you reasonable notice of it. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms; if you do not accept them, you should close your account.

16. 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 out of them.

17. Contact us

Questions about these terms can be sent to admin@obsly.co.uk.