Log an injury your child arrived with — what happened, where on the body, and your signature — so it's on record before drop-off.
If your child picks up a bump, graze, or bruise outside your childminder's care — over the weekend, at nursery, in the playground — this is where you record it. Logging it before drop-off means it's on file as something that already happened, rather than something your childminder notices and has to ask you about later. That protects you both: your childminder has a clear, signed account of what happened and when, and there's no ambiguity later about whether an injury occurred during their care.
Most of the time, you'll start this yourself: from the Home dashboard, open the menu and tap Log Injury at Home (it sits under a warning-triangle icon, alongside your other account actions).
Occasionally your childminder will notice something first — say, at a previous drop-off — and log a quick note on their end before you've had a chance to. When that happens, it shows up for you under Documents > To Sign, and opening it brings you to the same form with your childminder's note already attached at the top, ready for you to complete.
If you're finishing a note your childminder began, you'll see a box headed "Your childminder noted:" with their description and when they noticed it, followed by "Please add the rest of the details below and sign to complete this report." Everything below that box is what you still need to fill in — your details get added to theirs on the same record, not a separate one.
If you opened this from the dashboard menu, the child is already selected for you. If not, pick Which child? from the list of children linked to your account.
Set the Date and Time the injury occurred — both default to right now, so change them if it happened earlier.
Under What happened?, write a short explanation of how the injury occurred. This is required — the form won't let you submit without it.
Under Where is the injury?, tap the body diagram to mark the location. You can mark more than one spot if needed.
If you tap anywhere on the head, submitting triggers a prompt: "Health guidance recommends calling the childminder immediately for all head injuries. Would you like to proceed with logging this report as well?" Submitting doesn't replace that call — if it's a head injury, ring your childminder directly before or alongside submitting this.
Set Expected Arrival Time so your childminder knows roughly when to expect you and the child.
Tap the signature box to sign — a signing sheet opens, and once you've signed, the box shows your signature and the Sign & Submit to Childminder button at the bottom becomes active. Tap it to send it through.
If you haven't selected a child, haven't written an explanation, or haven't signed yet, submitting will stop and tell you which of those is missing.
You'll see a confirmation: "Injury report submitted and signed. The childminder has been notified." That's not quite the end of the process, though — your childminder still needs to review what you've submitted and countersign it themselves. Once they do, the record is complete on both sides. Until then, it sits as your signed submission awaiting their review, the same way any other form you sign moves through a childminder review step.
Both signatures — yours and your childminder's — go on the same permanent record, which is exactly what keeps it a reliable account of what happened rather than just an unverified note. It's the same reason consent forms and other safeguarding records in KinderStart carry two signatures where two parties are involved.
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KinderStart strives for accuracy. Competitor features and pricing comparisons are based on publicly available information as of May 2026. Details are subject to change by respective providers.