Ratios help you keep track of the correct staffing levels across your rooms. Once set up, they appear throughout Famly in places like the Staff schedule and the Room planner, so you can quickly see when a room is under or over ratio.
This guide covers how to set ratios for age groups, how to schedule future changes, how to add room-based ratios if needed, and how Famly calculates required staff.
Age Group Staff Ratios
Age group ratios track different groups of children based on age. These are the recommended ratios to use, as they appear both in Staffing and in the Room planner.
To set your age group ratios:
Click Settings in your sidebar
Select Children
Choose Age groups
Click the pen icon to edit an age group
Enter the staff ratio for that age group
Save your changes
Scheduling Age Group Ratio Updates
If your ratios are changing in the future, you can set up a plan in advance. This is useful for changes like the updated guidance for two year olds introduced in England from September 2023.
To schedule a ratio change:
Go to Settings
Select Children, then Age groups
Open Scheduled changes
Click View scheduled changes
Select Create new plan
Enter the new ratio details, the age range, capacity, and the date the change starts
Click Save
Famly will automatically apply the update on the selected date.
Room Staff Ratios
If you prefer, you can set ratios directly on each room. These show in the Room planner but not in Staffing, so we recommend age group ratios unless your setting requires room-specific values.
To add a room-based ratio:
Go to Settings
Select Rooms, then Overview
Click the room you want to update
In Staff Ratio, enter the number of children per staff member
Click Save changes
How Required Staff Is Calculated
Famly works out how many staff you need in each room based on the ratios you have entered.
If a room ratio is set, Famly uses that ratio
If the room ratio is set to 0, Famly uses the age group ratios for the children in that room
This ensures the Room planner always reflects the correct staffing requirement for your setup.