Can Impact Early Years and On the Button be used together?

Or would an early years setting simply be paying twice for the same thing?

Information checked against the providers’ official websites in July 2026. Features and prices can change, so confirm anything important directly before making a decision.

Yes, there can be a perfectly sensible reason to use both systems. But it only works if each one has a clearly defined job. Impact Early Years and On the Button do overlap in a few areas, including safeguarding concerns and complaints. They do not, however, appear to start from the same place or solve exactly the same problem.

Impact Early Years describes itself as an all-in-one compliance and quality-improvement platform. Its published features cover a wide spread of management responsibilities, including audits, staff files, safer recruitment, supervisions, training, fire safety, risk assessments, room checks and safeguarding records.

On the Button starts with the person working most closely with the child. It was built so that a practitioner can record the small thing they have noticed, pass it immediately to the right senior person and keep the actions, decisions and outcome connected to the original concern.

Impact Early Years does more different things. On the Button was built to follow the safeguarding journey from the nursery room through to senior action.

First, an honest word about who is writing this

We created On the Button, so we aren't claiming to be an independent reviewer. Catherine, our founder and designer, has spent most of her working life in early years, including running her own settings and training centre. On the Button was built because she could see how easily small observations, verbal concerns and early signs of difficulty could become separated from the action that followed.

Impact Early Years may be the better choice for some providers. It covers areas that On the Button does not attempt to cover, and that needs to be said plainly.

What is Impact Early Years mainly designed to do?

The centre of gravity is management, compliance and quality improvement. Impact gives leaders one place to check whether work has been completed, identify gaps and keep a wider range of operational records together.

Its published nursery plan includes baby, toddler and preschool room audits, safeguarding audits, cause-for-concern forms, children’s profiles, vulnerabilities, accident and incident reports, concerns and complaints, staff well-being, DBS and qualification checks, supervision records, fire safety and risk assessments.

That is a broad offer. A manager who is trying to reduce filing cabinets, bring audits online and see the position across the whole setting may understandably feel that Impact ‘does more’.

Does that mean Impact Early Years does not work from the nursery room up?

Not quite. It would be unfair to say that Impact only sits at head-office level. It includes room audits, accident and incident records and cause-for-concern forms, so information can certainly originate from practice.

The more useful question is not whether a system contains a form called ‘cause for concern’. It is what happens next when a practitioner notices something at 10.17 on a busy Tuesday morning.

Can they record it quickly? Who is alerted? How soon do they know? Can the concern be linked to earlier well-being entries, injuries, absences or family information? Can the DSL record what was considered, what was done and why? Will the full chronology still make sense six months later?

On the Button was designed around that route. The whole team, including bank staff, students and volunteers where the setting permits it, can record concerns. Safeguarding entries trigger immediate email and SMS alerts to the chosen senior people, while general well-being entries are brought to their attention through a daily notification.

A practical way to divide the work

A setting using both could make the distinction very clear:

Area Impact Early Years On the Button
Main purpose Broad management, compliance and quality-improvement records Specialist safeguarding, well-being and complaint workflow
Likely starting point Leadership checks, audits, staff records and operational tasks The practitioner noticing something about a child, family or colleague
Examples Room audits, safer recruitment, training, fire safety, risk assessments and supervision Concerns, injuries, emerging well-being patterns, complaints, whistleblowing, actions and outcomes
Senior view A wider picture of whether required work is complete across the setting A connected picture of what has been noticed, reported, acted on and followed through

The biggest danger is creating two safeguarding records

Using both systems only makes sense if one is named as the setting’s definitive safeguarding record. It would be inadvisable to place some child concerns in Impact, others in On the Button and then leave a few actions in email or handwritten notes.

That would weaken the very chronology the setting is trying to strengthen. A DSL could be looking at one system without realising that another member of staff has added relevant information somewhere else.

If Impact is used for the broad compliance layer and On the Button is used for safeguarding, early years well-being, EYFS complaint management and whistleblowing, that division should be written into the safeguarding policy, staff induction and day-to-day procedures. Everyone needs to know where the record belongs.

Could Impact Early Years replace On the Button?

For some settings, possibly. If its safeguarding process meets everything the provider needs, they may decide that one broad system is enough. The mistake would be to assume that a longer feature list automatically means the specialist safeguarding journey has also been replaced.

Before making that decision, ask Impact to show the following in a live demonstration:

• A room practitioner recording a small concern while still working with children.

• Exactly how the DSL or registered person is alerted, including what happens when the concern is urgent.

• How several low-level well-being observations are connected to reveal a developing pattern.

• How actions, decisions and outcomes remain attached to the original information.

• How complaints are followed from the first grumble or verbal concern through to the final response.

• Whether whistleblowing can be genuinely anonymous, and who is able to see it.

• The chronology or report that would be shared with Social Care, the LADO or Ofsted.

Those answers matter more than the number of modules shown on a pricing page.

Could On the Button replace Impact Early Years?

Not if the setting wants the full range of management and audit tools Impact provides. On the Button does not try to become a fire-safety system, a room-audit programme or a complete staff-management platform. A nursery would still need other arrangements for those responsibilities.

That is why this is not simply a contest over which system has the most features. They have been built with different priorities.

What would it cost to use both?

Impact Early Years currently publishes an annual price of £999.99 plus VAT for a preschool and £1,199.99 plus VAT for a nursery. Monthly options are also published.

On the Button is priced by registered places. The current annual subscription is £8 per registered place, or 73p per registered place each month, with a one-off set-up fee of £1 per registered place and a minimum of 25 places. VAT is not applicable.

For example, a 50-place nursery would pay £400 a year for On the Button, plus a £50 one-off set-up fee, alongside the Impact nursery subscription of £1199.99. That is a meaningful additional cost, so the setting should be able to explain what each system is doing and why both are earning their place.

So, should an early years setting have both?

There are three reasonable answers.

• Use Impact Early Years on its own if you want one broad compliance platform and, after testing it properly, are satisfied that its safeguarding process meets your setting’s needs.

• Use On the Button on its own if your priority is specialist EYFS safeguarding, early years safeguarding, EYFS well-being, early years well-being and early years complaint management, while your existing systems already cover the broader operational work.

• Use both if you want Impact as the wider management and compliance layer, while keeping On the Button as the single specialist record for safeguarding, well-being, complaints and whistleblowing.

Do not compare the systems by counting features. Compare what happens from the moment a practitioner notices something to the point where a senior leader has acted and can evidence what happened next.

Final Thoughts

Impact Early Years appears to offer a useful top-level view of a setting’s wider compliance and operational position, although it also contains records that can begin in individual rooms. On the Button is deliberately narrower. It begins with day-to-day practice and concentrates on carrying concerns through the safeguarding and well-being process without losing the small details that may later form a much bigger picture.

That means there is a credible case for having both. There is also a credible case for choosing only one. What is not safe is buying a broad system because it appears to do more, without checking whether it handles the particular safeguarding journey your team relies on.

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Sources

This comparison uses the providers’ own descriptions of their purpose and approach: Impact Early Years and On the Button. Product details should be checked directly before making a decision.

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