Can You Use Get Otii and On the Button together?

The short answer is yes.

In fact, for some early years providers, using Get Otii and On the Button together could make perfectly good sense.

The two systems overlap in some areas, particularly safeguarding, but they were built to do different jobs.

Get Otii is a broad early years compliance and inspection-readiness platform, covering areas such as safeguarding, SEND, children's welfare, curriculum, staff, policies and reporting.

On the Button is much narrower by design.  It is a specialist safeguarding and wellbeing system built around what happens when somebody notices something, records it, the right people are alerted, actions are followed through, and the chronology builds over time.

So the more useful question is not:

“Which one do I have to choose?”

It is:

“What do I want each system to be responsible for?”

Where Get Otii is broader

Get Otii covers a much wider part of running an inspection-ready early years setting.  Its current public offer includes areas such as:

- safeguarding and child protection

- SEND

- children's welfare

- curriculum and teaching

- staff and safer recruitment

- inductions and supervisions

- policies and procedures

- risk assessments

- inspection evidence and reporting

If you want one system helping you organise those broader areas of compliance and inspection readiness, that breadth is a genuine strength.

On the Button does not try to do all of that.  It is not a curriculum system, and it is not a general health and safety system.

But both systems cover safeguarding

This is where the overlap needs to be acknowledged. Get Otii has safeguarding functionality of its own, including concerns recording and follow-up.

So it would be wrong to think of it as a simple choice between a compliance system and a safeguarding system.

The distinction is more subtle:

Get Otii brings safeguarding into a much wider early years compliance platform.

On the Button puts safeguarding and the information around it at the centre of the system.

For some settings, Get Otii's safeguarding functionality may be all they need.  For others, they may want a specialist safeguarding system alongside it.

So why might somebody still use On the Button?

Because safeguarding is On the Button's main job, not just one section of a much broader platform.

On the Button brings together:

- safeguarding concerns

- child wellbeing

- family wellbeing

- staff wellbeing

- complaints

- anonymous whistleblowing

- injuries and body mapping

- immediate safeguarding and complaints alerts

- actions and outcomes

- chronologies

- safer recruitment

- training matrix covering regulatory courses, other training and the option to add additional course types

- training update alerts to support continual compliance

It is designed around the safeguarding journey itself: somebody notices something, records it, the right people know it is there, the concern is acted on, the outcome is added to a chronology of events, and the wider picture can be seen over time.

What changes when you are part of a group?

For a group, the challenge is not simply seeing information from several settings in one place.  It is knowing where attention is needed, how urgent it is and whether somebody is actually dealing with it.

The On the Button Group Picture is built around that principle

Senior leaders can see sites at a glance with a simple red, amber, and green indicator, along with the reason for the flag and the expected response. Safeguarding and whistleblowing concerns can trigger escalating alerts until somebody takes responsibility, while less urgent wellbeing and compliance information can be reviewed without creating unnecessary noise.

It also gives group leaders a working record of what has happened at each setting.  The Communications area shows what is outstanding and requires a response, while the Setting Welfare Report builds a chronological record of interventions, visits, compliance notes and other relevant activity.  Whistleblowing remains separately controlled rather than being folded into the general setting record.

That is where the two systems could complement each other particularly well.  Get Otii can give a group the wider compliance picture, while On the Button’s Group Picture is designed to help senior leaders see where safeguarding attention is needed, how urgent it is and whether action is being taken.

If you use both, decide which system owns safeguarding.

This is the important part

It would not be recommended to ask practitioners to record the same safeguarding concern in both systems.

That risks:

- duplicate records

- different versions of the same concern

- actions being updated in one system but not the other

- confusion about which record is authoritative

- staff being unsure where they are expected to record something

If you use both, you need a clear rule.

For example:

Get Otii: broader compliance, SEND, curriculum, policies, staff records and inspection readiness.

On the Button: the live safeguarding, wellbeing, complaints and whistleblowing record.

For a group, that same rule can apply across every setting, with the Group Picture giving senior leaders the appropriate wider safeguarding view.

That is only one possible arrangement, but everybody needs to understand it.  Your safeguarding procedures should make clear where a concern is recorded and where the definitive chronology is held.

But we have already bought Get Otii. Wouldn't adding On the Button be duplication?

Possibly.

And that is exactly the question you should ask before buying anything else.

Do not add another system simply because somebody tells you specialist safeguarding software is better.  First, test the safeguarding system you already have.

Ask Get Otii to show you exactly what happens when:

A practitioner notices something small about a child that worries them, but they are not yet sure it is a safeguarding concern.

Then follow it all the way through:

Where do they record it?

Who sees it?

Who is alerted?

What happens if the DSL is absent?

Where is the decision recorded?

How are actions followed?

Where is the outcome?

What previous information can the DSL see alongside it?

What happens if similar small concerns arise over several weeks?

Then ask the same questions about:

a parent complaint

a concern about a colleague

somebody wanting to whistleblow anonymously

a family wellbeing concern

a staff wellbeing concern

an unexplained injury

If Get Otii does everything you need, there may be no reason to introduce another safeguarding system.

If you find gaps that matter to you, then looking at a specialist safeguarding system alongside it becomes reasonable.

Would staff find two systems confusing?

They might, if you make the boundaries unclear.

They probably would not if each has an obvious job.

The important part is not simply the number of systems.  It is whether staff know:

“When this happens, I go here.”

If somebody has to stop and think, “Do I put this in Otii, On the Button, both, or neither?”, the implementation has failed.

Is it worth paying for both?

That depends entirely on what problem you are solving.

If Get Otii already meets your safeguarding requirements and your team is confident using it, adding On the Button may simply create another cost and another login.

If you value Get Otii for its wider compliance functionality but want something more specifically built around safeguarding, wellbeing, complaints and whistleblowing, then the two could complement each other rather than compete.

That is why we shouldn't start with price.

Start with the gap

What do you need to be able to do that you are not confident you can do now?

If there is no answer to that question, do not buy another system.

Conclusions

Yes, you can use Get Otii and On the Button together.

There is overlap, so it needs to be intentional.

Get Otii can provide the wider compliance and inspection-readiness infrastructure.  On the Button can provide the specialist safeguarding and wellbeing layer.

For a group, the On the Button Group Picture can help senior leaders see where safeguarding attention is needed, how urgent it is and whether action is being taken.

But before using both, decide exactly where safeguarding concerns are recorded and make one system the definitive safeguarding record.

The goal is not to have more software.

It is to make sure that when somebody notices something important, they know exactly what to do next and the information cannot fall between two systems.

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Sources

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