EASAL environment audit platform

Childbase asked IceBubble to take EASAL, the Environment Audit for Speech and Language developed by Dr Tanya Richardson at the University of Northampton, and turn it from a paper booklet into a digital platform: a tablet app for practitioners to audit each room, and a secure web portal where nurseries, nursery groups and local authorities see the results and act on them.

We did more than digitise the form. We worked with Childbase on how the audit should feel in a busy room, how scores are calculated and when they are shown, and how results become a practical action plan. The platform covers everything from licensing and onboarding to the audit itself, the action plan and reporting across many sites.

The challenge

The paper audit worked, but it stayed on paper. Scoring was done by hand, action plans lived in folders, and there was no way for a nursery group or a local authority to see how settings were doing or whether things were improving over time. Whatever we built had to be:

• Simple for practitioners to complete in the room, on a small, inexpensive tablet, even with no signal
• Faithful to the research: the same 27 elements, statements and scoring as the published audit
• Secure, with no passwords, and with access that reflects who is responsible for what, from a single nursery to a whole local authority
• Flexible enough for Childbase to edit the audit and add new versions without a developer

What we built

A two-part system designed to make the audit quick to complete and the results easy to act on.

The tablet app (.NET MAUI, iPadOS and Android): one element per screen with the full graded statements, a navigator showing what is answered and what is left, offline auditing that saves on the tablet and sends results when a connection returns, and scores held back until the end so practitioners describe the room as it is. Phones are blocked by design, because phones are not allowed in children's rooms.

The web portal (.NET MVC): audit history and progress for each room, action plans with review and download, dashboards for nursery groups and local authorities across their sites, self-serve licensing and onboarding, and an audit builder so Childbase can maintain the instrument and publish new versions.

Underneath: passwordless sign-in with one-time email codes, a simple way for a manager to sign a shared tablet in with a short code, four-tier role-based access, audit logging, consent records, and data handling in line with GDPR. We also worked with Childbase on product decisions: how grades are shown, which elements are suggested for the action plan, and how to keep the experience calm and simple for staff in a working room.

The result

Nurseries get an instant, consistent picture of each room and a clear plan for what to improve, rather than a booklet to score by hand. Practitioners can complete an audit in the room on a tablet, and managers can see the results and track the action plan straight away.

Nursery groups and local authorities can see how settings are doing across their area and where support is needed. The research behind EASAL now reaches far more settings, and the audit can grow with new versions without rebuilding the platform.