Standards update – children’s and nursery furniture
The inaugural meeting of CEN TC207 WG2, the European standards committee tasks with developing requirements documents for nursery and children's furniture, met at BSI in London on 5th July 2010.
The present workload of the group is limited, with a revision of EN 12227 - playpens, currently being completed and amendments to EN 716 - cots, being worked on.
However moving forward the workload is likely to increase significantly as the EU are mandating the production of a number of standards for children's/child care items and these will include children's furniture. These standards, when published, will be listed in the Official Journal of the European Community and will therefore be considered mandatory under the General Product Safety Directive.
Whilst no mandates have been received by the group yet, the following furniture related mandates are expected:
| - Mattresses for children's cots | Expected autumn 2010 |
| - Chairs for children | Expected 1st half 2011 |
| - Children's chests | Expected 2nd half 2011 |
| - Bed guards | Expected 2nd half 2011 |
| - Junior convertible beds | Expected 2nd half 2011 |
The exact form and scope of these mandates is not known, but once received the group will only have a limited time (three years) to produce the standards.
