Essentials: Children’s Furniture & Childcare Products: Standards & Requirements

A cot isn't a crib. A highchair isn't a table-mounted chair. And "children's furniture" isn't covered by one standard — it's covered by well over a dozen, each with its own scope, age range and weight limit. Get the wrong one, and you've tested against the wrong hazards for a product a child will use.

FIRA has published a new Essentials guide, Children’s Furniture & Childcare Products: Standards & Requirements, bringing every relevant standard together in one place. From bunk beds and cribs to safety gates, playpens and table-mounted chairs.

It also unpacks the most significant recent change in this space. From 30 October 2025, products including highchairs, cots, car seats, prams and playpens were removed from the scope of UK flammability regulations entirely. 
These products remain fully covered by general product safety law and their own dedicated standards; it's specifically the flammability rules that no longer apply.

For anyone designing, specifying, importing or selling children's furniture, getting this right isn't optional. It's the difference between a product that's compliant and one that isn’t.

What’s inside:

• The standard that applies to every major children's furniture and childcare product type
• What changed under the 2025 flammability amendment, and what it means in practice
• Where products sit if they combine functions or convert between uses
• Plus, much more.

If you’re a manufacturer, retailer or importer of children’s furniture and childcare products, these clear, practical Essentials offer important need-to-knows, so you can specify, test and sell with confidence.

FIRA members can download Children's Furniture & Childcare Products: Standards & Requirements here.

Available for non-members for £50 from the FIRA Bookshop.