History of EN1729 and the furniture website

The school furniture website was funded and jointly launched in 2002 by the then Department for Education and Skills (DFES), Counties Furniture Group (CFG) and the Furniture Industry Research Association (FIRA) as a co-operative project in response to the growing concern amongst schools and parents of back pain in children, caused, in part by poor size-matching of furniture.

Collation of new ergonomic material of 1400 children in 2001 – a project jointly funded by the DFES, CFG, FIRA and the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) had provided raw data needed to give the UK a stronger position on the European Standard committee for school furniture (EN1729)and to ensure it closely reflected the size ranges of UK children. The website, helped by the invaluable data offered by the 2001 project, was also seen as an effective way of raising awareness of EN1729. It was felt that to offer both guidance on the choice of furniture and a teaching resource to practical subjects such as design and technology was the best way of ensuring that the standard was noticed and requested. It was felt that this in turn would encourage manufacturers to adopt the standard as, at the time, take up and enthusiasm for it was patchy.

The site design was undertaken by CFG who established an interactive method of charting the data supplied by FIRA. The DFES provided feedback on site development and input into the categories covered.

A subsequent update to the site was undertaken in 2005 when additional material was added to extend the scope of the information.

In 2008 the British Educational Suppliers Association joined the project team to fund another phase of development which will include more information on the use of European Standard BS EN 1729. BESA have committed to implementing a code of practice whereby members will provide furniture meeting the standard from April 2009.