Judging a venue
What to look at, in what order, from the doorway inward
The five minute check applied to the parts of a building that tell you most: the entrance, the flooring, the ball pit, the toilets and the frame itself. Where to look, what good looks like, and what should make you leave.
The five minute check: reading a play centre from the doorway
A numbered walkthrough of exactly what to look at when you arrive, in the order that tells you most. What good looks like at each step, and what should make you leave.
Entry and exit control, and why it matters more than anything else
The worst realistic outcome in a play centre is a child leaving the building alone. How good venues control the door without compromising fire escape, and what to look for.
Reading the flooring and the fall zones
Impact surfacing is the least glamorous safety component in the building and the one that fails most visibly. What to look at, what the standard covers, and what wear means.
The toilets, and what they tell you about the rest
The washrooms are the cheapest possible proxy for how a venue is run, because they need attention several times a day and nobody is watching.
Spotting a frame that is past its working life
Play structures do not fail suddenly, they decline. What decline looks like, how to tell cosmetic age from structural age, and when to stop using one.
Reading the room: noise, crowding and sightlines
Three properties of a room decide whether a session is manageable: how loud it is, how many people are in it, and whether you can see your child. None appear in any listing.
The fortnightly note
One email every two weeks. What we have published, one thing worth checking on your next visit, and any change in guidance or consumer law that affects families. It carries a clearly labelled sponsor line and that sponsor cannot influence a word of the safety guidance.
We use your address for the newsletter and nothing else. See privacy and the published rate card.