Window blind safety for pets and children

We understand that whilst you want to create a stylish, good looking home, a safe environment for your children and pets is essential and always comes first.

Window blind cords can be tempting to young children and even our furry friends can find endless entertainment in playing with loose, hanging chains.

We always appreciate that customers with children and pets may be concerned about safety and we are too. With all of our window blinds we assess the potential dangers and ensure that these are managed properly, making our window blinds as safe as possible.

With this in mind, we wanted to run through the following suggestions to help you get the most from your window blinds whilst taking safety into consideration.

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The Make It Safe campaign

The Make It Safe campaign promotes ensuring blinds are safe by design. This includes cordless or concealed weights for vertical blinds, tensioned cord safety for venetian blinds and many more features. The campaign provides all the required information for parents and pet owners so that you have the know how on how to keep your window blinds safe to use. One of the key achievements of the campaign is that it introduced legislation that requires us, as blind suppliers to do everything we can to reduce the danger to young children and pets.

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Window blind safety legislation

As a result of the Make It Safe campaign, the laws surrounding window blinds changed significantly in 2014, including the manufacture, installation and supplying of window blinds. There are now 4 key things to look out for when ensuring window blind safety:

• All blinds must be manufactured and installed with a safety device
• Testing must be carried out during home installations
• Maximum lengths for cord and chain lengths
• Blinds must carry warning notices and safety instructions for proper installation and maintenance

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Safety guidance for window blinds

If you had window blinds fitted before 2014, there are still things that you can do to ensure safety for your existing window blinds:

• Make sure window blind cords and chains are always kept out of reach of children
• Do not position your children's bed, cot or high chair next to the window
• Don't place easy to climb furniture next to windows and blind cords
• Install safety devices to secure your chains
• Enquire about having new blinds with modern safety devices prefitted installed

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Which blind types are safest?

In today's modern era of blinds there are several options for window blinds that reduce and completely remove the risks when it comes to look after your children and pets. Window blinds such as vertical blinds can be fitted with a rod system as opposed to cord and chains for tilting as can venetian blinds. The safest blind on the market has to be the Perfect Fit blind which requires absolutely no cords to control.

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Guidance for ensuring your window blinds are safe

If you still feel that you could do with some help to ensure that your window blinds are safe you can always call us on 0115 8700 433 or get in touch via our website. Whether you are looking to have window blind safety devices only or would like to enquire about new, child safe window blinds, we are here to help.

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