January 13, 2012

Bog Standard Campaign

Here at ToyGuard, we work mostly with Childcare professionals who look after the under 5′s. We strive to ensure that hand hygiene is taught as being important but not so much as to create insecurity or obsessive behaviour.  Just simply an understanding of why we wash our hands, how to wash our hands and when to wash our hands.  Now, in the under 5′s “told you so”, doesn’t nurture the tolerant caring individual we want our children to grow up to be so we help and support them so that when they go to school they will be able to wash their own hands and know the why’, how’s and when.

ToyGuard Soap Dispensers
Who says soap has to be boring?

To this end I am throwing myself wholeheartedly behind the Bog Standard campaign which is trying to raise awareness of low standards within schools in the UK and persuade the government to introduce legislation so that every school provides soap – 31% of schools in the UK fail to provide this essential item.  We provide soap systems that are bright, colourful robust and inexpensive. One dose of soap costs less than 1/3rd of a penny (actually its 1100 doses for £3).  The point is that soap is cheap and is a basic right.  A nursery would be critised highly by Ofsted or Care Comission if they were found not to have provided adequate hand washing facilities.  So I child is taught/encouraged/rewarded for developing this essential skill and as soon as they get to school it is disregarded (well in about 30% of them).  This is shocking.

Furthermore the Bog Standard Campaign has discovered that more than 1 in 5 schools do not provide hot water?  Is the the 20th Century or the 18th?  I commend the Bog standard campaign they are trying to raise 2000 signatures to raise awareness with government, but I think they could go further.  They should name and shame the schools and the local authorities that encourage it – I would also be interseted in cross referencing this information with HPA statistics to see if this ties in with any specific outbreaks.  Goodness knows what they do with refard to paper towels?

All this I have stumbled upon because we are about to start distributing an innovative hand dryer targetted at the under 12′s. Puff the Magic Dryer  looks amazing and we can’t wait to get some in stock to show you all – but visit Puff the Magic Dryer’s website for a bit of info.  What excites us is their focus on handwashing - we have suggested they launch a soap too as there seems to be thousands of schools out there without any.

To help please sign the petition at https://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/bogstandard

Thanks,

The ToyGuard Team

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Filed under Adult Female, Bog Standard Campaign, Children's health, Family, Hand Drying, Hand Washing, Hygiene, Nursery News, Puff The Magic Dryer, Schools, Soap

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December 1, 2011

If you leave Rudolph a carrot – please wash it first

One of my (many) Christmas wishes  is that both parents and care professionals are made aware of the risk of E-Coli not just from animals but

Healthy and a health risk?

also from organic vegetables. Another nursery (this time in Surrey) has been partially closed due to one confirmed and two further suspected cases of VTEC o157 E-Coli.  I cannot trace any detail of the source but numbers are on the increase and the HPA are concerned.  Now where at what point does awareness transcend into scaremongering?  Tough question.  But maybe the nursery press as well as the parent press (mumsnet take note), that when extoling the virtues of the humble carrot (organic of course) that it needs to be washed properly – washing does not take away the goodness and if dealing with other peoples children, I would go as far as using a mild sanitiser such as milton to create a vegetable wash (see previous Blog titled EAT YOUR GREENS- its ok i’ve washed them).

E-Coli has been with us as long as humans have been on the planet and it will continue to be so, however it is likely that it will continue to evolve and we as humans have to remain aware that certain strains are more harmful to small children, some to elderly, some to female adults more than other groups.  But if we can improve the awareness of parents childminders and carers, then reported cases will decrease. For more info visit the HPA website -  http://www.hpa.org.uk/NewsCentre/NationalPressReleases/2011PressReleases/110930Ecolioutbreakassocwithsoilonveg/

There are free handwashing .pdf’s for carers to use on our website http://www.toyguard.co.uk/colouring as well as information on outdoor hygiene.  ToyGuard can also provide hand wash training (free to our customers) for staff and children.  If you would like more info we can be contacted on 0845 300 6181 or by email info@toyguard.co.uk

Iain

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Filed under Adult Female, Children's health, E-Coli, Family, Hand Washing, Hygiene, o157, Organic Vegetables

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November 22, 2011

News and Poos does interviews!

Had a nice chat with Hannah Fox at Mother and Baby magazine yesterday.  The main thrust was how do parents get the balance between good hygiene and not drifting into OCD territory.  I am no psychologist so I don’t know the answer but as a parent I encourage my children to wash their hands after going to the toilet and before eating.  The best advice to parents or carers alike is to lead by example.  Children do what they see adults do, its that simple.  If we wash our hands when we should then children will too.  Children should want to wash their hands,not feel the need to ‘have’ to. The basic rules (before eating, after handling high risk food and after visiting the toilet) has expanded over recent years to include before and after visiting hospital or sick relatives, touching or petting animals and more recently handling fruit and vegetables.  As parents we need to give guidance and evaluate the risk – our children will learn to evaluate the risk too, but from us the parents. The difficulty comes in understanding that said risk. Information is key but only if it is in informed, fair and unbiased.   Hopefully my interview will reiterate my thoughts here and come over that way, unbiased as we strive to be here at ToyGuard.  Our website has free resources for nurseries and parents alike and we will answer every question from parent, nursery or even journalist.

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November 9, 2011

Just thinking….

Tomorrow (Thurs) I am doing hand wash training with the staff of a nursery.  It always takes something to happen for a nursery to ask for hand hygiene training – up until an ‘incident’ the assumption is that the adults should know how to wash their own hands – is a bit  like assuming that an adult can drive, or play a musical instrument, or read, or write.  OK, so not everyone knows how to drive or play guitar but why should those within the nursery sector assume that the staff actually know and more importantly understand the reasons for washing hands?  And if they do, shouldn’t we revisit the subject onece a year?  In the nursery environment infection control is refreshed each year.  As first aid, manual handling and COSHH (Control of substances hazardous to health) should all be but are they?  If refresher essentials like first aid and COSHH are not being carried out what chance of hand hygiene getting done?  And how does that sit with parents?  Parents are ultimately responsible for teaching their children how to wash their hands but do they know?  Do any nurseries out there teach the parents?

Just thinking……

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October 21, 2011

Carrot sticks and e-coli

My daughter loves raw carrot as do a lot of children buty before you serve them up just think about how you prepared them…..

Hand-hygiene-ecoli-o157
EColi 0157 under a microscope

At the end of September the HPA quietly announced that there had been an unidentified E-Coli outbreak which had infected over 250 people and killed one.  Last week there were two further reported incidents – both in Nurseries. As yet there is no news on which exact strain of E-Coli (but o157 is the one that causes us problems in the UK), nevertheless it reminds us that when dealing with the under 5′s, who have increased risk of developing Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome (HUS) which affects the Kidneys and is potentially lethal to this age group in particular.

Everyone is pretty stringent with hand washing having handled raw meat or chicken, but how many of us are so particular after handling raw vegetables.  In these most recent outbreaks it is most likely that infection has come from soil present on potatoes, carrots or leaks – leaks look clean on the outside but we all find soil inside the outer leaves…. So please ensure you wash your hands after preparing vegetables, clean utensils after using them to prepare raw vegetables and if serving raw carrot sticks, ensure they are washed well or better yet washed in a mild Milton solution to kill any potentially harmful bacteria.  It is difficult enough to get children to eat fruit and vegetables, without them being ill afterwards.

If you would like more information on E-Coli or hand hygiene generally visit our website or drop me an email.  Iain.

 

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September 20, 2011

Nappy Waste … the truth

Standard nappy unit
240L Lockable Nappy Bin

Its says a lot about the agency responsible for waste that they recommend that ‘Advice should be sought from waste contractors regarding the most appropriate packaging and disposal requirements for hygiene waste’. Interpreted by less scrupulous providors as ‘print your own money’. So what do you have to do and do you have to segregate your nappy (and other sanitary) waste at all?

The definitive guide is that if the hygiene waste generated is more than 2.3% of your municipal (general) waste then it needs to be seperated – although other guides say that if you generate more than 25Kg of hygienic waste per annum then that might be the case too! Crikey two sentences and already there is contradictions in the guidance, and I claim to be an expert!   So we have the example of Nursery A that puts the nappy waste into black bags and disposes of it with its general waste and Nursery B who has been given poor advice from the contractor – (Lets call them contractor P they have made them sign a 5 year contract) and are charging Nursery B £27,000 a year to dispose of the nappy waste. Nursery A is 500 yrds from Nursery B but had different advice from the local EHO.

The legislation is confusing and there is no legislative protection for Nursery B because the goivernment agency has been somewhat vague. Now to rub salt into the wounds…errr , i mean, in an attempt to encourage businesses as a whole to improve seperation of recyclable waste and reduce landfill the Government are imtroducing what is known as waste heirachy, this is a declaration that nurseries must sign to say they are a) only producer of the waste and that they have seperated and processed the waste into recyclable categories – Contractor PH smells an opportunity and now asks all its customers to sign a pre waste acceptance and charges them £125 for the privelage.  Less scrupulous contactors adjust their paperwork to include the changes and do not charge – as it is their responsibility to provided the dreaded Duty of Care note and ultimately their licence number printed on it.  The big guys may get a fine but having just creamed several million pounds from its customers it can afford it – unlike many of its customers.

So what is the guidance? Most local EHO’s do not want to know and will stick their fingers in their ears if you ask them.  However ignorance is no defence to your business so here are our thoughts:

1. Ask your current general municipal waste provider if they allow hygenic waste (EWC code 20 01 99) to be disposed of alongside general waste (EWC Code 20 03 01) and make sure that your Duty of care note reflects this – THIS IS IMPORTANT you must retain for two years your Duty of Care notes for inspection. If they will not then:

2. Ask an independent specialist waste provider to quote and get a quote per container (65L, 240L, 480L 770L, 1000L), not per bag of waste as you will charged for every part bag and your staff may not be as diligent as you with regards to filling a bag!

3. Only sign a contract for 12 months – a good service provider will rely on a qualiy of service to retain the business, not a big legal team.

4. Ensure there is no hidden charges i.e. landfill, incineration, duty of care, etc. the price quoted is the total.

5. Do not be bullied into paying 12 months in advance.  Pay quarterly, you have some leverage then.

Here at ToyGuard we have set up a Nappy Waste collection team and now service Nurseries from Eastbourne to Aberdeen.  We do what we say we will do, we provide a great service at a fair price and will not sell you something that you don’t need.  Helping nurseries achieve compliance whilst saving money is what we are all about, so if you want one less thing to worry about, why not give us a call?

- Iain

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August 3, 2011

Pinching pennies – wasting pounds?

Saving time and money

pinching pennies - losing pounds?

Everything we have done this week has involved examining costs.  Not that unusual in small businesses generally or in the current economic climate.  There are deals to be done, but of course it is a two way street.  In the last few working weeks I have saved several thousand pounds by asking for discounts and negotiating hard, being Scottish I would like to think I would do that everytime but I know that I don’t – it is only when a product or service seems expensive or a supplier lets me down do I choose to delve deeper, look for an alternative or negotiate harder.

As a business that provides products and services to the nursery sector we know that we cannot always be the cheapest – there will always be someone bigger or more desperate that will cut margin to the bone to secure business and yes we have been guilty of that to secure some business that is either personal or tactical.  It still surprises me though how lazy uninterested companies are when looking at costs and will often sacrifice safety or compliance in exchange for a ‘deal’, and nurseries, are unfortunately, some of the worst offenders.

Why? Well lets use an example.

Nursery A reckons they save a fortune because they send someone to Tesco and Asda and Lidl to get the best products at the best price – there are a few nurseries that are walking distance from a major supermarket but not that many.  The cost of a bottle of own label sanitiser may be only £1.29 – Dettol is £2.99 but may be on special. Popping to the supermarket is not a 5 minute task, one individual may buy product X because they like it or they get clubcard points or its the cheapest on the shelf – that day.

Let me become a worst case pessimist here…. The individual in the car driving back to the nursery is in a car accident – is their car insurance covered? Probably not. Would the driver be carrying MSDS (Bleaches and acids when mixed can cause an explosive reaction and toxic gas) probably not. Back at the nursery the member of staff slips a disk lifting the bags of chemicals out of the car – is manual handling supplies from a car covered? Probably not.  All staff that use chemicals must understand COSHH (Control of substances hazardous to health), and as a commercial premises a nursery owner must ensure that there are Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) in case of a medical emergency – by chopping and changing chemicals it increases the risk of a nurseries compliance greatly. Do nurseries that buy chemicals from supermarkets always carry the right MSDS? probably not.

So it seems like common sense to us to take on that responsibility to our customers. We deliver, we ensure compliance by supplying MSDS and completing annual COSHH training, the best bit is we use a commercial range that require less chemical to do the job (and less time), our sanitiser cleaner works out at 12p a bottle – it is no wonder that this is the products that the supermarkets use themselves!

Pretty much all we do looks at the overall costs - our nappy bins are 50% cheaper to use than sangenic nappy wrapper systems!

Hand Soap is another example of false economy.  A £1 liquid pump soap in the supermarket may deliver 100 doses of soap.  Our 500ml unit delivers 1100 doses of soap not bad for £3.50?

ToyGuard continues to be the only specialist hygiene business that focusses on the nursery and preschool sector.  That insight and knowledge gives us an enviable position of trust which we cannot abuse. So why doesn’t everyone use us?  Well we are still small and couldn’t cope with thousands of enquiries but we have grown considerably over the last year with partners now established in Scotland and the SE of England.  We are talking to several large goups and already have shown some the benefits of a dedicated knowldgeable supplier.

If you would like to chat to us we will be on stand B22 at the Childcare Expo on the 16/17th September at the Ricoh Conference Centre Coventry.

Iain

 

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July 25, 2011

Holidays? Why bother?

Well we are back, the world is still turning although there have been a couple of news stories that quite frankly I’m rather grateful that we missed.  I can escape the news for 10 days but not work. Email, text and mobile phones ensure of that although Yell.com stopped calling me so there was a silver lining.

Dealing with work while on holiday is something that you get used to, being self employed the chance to get away should suffice and I am grateful to get away and have 10 days in the sun with the biggest question of the day is whether you should go to the beach or stay by the pool?  Customers are always great when you are away, “no problem”, “sorry to bother you”, “it can wait”.  Suppliers however are a different and all together more annoying kettle of fish.  I’ve had two supplier ‘issues’ to deal with one could have waited two days until I got back but no the immortal ‘sorry to bother you while your on holiday but….’. I am tolerant but when it is something that is not life or death and two days from being back it makes you wonder.

Although I spent time digging holes in the sand, looking for shells or sticks or crabs (I love crabs), I need to read, if my head isn’t occupied with something it drifts back to work and all the things that need to be done when I get back – it must be a guilty conscience?

So here I am back, more tired than I was before and with more work to do than before, but it was worth it.  I will catch up over the next week or so, the schools are all off so work will quieten down and I will get caught up, maybe a book will take 3 months to read instead of 3 days, but it is a price worth paying.  Being self employed I never miss a sports day or a school play. I’m lucky enough to get away with the family once or twice a year and having to do a bit of work is a price worth paying.  If only I could afford a sail boat or find a holiday location with no mobile phone or broadband or insects that bite.  Hey ho, we can but dream.  The very good news is, as a family, no one got sick or got sunburn or broke anything for which I am truly grateful.

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June 30, 2011

Awards..well…worth the wait?

Firstly apologies on the lack of activity on the blog.  We are reconfiguring all our websites and I was trying to keep out of the way but sorry Alex I have to write while I’m still bitter and twisted the iron’s hot!

We were up for an online awards ceremony.  It was more than just an anticlimax, as a team we feel as though we were back at the school playground being enticed to take part in an activity that we would ulimately fail and be ridiculed for.  Having been encouraged actively to enter by the organiser I quote from the email announcing we had been shortlisted as a finalist….

Blow Your Trumpet Loudly!

Next week all shortlisted finalists will be
          sent a press release and finalists’ logo which you are
          entitled to use.  Please celebrate your success by using
          the release and logo within your printed material, on your
          blog, within your newsletters or on your website.  You can
          also use the press release to send to local press, simply
          amend where highlighted.  This is also a fantastic opportunity
          to ‘tweet’ loudly within your social networks.  We certainly
          will be!

We certainly did.  We gladly received the ‘alert’ that we were finalists and dutifully tuned in for the ‘Live’ awards ceremony on twitter.  Our expectations were low as we were competing with international giants such as Peppa Pig and Hop! So after all the kaffuffle and having proudly uploaded our rosette stating we were proud finalists, this morning at 10am we sat attentively, checking Twitter every 5 minutes to get this -

10.37 @totstotravel: Lastly, in the app. catergory we did not find an app. that blew us away so have not awarded a winner – maybe next year? #JustGoAwards 

I bet the Academy Awards sometimes feel like that when reviewing the films of the year, or maybe the Football Association will stop awarding Player of the year as no one ‘blows them away’ like Rooney did in 2007?  Some say its not the winning but the taking part? Well we shall be removing our ‘finalist’ accolade, to be runner up to Peppa Pig or a hopping green thing we could live with, but be classed as mediocre wish-wash hurts!

Tomorrow I will have a sore tummy and won’t be going to work!

 

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May 31, 2011

EAT YOUR GREENS! (It’s ok, i’ve washed them)

After my last blog highlighted that E-Coli was just around the corner – I had hoped that I might have been proven wrong.  As someone who eats salad under duress, I sometimes wonder if there was some incident in the past that subconciously told me to avoid lettuce.  Probably not I just find green stuff bland and boring – especially lettuce and cucumber, it’s not hereditory though as my daughters would eat cucumber every day if they could.

The BBC coverage of the current outbreak is not unusual, there was a similar outbreak (with spinach I believe) in the US a few years ago.  In some parts of Europe raw sewage is still used as a fertiliser on crops and although I haven’t bothered to investigate if they have identified the source, it is worth remembering that buying fruit and veg from the supermarket or in a restaurant is no guarantee it is clean or sourced from a reputable supplier.

For us, as adults the risks are lower, we have a fully developed immune system (and a stomach full of friendly E-Coli microbes) so are likely to have been exposed to less virulent variants of e-coli in the past – however E-Coli o157:H7 was only first identified 20 years ago (in Scotland) and it tends to be this more virulent strain that cause outbreaks like the one being reported in today’s press.  E-Coli 0157:H7 can cause kidney failure in the under 5′s and in some cases death, which is part of the reason we set ToyGuard up back in 2006 – as a parent, then, I was not aware that only 5 microbes (100,000′s can fit on the head of a pin) are enough to infect and cause serious damage. (Update the strain is o104 strain not 0157 and is affecting more women than children).

With one child being sent to nursery with a sore tummy and runny bottom – a whole nursery can be infected and that is a disaster that we hope to avoid.  So whether you are a nursery or a parent  and dishing up fruit and vegetables to the under 5′s, we always recommend that you wash and peel (even if it says its done on the packaging).  Lettuce, spinach and other leaf variants, wash thoroughly.  Use a chlorine based sanitising solution (IMPORTANT: follow manufacturers instructions) and soak the fruit salad or vegetables for 15 minutes before thoroughly rinsing with cold water.

And next time you are on holiday, think twice before force-feeding your little ones salad!

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