1 week Ago
A children’s soft play centre has defended its reputation amid criticism about its hygiene and safety standards. Funplex on Hyde Business Park in Bevendean came under fire after images taken by someone claiming to be a former employee at the centre circulated online recently. The images and videos, from 2022, show dirty kitchen surfaces and equipment and damaged soft play equipment.
However, Funplex has spoken out against the claims and said that the images have been “taken out of context”. A spokesperson for the soft play centre said: “These images and comments do not reflect the standards and expectations we have and we apologise for any distress such photos and comments have created for our customers. “We take these concerns very seriously and had already taken steps to remove staff that did not met our performance expectations.
"We have in place daily, weekly and monthly cleaning processes as well as intra-day activities to ensure Funplex is kept at the highest possible standard. “Where these standards have not been met, we take action to reduce the risk of recurrence and unfortunately this has historically led to the removal of some staff.” Funplex said they undertake daily safety checks and have commissioned a cleaning review from an external supplier who identified no issues.
READ MORE: Main city road shut by emergency services due to serious incident The site was also awarded a five-star food hygiene rating by the Food Standards Agency in July 2024. They added: “We do take exception to these online photos and comments which have been taken out of context. “For example, the photos of the floor pads were after we experienced a leak in the roof and dirty water seeped into the play area.
All the mats effected were replaced or repaired and these photos were taken at the start of the renovating period. Exceptional events like this sometimes occur, but action was swiftly taken to restore the area to the highest standard. “Further comments that suggest Funplex has not advanced are clearly not true.
We recently installed wall puzzle games to allow children to play and have fun with the puzzles whilst improving their cognitive and fine motor skills as well as visual processing. “We have also recently installed floor piano pads allowing children to experience musical development whilst having fun. And even though we, like many small independent businesses, are facing difficult economic times, we have recently commissioned two ‘boostapods’ to expand the fun in our popular ball cannon area and we are expecting these to be delivered and installed shortly.
“We believe active play is an essential part of children’s development and continue to strive to enhance and improve the funplex experience.” The centre offers a range of equipment for different aged children, including three slides, a soft ball area, and multi-level play frames. A spokesperson said: “At Funplex, we are proud to offer many local young adults their first employment role and help them learn and develop, gaining vital service skills and the all-important employment experience.
“Their enthusiasm and energy help create the enjoyable customer experience as well as provide them with skills and knowledge that they will take with them into their future careers." Funplex assured customers that they have taken steps to “strengthen their recruitment process” to ensure standards are met. They said: “We truly believe we have an excellent group of individuals now who put the customer experience at the heart of their role.
The team at Funplex are an integral part of the customer experience but we continue to monitor, develop and improve performance." They added that the team's focus is "on ensuring we have a team in place that delivered excellent customer experience, and we continue to improve performance to provide children with enjoyable active play to support their development". "We encourage our customers to visit Funplex and feed back on their experience," they said.
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