Head Over Heels shares insights into cleaning, hygiene and their response to the Coronavirus

The safety of our customers and staff is always our top priority at Head Over Heels. Here's an insight into the standard and additional steps we are taking to guarantee that our centres continue to meet and exceed the highest standards of safety and hygiene.

As part of the everyday processes at our centres, we have a dedicated cleaning team who work after hours to sanitise the play frame and toddler areas using antibacterial commercial spray killing 99.9% of bacteria within 30 seconds. The antibacterial cleaner we use (C25) contains benzalkonium Chloride which inactivates influenza. Steam cleaning kills viruses which is why we steam clean all floors including carpet using Duplex 420 floor steam cleaner and sanitiser which is used in hospitals, care homes and schools. Toilet walls, surfaces and floors are all cleaned with a Duplex Jet Vac steam cleaner as well as chemicals to clean the toilets.

We machine wash all soft toys and costumes on a regular basis. We have our own ball cleaning machine which removes and sterilizes the balls and the base of the ball pool is sterilised by hand using antibacterial spray.

Whilst we are open, we use the antibacterial spray to clean all areas in the café including the high chairs. All crockery and cutlery are cleaned in a commercial dishwasher. Throughout the day, in our cafe and around the play centre, we regularly clean all touch points such as door handles and release buttons for our toddler areas. We routinely clean and sanitise the toilets.

We have antibacterial hand sanitiser available throughout the centres for customers and for staff to use. We also ask party children to use the hand sanitiser before we serve their party buffet. Staff wash their hands on entering the premises and do so on a regular basis throughout the day.

We do not allow children and adults who are unwell to use our facilities.

In response to all the information we currently have available to us in relation to COVID-19 (Coronavirus), we have taken the following additional steps to help protect the health and well-being of our team and customers.

• We have treated the entire play frame using a machine that creates an electrostatic antibacterial fine mist which clings to all surfaces and hard to reach crevices killing 99.99% germs.

• We have issued NHS guidance to the staff about protecting themselves and others against contracting the Corona virus. All staff who are not well are being told to stay at home and follow NHS guidelines and not to return to work until they are fully recovered.

• We have put signage on our doors asking our customers to help us by not coming to use our facilities if they are unwell.

• We will be exercising our rights to refuse admission if a visitor appears unwell.

• All visitors will be asked to use the antibacterial hand sanitiser before entering our premises.

We are closely monitoring all government advice and putting the safety and well-being our customers and team at the forefront of all our decisions. We will revise this policy as soon as more information becomes available to us.

For the latest visitor information, please visit our website.

We thank all our customers for their continued support.

Head Over Heels Chorlton Family Play Centre Scoops Two National Awards

Cathy Dunlevy, owner (centre) and winning Chorlton Team

Head Over Heels in Chorlton has won two national Gold Awards at the British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions annual awards ceremony which celebrates excellence within the leisure industry. It scooped the Food and Beverage Award and, for the second year running, the Family Entertainment Centre (FEC) Attraction of the Year 2018.

The winners had to have an excellent all-round site and be able to demonstrate constantly achieving high standards across all aspects of the business; highlighting why they should be regarded as having the best facilities in the family entertainment and indoor play industry. All the finalists were independently assessed by a mystery shopper.

The judges commended Head`Over Heels for its consistent vision and commitment to the highest standard. The panel said ‘A diverse and constantly evolving offer makes this a stand out centre … a superb range of quality food, locally sourced, wide range of healthy options & dietary needs catered for. Strong philosophy carried through all aspects of offering.’

Opened in 2005, Head Over Heels is one of the longest running, privately owned family play centres in the country basing their success on their philosophy is to create fun, inspiring and magical play experiences for children with equally comfortable and relaxing spaces for the grown-ups.

Cathy Dunlevy, Head over Heels owner said: ”We are so proud that our hard work and commitment has been recognised by the industry. I was aware from the outset that high-quality food and experience was important to our customers. Our passion for creating interesting and diverse menus is driven by our own love of good food and inspired by our outstanding local suppliers. We also pay particular attention to the dietary lifestyle choices of our customers.”

The café menu celebrates the very best of local and regional produce from award winning Chorlton based suppliers including Frost Butchers, Unicorn Grocery and Barbakan Delicatessen and all its teas and coffees are fair trade supplied by Rcoffee based in Didsbury, chosen particularly for their charitable programs to give back to the local community. Head Over Heels has recently signed up for the Worker Bee Manchester Initiative, where 10% of the wholesale purchases will be donated to I Love MCR and Forever Manchester charities.

The Chorlton centre has previously been runner up in The Observer Food Magazines Best for Kids category and nominated for The Manchester Food and Drinks Awards. It took the Gold award for the inaugural BALPPA Family Entertainment Centre of the Year Excellence Award (under 12,000 sq ft) in 2017.

Cathy added: “We strongly believe in supporting our local businesses and communities and we support more than 100 local schools and community fund raising events each year that focus on helping local children.”

The company currently employs over 50 people and works closely with Manchester Metropolitan University investing in management training for employees.

Indoor Play Magazine visited Head Over Heels to catch up with owner Cathy Dunlevy

It’s not every day you walk into an indoor-play centre to be told that its design influences are “Scandi-Boho-Chic” – but to be fair, it’s unlikely you’ll ever walk into any centres quite like the two created by Cathy Dunlevy and her team at Head Over Heels. Indoor Play Magazine paid a visit to the winner of BALPPA Excellence award 2017 for Best Attraction (6,000sqt to 12,000sqft)

Read the full article