When Everyone Thinks It’s Somebody Else’s Job

A familiar scenario: a contract adjudication group (Everybody) is asked by the tender management team (Somebody) whether the standards listed in a bed and mattress contract are current and accurate.

• Everybody assumes Somebody will know.
• Somebody assumes Everybody must know.
• Anybody vaguely recalls something about fire safety and bed rails.
• But in the end, Nobody is really sure which standards apply – or if they even should be included in the contract specification.

Why Understanding Standards Matters

If you’re part of a contract adjudication group, you play a critical role in supporting fair, transparent procurement – helping to ensure best value for money by assessing cost, quality, and sustainability.

A key part of evaluating quality is confirming that products meet appropriate safety and performance standards. But navigating these standards can feel like getting lost in a virtual forest.

Which Standards Should You Use?

Should you refer to:

• British Standards (BS)

• European Norms (EN)

• International Standards (ISO)?

And what about Technical Reports or Specifications? Knowing which ones are relevant and how they’re applied can be confusing – but it doesn’t have to be.

SoTV and BHTA: Cutting Through the Confusion

To help make sense of it all, SoTV has teamed up with the British Health Trades Association (BHTA) – specifically the Beds and Support Surfaces and Pressure Care and Seating Sections—to create a series of bite-sized blogs.

These posts will guide you through the standards landscape, making it easier to understand what’s essential and how to apply it in practice.

Start Here: A Helpful Introduction

While we prepare the series, you can explore a helpful starting point:
🔗 New Standards for Testing Mattresses and Related Products – An Introduction

This article introduces the BS EN ISO 20342 series of mattress and overlays standards and outlines key updates in safety and performance testing.

A Note on Terminology

The ISO 20342 series encompasses most Assistive Products for Tissue Integrity, which they abbreviate to APTIs.  (Note: Seat cushions are covered by the ISO 16840 series.)

These standards are developed by the International Organization of Standardization, ISO. Prefixes are added when adopted:

• In Europe EN: e.g. EN ISO 20342-1

• In the UK BS: e.g. BS EN ISO 20342-1

Where the standards are technical reports (TR) or technical specifications (TS) the prefixes are different:

• In Europe, CEN is added as a prefix: e.g. CEN ISO/TS 20342-10
• In the UK, PD is added as a further prefix: e.g. PD CEN ISO/TS 20342-10