Every person on the planet has to go to the toilet several times a day and the need to empty your bladder or bowels doesn’t go away when you leave the house. But the rapid closure of public toilets in the UK is making it harder to find a toilet away from home.
ERIC’s Communications and Campaigns Manager Rhia Favero discusses what should be done to stem the closure of public toilets.
The Right to Go campaign, which ERIC launched at the start of 2014, seeks to highlight every child’s right to good care for a continence problem at school and their right to access safe and hygienic toilet facilities. The campaign developed from the success and learnings of ERIC’s Bog Standard campaign, which sought legal standards for school toilets.
In addition to continuing to push for school toilets to be protected by legislation, the Right to Go campaign also calls for all school toilets to be safe, hygienic and well-maintained and for schools to have appropriate policies and procedures in place to support children with continence problems.
Until legal standards are in place, it is the job of individual schools to improve their toilet facilities. Not all schools will do this, however, without an added incentive, which can come in the form of pressure from parents and children. Nicola Maybury is one such parent who has successfully pressed her children’s school to improve its toilet facilities. This is the story of how she used the information provided about how good school toilets can improve children’s health and overall wellbeing on ERIC’s website to campaign for better facilities.
Nicola’s story
The toilets at Nicola’s son’s school were in a bad state and she was keen to get the school to improve them. Nicola knew other parents that felt the same way about the toilets and she knew that children had also complained about the facilities.
Eager to find out whether minimum standards for school toilets existed, Nicola searched online and stumbled across ERIC’s website where she discovered lots of information about how good toilets can improve children’s wellbeing and have a positive knock-on effect on their performance at school.
Hard to ignore evidence
Curious to know more, Nicola got in touch with ERIC to find out what she could do to improve the situation at her son’s school. Using evidence from ERIC’s website about the benefits of good toilet facilities, Nicola put together a comprehensive document outlining how the school and the children’s experience there would be greatly improved if the toilets were of a better standard.
She submitted this document to the head teacher and the school governors, who were soon won over by Nicola’s convincing arguments backed up by facts.
On becoming a school governor in early 2014 and joining the wellbeing committee, Nicola discovered that school toilets had been an ongoing issue for a couple of years, but due to some resistance, the issue had not been resolved.
Toilet survey
Nicola teamed up with another governor to do a thorough survey of the school toilets. The survey provided concrete evidence of the scale of the problem by highlighting that some areas of the toilets were more in need of attention than others. This showed that it was a much less daunting problem to fix than originally envisioned. From the results of this survey, the head teacher was able to seek quotes for the different bits of work that needed to be carried out.
Campaign success
Nicola’s campaigning to improve the toilets has been successful – they are due to be refurbished during the October half-term. On completion, Nicola wants to publically recognise the school’s achievement by entering the toilets for the ERIC School Toilet Award.
If you feel the same way as Nicola did about the toilets at your child’s school, try using her tips to campaign for better school toilets (see below). Don’t hesitate to get in touch with ERIC if you need any help or if you just want to let us know how your campaign is going. Then once the toilets are fixed, enter the school for a School Toilet Award.
Nicola’s tips for campaigning for better school toilets:
A question to start us off. How much money do you think is forked out on products during and before the toilet training stage? Have a guess………right, done?
It’s estimated at about £716 per year. Quite an amount, especially if you have more than one child. Nappies are more than likely the main culprit. Those naughty non-disposable ones have brain washed us with their clever non leaky promises and pictures of dancing elephants squirting water.
I’ll admit I wouldn’t be too inclined to do what generations before would have had to of used. Clean towels and safety pins are one thing but then there’s still the need to give that used cloth a good old wash when you got home. Different times different measures!
Not every nation however has completely surrendered to the almighty nappy Gods. Whilst we Westerners cling to Pampers, the Chinese have a different version, one which could bring costs down a great deal. The only problem being I don’t think the primitive British population would take to the idea. Largely because it would involve young children going around with holes in their trousers and *ahem* nothing underneath.
Worn usually out in public the kaidangku, also known as slit bottom pants, are traditionally encouraged to be worn from an early an age as possible. Giving the child added freedom so they can relieve themselves pretty much anywhere at any time.
A technique called the Elimination Method is also used alongside these slit bottom pants. Sometimes this process can be put into action as early as the child being just 2-3 weeks old. As the parent starts to recognise signs of when their son/daughter needs to use the toilet they swiftly put them in an appropriate location to ‘eliminate’ the waste. By making a sound whether it be a whistle or a ‘shush’ over the toilet the child is encouraged to ‘go’ and within time will learn the cue and eventually become nappy-free.
A research study was carried out in Vietnam and the results showed that babies were releasing the bladder ‘on demand’ at 9 months, independently at 12 months and finally have full control at 18 months!
So should we Brits give this a go? The Elimination Method may already be used by some but how about these trousers with holes in? There aren’t too many public toilets that are still in use to pop your child on and start humming that tune. And I’m unsure how other people would feel about you holding him/her over a public bin as in China. Parents will try all sorts to teach socially acceptable toilet training. How about this as a new way of thinking?
You can find other parents’ opinions of this method here; http://realnappiesforlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/are-potty-training-methods-in-west.html
Crescent
Our story today comes from a young man who we have come into contact with through the ERIC helpline. He is 12 and has very bravely offered to share his personal experience of bed wetting with us, in the hope that other children and their parents/carers could understand what it’s like to suffer from continence issues.
“Hello I decided to write about my problem for ERIC. I am a 12 year old boy who still wets the bed and it is very frustrating for me and my family.
I used to wet the bed every night. I would find out that I had wet the bed because I would wake up in the night and I would feel damp and cold. When I checked I would be soaked through.
When I was little, I would hide my wet bed from my mum and carry on sleeping through, but now that I am older I do tell my parents and I strip my bed myself in the middle of the night. Sometimes, it is pitch black in the house, so I have got a torch and gone to the airing cupboard and taken out new sheets in the dark.
Sometimes the bed is so wet that the quilt is soaking too. This causes an argument between my mum and me. This is because I tell my mum that I didn’t know I had wet the bed in the night, and most of the time I don’t. But my mum reckons I did know and I am just trying to hide the wet sheets from her. But, in the morning she always can smell the wee in my bedroom – so there is no hiding it.
I went to see the Doctor and then a wee nurse at the local clinic. She recommended an alarm that I could clip onto my pants at night. It used to go off like a siren in the night. It did work, because as soon as the alarm went off when I was wetting myself , I would wake up and try and hold it in whilst I ran to get to bathroom. But sometimes the wee kept coming out whilst I was running. Once or twice the siren didn’t go off at all because the wee had not touched the metal clip, so I still wet the bed.
The nurse also told me that I should be drinking much more than I was, especially during school time. Unfortunately, during school I would drink more but then I would have to get up and go to the loo during class – so I found that I was going to the toilet more than I was learning. One of my teachers did understand because my mum had written a note to her explaining that I was training my bladder so had to drink plenty and go to the toilet when I needed. But my next teacher didn’t know about it and he wouldn’t let me go to the toilet during class. But I never told him what my problem was because I was worried all the class would hear.
The most nerve wrecking time was when I went to stay the night at friends. Every time I went I was really, really, worried. I would go to sleep ok and sometimes my mum would give me a tablet to take which was supposed to stop me making wee. Once I did wee my sleeping bag at a friend’s house. In the morning I got changed in my sleeping bag and I told my friend to go downstairs so that I could sort it all out. Another time, a friend noticed that my pyjamas were wet, so I said that I had tipped a drink on me.
In my bedroom I do have a bed protection rule! Every time a friend comes round, I tell them that I have one rule and they are not allowed on my bed. I lie and say that my bed is weak and it can only support a certain amount of weight. Really it is because if they went up on my bed they may notice I had a bed protector, an alarm and possibly a smell because I had hidden the wet sheets.
I have recently had to have my mattress thrown away because the bed protector had leaked and the mattress was really smelly. So I have slept on the floor for a few weeks on bedrolls whilst waiting for the new bed to arrive. During this time, I wore disposable pyjama pants because sometimes I have rolled off and weed on the carpet!
It is very frustrating that I still wet the bed at my age. Overall, the main thing that I feel is guilt! Because I wet the bed it creates so much washing and having to spend money on alarms, disposable pants and now mattresses it makes me feel guilty for being a bed wetter.”
Thank so much for taking the time to share your story with us. We really appreciate your honesty and telling us about how bed wetting impacts on so many aspects of your daily life. We really hope your experiences will help other children and young people understand that they are not alone with their worries and concerns.
Tracy
Do you suffer continence issues in silence and hide the truth from your friends? Or are you a parent that is increasingly frustrated by the lack of support from school or clinics? We would like to hear your stories too.
ERIC offers a range of services to help you cope with the symptoms of wetting and soiling? Want to speak to real person in confidence? Then do give our ERIC helpline a call (+44) 0845 3708008. Or would you rather chat to other young people just like you? Then come and join our active Teen Hub and Message Board scene http://www.eric.org.uk/Hub.
ERIC’s aim is to help reduce the worry and frustrations of bed wetting and soiling for sufferers and their families. Our online shop stocks and sells a complete range of products aimed at helping you or your child enjoy nights away and sleepovers such as sleeping bag liners, vibrating watches and waterproof sheets and duvets http://www.eric.org.uk/Shop/category/190 . – as a bonus every sale helps raise vital funds for ERIC …to ensure we can continue to support families just like yours.
It was recently announced that more than 200 schools are using CCTV cameras in toilets or changing rooms and this news will no doubt come as a shock to many parents.
The research indicated that The Radclyffe School in Oldham topped the list of schools with 20 cameras in toilets or changing rooms. Its head teacher, Hardial Hayer, said its cameras are above doors entering toilets, and only overlook washbasins. He said the cameras had been placed so it was possible to tell who was going in, but added they are not near cubicles.
Understandably, this research does raise serious questions about the importance of privacy of school children across Britain and indeed clarity about purpose of use, data protection and excessive surveillance does need to addressed. But is CCTV in toilets and changing rooms an infringement of privacy or does it provide peace of mind for parents and children that their school’s toilets are safe and monitored?
Susan Lewis, Chief Inspector for Wales recently commented; “You can tell a school by its toilets: they say an awful lot about a school and tell you about the value the school places on its environment.”
Indeed, schools need to ensure children can use school toilets when they need to which is why it is important for them to consider the total toilet environment. Simply keeping facilities clean and in good condition is not enough. All aspects of privacy and toilet-use should be considered to ensure a healthy and pleasant environment is provided for pupils and this should go beyond ensuring access to adequate provisions like toilet paper, soap and hand towels – unfortunately we know that not all schools even do this.
We know that a quarter of pupils avoid their school toilets – some even avoid drinking throughout the day to prevent them from using the school toilets at all. Added to this is the problem of many toilet blocks being located in isolated areas of the school grounds leaving children feeling vulnerable and many are unsupervised which increases instances of bullying or vandalism.
I think perhaps then CCTV cameras are best used when other options to keep toilets safe and free from vandalism have failed. Their aim is to make toilets a safer environment for pupils and to prevent anti-social behaviour such as smoking, vandalism and graffiti. They can allow schools to keep toilets open at times when they would previously have been locked and that is good news for school children.
Certainly, the use of CCTV cameras in school toilets remains a contentious issue and will undoubtedly continue to be widely debated amongst teaching staff, parents and pupils in the future. What is your opinion?
To read further about raising the standards of school toilets visit www.bog-standard.org
Tracy
It’s the first day of school today for many UK children. Usually around this time of year we get lots of calls to our Helpline from parents worried about children having wetting or soiling accidents in class.
Our Helpline team have put together some top tips for parents and here are some of the best bits. You can read the full article over at Yahoo Lifestyle and there loads of information on the ERIC website too.
Our Helpline team are also going to be live on Facebook on Tuesday 11th September answering any questions or concerns about wetting or soiling problems at school. Just post your question on our page or if you want to keep it private send us a direct message or use live chat.
Accidents at the start of term – what parents can do
It’s usually expected that children will have developed good toileting skills by the time they start school, but increasingly teachers are reporting that this isn’t the case. And for parents whose children are not yet fully clean or dry, the prospect of starting school can be fraught with anxiety about how their child will cope.
Even if your child has been successfully toilet trained it would be unusual if there weren’t a few accidents in the first weeks of school. There’s so much to learn and so many new activities that it’s inevitable young children will become engrossed in what they are doing and get caught short. For many children having to disturb the teacher to ask to go to the toilet in front of everyone can be daunting. Others may be reluctant to use the school toilets if they are dark, noisy or smelly or even if they are used by older children.
Wetting in the day
The extent of wetting accidents can vary from a large puddle on the floor to damp patches on pants. When very young, the most common cause of wetting in the day is becoming engrossed in play or activities and ignoring the signal of a full bladder. But there are several reasons why a child may wet at school. Causes of daytime wetting include:
• An overactive bladder. This is a condition in which the bladder muscle contracts suddenly, before the bladder is full, causing a strong need to wee with little or no warning.
• A urinary tract infection (UTI)
• Constipation
If a child wets for one of these reasons they will have little ability to control the problem and if you have any concerns at all, always make an appointment with your GP to have the problem checked. The problems can almost always be managed or resolved.
Other reasons for wetting in the day include:
Tips to help you manage if your child wets in the day
Soiling
Soiling accidents are less common that wetting accidents but cause a lot more distress for families and schools. For most children who soil they have very little, if any, control over it happening. The problems can usually be managed but can take a little while. If your child is soiling it is always recommended that you visit your GP immediately to have the problem checked. Causes of soiling include:
For both of these, medication, which can break up hardened poo and help soften poo so it is more comfortable to pass, is usually prescribed.
Other reasons for soiling include
Tips to help you manage if your child soils
Starting school is a big step for most children and toileting accidents are very common and totally normal. If you have any concerns about your child’s toileting don’t delay seeking help from ERIC, your GP, school nurse or health visitor as problems that are dealt with early can usually be resolved more quickly.
India is getting a bit of cosmetic surgery. Well the southern part of it anyway. A total of 47 schools in Kalamassery will be getting a revamp over the space of 5 years, including their toilets, benefiting an estimated 13,000 students. The idea being to improve the infrastructure and learning standards that is expected of an educational setting.
This area of India isn’t renowned for its strong economy and it is down to the Minister of Public Works, V K Ebrahim Kunju, that it’s gotten the green light from the government.
Now let’s flick back to us here in the UK and our school toilets. Or should I say our Government. In an earlier blog post it was pointed out that they had decided against doing anything to improve the poor state of UK school toilets and proceeded in changing the legislation of our primary and secondary school buildings. Not for the benefit of the humble toilet of course.
Maybe this is because they feel it’s necessary or a way of cutting costs or human resources. Either way if a country that economically wise, is lower down the scale than us can refurbish toilets to a better standard why are we having to somewhat downgrade ours?
You can read the full story on the plans for schools in India at http://ibnlive.in.com/news/facelift-for-47-schools/283652-60-122.html
Crescent
It really can happen to anyone.
Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender who starred in Prometheus, X-Men and Inglorious Basterds has recently revealed that his most embarrassing moment was wetting his pants in front of his class.
“My most embarrassing moment would be when I peed my pants,” Michael told German magazine Für Sie. “I was about seven years old: the teacher wouldn’t let me go to the toilet – we were only allowed to go in the big breaks. Afterwards she gave out tests and I had to go to the desk. I couldn’t hold it anymore. She was probably even more ashamed than me.”
Michael is 35 now and it just goes to show that embarrassing situations like wetting yourself in front of your friends can stay with you for life.
These embarrassing situations are mostly avoidable, if only more teachers had better systems in place, like the ‘good teacher’ told us on Monday.
We’ve written to Michael Fassbender to ask him to support the Bog Standard Campaign. I hope he writes back…
Anyone know him that could ask him for us?!
Natasha
I love getting positive comments on the Bog Standard you tell us pages but sadly they are few and far between. Most are stories of pupils having accidents in class because they weren’t allowed to go to the toilet or horror stories of pupils faced with loos without cubicle doors or locks, no cleaning, no soap, no toilet roll, no warm water… Anyway, I’m getting off subject – this is a positive post!
Today I received a comment from a very sensible teacher – I just wish more were like him. He posted on the access to toilets section and said;
“Allowing children to use school toilets is an education for both teacher and pupil alike.
Teachers must understand the needs of their learners. The route to effective classroom and behaviour management does not lie in the inflexible, unbending refusal to let students use the bathroom. A bad teacher can make students have accidents; a good teacher will not require displays of power to maintain a safe and effective learning environment.
On the other hand, particularly in secondary school, students must learn to budget free time and remain aware of the effects of leaving a lesson. If pupils are engaged and hooked on what they are doing, often they will forget about the toilet. We are all human; mistakes can be made. Pupils forget about going to the toilet at break time as teachers forget to mark books or return projects.
Any system must be flexible yet clear in its consequences. The student who requests repeat toilet visits compared with the student who apologises and asks to leave before the others arrive are quite different, and require different responses. A flexible system will also allow those with anxiety/medical problems to visit the toilet discreetly and not stick out as the ‘only one who gets to go’.”
I’ve said before that teachers allowing access to toilets during lessons is something that causes a lot of intense debate. But the approach above seems very sensible and fair to me. I’ve never really understood it when people argue that if you allow access it’s going to be toilet anarchy and all the pupils will be getting up and going every 5 minutes. Surely any good teacher can control a class and identify the genuine requests without fuss and disruption. And if a clear and fair system has always been in place, it’s not going to be something pupils will take advantage of – we need to give trust and respect in order to get it back.
Let me know what you think…
Natasha
Bad news unfortunately.
You may remember that our Bog Standard campaign has been lobbying for better regulations for pupils’ toilets in schools. Sadly the government hasn’t listened to us and last week published changes to the School Premises Regulations that will actually make things worse for children’s school toilets!
There are NO laws that state school toilets must be cleaned regularly, must have toilet paper, soap, doors that lock or must be maintained – and as a result thousands of children across the UK are faced with disgusting school toilets, with no locks, no loo roll and no soap.
Would you put up with this in your workplace?
Toilets that teachers use are protected by laws that include minimum standards like regular cleaning and ensuring enough supplies of toilet paper and soap.
It seems crazy to me that there is nothing similar for pupils and that the government won’t do anything about it.
You might think it’s common sense that schools ensure there is toilet paper and soap available for pupils and that their toilets are clean and pleasant to use – and I agree it is common sense. But that doesn’t mean schools are doing it and I know from the emails I get and the comments on the Bog Standard website that thousands of children and young people are facing disgusting school toilets every day.
The toilets are probably the most rooms in a school – so why are they such a low priority?
Within the new School Premises Regulations, it stipulates that “suitable toilet and washing facilities must be provided for the sole use of pupils”
But what does “suitable toilet and washing facilities” mean? According to the pupils, parents and health professionals we hear from every day, it certainly isn’t the state of school toilets at the moment. Without clear minimum standards, this new legislation will do nothing to improve things – it is so vague it is unenforceable. Parents and pupils will not have meaningful protection or be able to holds schools to account and schools will lack clear guidance on what to provide.
Because they are unpleasant to use, children avoid the toilets at school. This can cause or make existing continence problems worse and can lead to other health problems too. Toilets really are important. But do you know what the toilets are like in your child’s school?
Despite this set back, we will continue with the Bog Standard campaign and we will improve toilets for pupils in schools. If you have any suggestions or would like to support us by providing a case study please get in touch.
Natasha
The Regulations can be read in full here.
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