Press release - 22 February 2007
Bog Standard's response to BBC documentary | The BBC documentary For the Love of Loos (20th February), part of the One Life series shown on Tuesday evenings, highlighted the decline in public lavatories and the attempts of the British Toilet Association to remedy this. The issue of public lavatories usually attracts derision, but it is a real issue and one that impacts daily on the health and well being of children.
Entry into school can lead to difficulties and can be when it all starts to go wrong. Children who are happy to use the lavatory at home may be less keen when faced with those at school. And who can blame them? Children and young people spend the bulk of their day at school, yet their lavatories frequently fail to meet the most minimal standards.
Dirty and smelly toilets, lack of privacy and the basics - such as lavatory paper, soap and towels - are sadly the norm in many schools. For children at a tender age, insufficient adult support and supervision can add to the trauma. Poor toilets can quickly become a magnet for bad behaviour and vandalism. Many children find the lavatories so repellent or threatening that they try to hang on all day until they get home.
It is not hard to understand why school lavatories can affect children’s short and long term health (and clinics and GPs up and down the country struggle to keep up with all the school toilet-related health problems), but less obvious is how they influence pupils’ willingness and ability to learn, morale, attendance levels and their behaviour. It is also not hard to imagine that the state of the school toilets and frustration over rules of restricted access (the lavatories can be out of bounds for most of the day) can alienate and leave a lasting impression. Is it any wonder that our public lavatories are abused and neglected?
The British Toilet Association, which campaigns for more and better public lavatories, is one of the leading partners in the Bog Standard campaign. The Bog Standard campaign for better toilets for pupils was set up by the children’s health charity, ERIC (Education and Resources for Improving Childhood Continence) that provides information and support on childhood bedwetting, daytime wetting, soiling and constipation to families and health professionals. All problems that are caused or made worse by poor quality school toilets.
The Bog Standard campaign has developed the School Toilet Charter that they believe should be implemented in all schools. To encourage schools to meet the charter, the Bog Standard campaign, in association with local co-ordinators from the government’s Healthy Schools Programme, is piloting a School Toilet Award to recognise and promote good toilet provision for pupils in schools.
For pupils to have pride in their toilets they must start with toilets they can be proud of.
The Bog Standard Campaign has been working with architects on a DfES project (expected to be published in 2007) that provides guidance on design, standardised specifications, layouts and dimensions for secondary school toilets
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