Total Solution to Pupil Toileting

A ‘total’ approach to personal hygiene is being introduced to help school management understand and comply with the raft of new statutory and advisory guidelines to accommodate pupils with special needs, and to benefit from a share of £96m to implement them.

Total Hygiene, the UK’s leading supplier of toileting solutions for disabled, has developed its complete washroom package to enable school architects and management to access a simple solution to design and provide toilets that meet the needs of most….

Under the unique scheme, a fully accessible washroom/ toilet can be designed, supplied, installed and commissioned through one single source, from simple grab rails through height adjustable changing tables and height adjustable washbasins to Clos-o-Mat height adjustable automatic ‘wash and dry’ bidet toilets.

Robin Tuffley, Total Hygiene Marketing Manager, elaborates, “The new DCSF Building Bulletin 102- designing for disabled children and children with special educational needs- advises that accessible toilets and changing spaces for personal care are available at convenient intervals around the school. The Building Schools for the Future standard specification for toilets states toilet and changing facilities need to be designed to be suitable for all pupils, staff and visitors including those with special educational needs and disabilities. Each toilet block should have accessible toilets to the same quality and aesthetic as the other facilities. Further, the new BS8300:2009 Inclusive Building Design requires public buildings to incorporate ‘Changing Places’ facilities. The Government’s School Access Initiative is pledging £96m pa to be made available up to and including the 2010/11 school year to improve accessibility of mainstream schools to disabled pupils and those with special educational needs.

“Outside of the statutory issues, the ‘Bog Standard’ campaign claims 10% of pupils have problems with continence- which isn’t necessarily classed as ‘special needs’ At the end of the day, access to decent toilets is a basic human right.With the best will in the world, the senior teams involved in ensuring compliance within education establishments cannot have in-depth knowledge of the range of options available to meet the requirements of pupils with a range of needs in terms of their personal hygiene, and would logically seek input from those who have that knowledge and expertise to meet the requirements, whether at the most basic level or in providing a ‘best practice’ solution.”

King James 1 Community College is one school that has already utilized the facility. The College has been designated as a physical resource base by the Local Education Authority, and as a result has invested in providing a bespoke toilet and physiotherapy room for its students with physical difficulties. The school now incorporates a Clos-o-Mat Lima Lift toilet, plus adjustable washbasins and changing tables all supplied by Total Hygiene. The school’s SENCO (Special education needs co-ordinator) observes, “The students love it!”

Total Hygiene has over 40 years’ experience in the provision of toileting solutions for disabled people. The company manufactures the top-selling Clos-o-Mat ‘wash and dry’ toilet, the only one of its kind with WRAS approval enabling legal connection to mains water supply. Total Hygeine also provides a comprehensive sales, installation and after sales package, and offers a range of options to enable tailoring of each unit to individual requirements. Its technical engineers can assess premises to establish the most appropriate requirements, ranging from simple support rails to a Lima Lift. Full information is detailed on the company’s website: wwww.clos-o-mat.com.