Potty training pilot expands to 20 areas after York success

In York this year, something shifted quietly in the weeks before children started reception. The number of five-year-olds arriving at school without being toilet-trained dropped sharply—from 11 percent to 6 percent, a 43 percent reduction from the year before. The change came not from any mandate, but from a deliberate campaign: potty training guides sent to every family with a child entering school, workshops offered at children's centres, and information distributed through GP surgeries, pharmacies, and family hubs. The pilot worked. Now twenty local authorities across England are preparing to replicate it.

The numbers tell the story plainly. Last September, 148 of York's 1,364 reception pupils were not fully toilet-trained when they started school. This September, that fell to 85 out of 1,374. The shift matters because it changes what happens in the classroom. Jo Mould, who teaches reception at Robert Wilkinson Primary Academy in York, noticed the difference immediately. "We've spent more time teaching in these last three weeks than we have in previous years," she said. "The children have come in so ready to learn, because they're more settled and regulated socially and emotionally."

That observation points to a broader problem the scheme was designed to address. Research from the children's charity Kindred Squared found that around one in four children in England and Wales started school last year without being fully toilet-trained. Teachers reported spending more than an hour a day changing nappies—time that could have gone to instruction, to settling anxious children, to the work of actual teaching. The government has set a target: 75 percent of pupils should reach a good level of development by the end of their first year in school by 2028. Currently, just over two-thirds—68.3 percent—achieve that benchmark, which includes communication skills, physical development, and the ability to manage basic self-care tasks like using the toilet.

Parents who participated in York's scheme spoke about the relief of having structured support. Lucy, whose daughter is starting reception next year, said she had noticed the drop-in sessions at her local children's centre and thought it was "a really good idea." Natalie, another parent, explained that getting her daughter Freya toilet-trained before school felt important not just for the child's sake, but to reduce pressure on teachers already managing large classrooms. She also reflected on how disposable nappies may have changed parenting patterns—when cloth nappies required daily washing and line-drying, families had more incentive to move toward toilet training earlier. "With disposable nappies it's easier," she said.

York councillor Bob Webb acknowledged that the scheme's success rested on collaboration across health visitors, schools, and community settings. But he also flagged a gap: the stretch between a child's last visit to a health visitor as a toddler and arrival at school. "There's always more that could be done at an earlier age," he said. The model developed by Kindred Squared and tested in York is now being adopted by North Lincolnshire, Suffolk, Solihull, Rotherham, Hampshire, Halton, Cheshire West and Chester, and several London boroughs, among others.

Early Education Minister Paul Waugh called the results "encouraging," emphasizing that the scheme was helping children develop the confidence and independence they needed before starting school. Mould, the reception teacher, expressed a hope that next year's parents would take on toilet training even earlier, ideally before children arrived at school. "Ideally we'd be at the point where they don't need that support when they get here, because they've already been trained by the time they get to us." The government remains committed to its 2028 target, and the expansion of York's model suggests a shift in how early childhood readiness is being approached—not as something schools must manage alone, but as something communities can support families in achieving before the school gates open.