Families across England could receive expanded assistance to toilet train their young children before they enter primary school, as roughly a quarter of school pupils were not potty trained when they entered reception last year.
Dozens of local authorities may adopt a trial pioneered by the City of York Council, which distributed potty training guidance to 1,700 households alongside primary school place allocation letters in April.
Project organisers noted that fewer pupils in York entered reception without toilet training last month compared to the previous intake, following the targeted rollout.
York pilot results
Financed by the charitable foundation Kindred Squared, which works collaboratively to drive urgent change in early education and early child development, the York initiative comprised of parent workshops, teacher training, and leaflets available at libraries and GP practices to help families train their four-year-olds.
The charity has pledged support to parents with potty training their children, after some leave it to teachers to handle. Felicity Gillespie, Chief Executive of Kindred Squared, appeared on BBC Breakfast on Monday (October 5) morning, to urge parents to introduce a potty to their babies from as young as six months old.
Advice for parents
Speaking to hosts Sally Nugent and co-host Ben Thompson, Felicity shared advice for families preparing their children for toilet training.
She said: "I think the key message is you should be starting potty training sooner than you think. Children can start pracising sitting on the potty as soon as they can sit up, six to nine months, and the right time for a child to be coming out of nappies is 18 to 30 months."
"So yes, the message that's going out to parents was definitely we don't want nappies in school unless your child has a diagnosed medical condition, such as a bowel or bladder diagnosis."
She added: "Actually, you want to be starting quite a lot earlier than that, so health visitors sharing the information with parents with two-year-olds, 18-month-olds, so getting in there early is really important."
Impact on school readiness
Sally asked, "Why do you think we've got to this situation? It is a relatively recent phenomenon, isn't it?"
"I think it's really complicated. I don't think there is a single reason. Teachers say that around 20 years ago, this was much less of a problem", Felicity confirmed.
"Nine out of 10 parents say they want more information. We know from our research that one in five parents don't understand why this matters. 'Does it really matter if a child is in nappies when they start school?' And the truth is, it really does."
Overall, 55 mainstream state primary schools in York were asked to compare the number of children who were not toilet-trained when they started school in September 2025 with the number who were not toilet-trained this September.
There has been a 42 percent decrease in the proportion of children starting school who are not toilet trained in York, according to the pilot results.
BBC Breakfast airs from 6am on BBC One and iPlayer.
