York's Potty Training Pilot Cuts School-Start Failures by 43%, as 20 Councils Sign Up to Copy the Model

A city-wide experiment in York that gave potty training advice to families alongside their child's first school offer has produced a sharp improvement in school readiness, and its approach is now set to be replicated across England. Twenty local authorities have committed to launching programmes modelled on the York pilot, which was developed by the children's charity Kindred Squared and rolled out with backing from the city council.

The results, shared exclusively with BBC News, show that the proportion of reception pupils arriving at York's schools without being fully toilet-trained fell dramatically in a single year. Last September, 148 of the city's 1,364 reception children — roughly 11% — were recorded as not yet toilet-trained. This year, that figure dropped to 85 out of 1,374 pupils, or about 6%. Across all 55 mainstream primary schools in the city, the data pointed to a 43% reduction in untrained pupils compared with the previous year.

The scheme, which began in April, was deliberately wide-reaching. Information and offers of support were channelled to parents through GP surgeries, pharmacies, family hubs, schools and nurseries, with the aim of helping families prepare their children well before the school gates opened. Potty training guides were also sent to every household in York with a child due to start reception in September, with the stated goal that all children — except those with medical issues or special educational needs — would be able to use the toilet independently by the time they started school. Workshops for parents and specialist training for early years staff formed part of the same effort.

The government described the pilot's results as "encouraging" and restated its commitment to a broader target: that 75% of pupils should reach a good level of development by the end of their first year in school by 2028. That ambition places the York experiment within a wider national conversation about school readiness, an issue that has concerned teachers, charities and policymakers for several years.

The scale of the problem nationally is significant. According to the latest research from Kindred Squared, around one in four children in England and Wales began school last year without being fully toilet-trained, and teachers reported spending more than an hour a day changing nappies. That lost time comes at the expense of teaching, and staff have long argued that it places an undue burden on reception classes already managing large groups of young children.

Parents in York have broadly welcomed the additional support. Natalie and Lucy, both of whom have daughters starting reception next year, said the help on offer had been valuable. Lucy, who noticed drop-in sessions at her local children's centre, described the idea as "really good" and said it was important that children were better prepared for that aspect of starting school. Natalie said getting her daughter Freya toilet-trained in time had been a priority, though she acknowledged the pressure parents feel. She said school is difficult enough for young children, and that she wanted Freya to be confident enough to use the toilet independently rather than relying on teachers in a busy environment with many other children to supervise.

Natalie also offered a cultural explanation for why some families delay potty training. She noted that when she was a child, terry towelling nappies had to be washed and hung out to dry, whereas modern disposable nappies make it easier to postpone the process. Her observation reflects a wider debate among parenting experts, some of whom argue that the convenience and absorbency of disposable nappies can reduce the urgency for parents to begin training, contributing to later readiness.

The benefits are being felt inside classrooms. Jo Mould, who teaches reception at Robert Wilkinson Primary Academy in York, said she had noticed an improvement in pupils' readiness this year. She said her class had spent more time on teaching in the first few weeks of term than in previous years, and that the children had arrived more settled and better regulated socially and emotionally, describing a "really, really positive" start to the school year. Toilet independence, teachers argue, is not an end in itself but a foundation for other skills — including listening to and following instructions — that help pupils make the most of reception.

York councillor Bob Webb said the scheme's impact had been "so positive" for schools and families alike. At the same time, he acknowledged a possible gap in support for parents between the point at which they see health visitors with a toddler and the point at which the child arrives at school. He said the key to the scheme's success lay in collaboration between health visitors, schools and other community settings, while noting there was "always more that could be done at an earlier age" — a hint that preventative work may need to begin sooner.

The decision by 20 local authorities to adopt York's model marks a significant expansion of an approach that was until now confined to a single city. Under the plans, those councils will use the Kindred Squared framework to encourage earlier potty training in their own areas, potentially reaching thousands more families. The coming years will show whether the York results can be reproduced elsewhere, and whether the improvement is sustained as children move through the school system. For now, the pilot offers one of the clearest pieces of evidence that targeted, practical support for parents can translate into measurable change in the classroom.