Is this the norm, school nurseries

Day care nurseries, and nurseries that take children for the year before they go to school, attached to state schools are two very different things. Legally, state nursery classes are on shaky ground insisting on children being toilet trained. But many do- because their ratios are just not high enough to facilitate multiple children needing nappy changes. I’m not saying it’s right- some children aren’t ready, but it’s the reality. Day care nurseries, whilst in theory have the same ratios, because there will be more staff generally, there is a lot more flexibility.

The Disability Discrimination Act specifically mentions delayed continence (not being toilet trained) as a form of disability that settings for children MUST NOT discriminate on the basis of. In cases where nappy changing is genuinely impossible in the setting (rather than ‘oh whoops, we haven’t bothered) then taking home and changing before return is possibly lawful, especially if the setting is eg having necessary work done.

I have only encountered an ‘allowable’
issue when the child in question needed very significant mobility aids / hoists etc and there was a short delay while new ones needed to be installed as they became larger and heavier.

I work in a nursery attached to a private school and we are not allowed by law to refuse to take children who aren't potty trained, or to make parents come in and change them. Any setting doing this will fall foul of inspectors (OFSTED or ISI). You can't claim you don't have facilities - you have to find a way. I'm astonished that nurseries are refusing but kind of wish I could too. When I started teaching there were never children in nappies, but now we have a couple every year and we have to persist with the parents to get them out of them.

Ours doesn't take children in nappies but that's reception, not actual nursery. Nursery will change them but at 3, they shouldn't still be in nappies unless they have special needs. Maybe they didn't even realise she was wearing one.

I often take my 4 year olds friends out with us to petting farms and the like and even the youngest who is 3.5 can manage their own underwear and use the toilets, with me outside the cubical door.

Sometimes have to help with buttons and hand washing but that's it, they can go and wipe themselves etc without adult help.

Our school nursery has 3 year olds in nappies. I didn't think they could refuse to accept children in nappies considering they can start school nursery at 2.5 here (with a referral).

On what basis can’t they refuse? My children’s setting says they don’t have the facilities to change nappies.

I can only tell you that’s what my children’s preschool say and miraculously every child arrives trained, conversely a significant proportion of the 3 year olds at the private nursery they both attended weren’t ready to train. Always made me smile.

I work with both private and school nurseries. None of them refuses to children in nappies. They are not allowed to.

ERIC is a good source of information. https://eric.org.uk/information/school-toilet-policy/

While a school (note not a nursery) can write a changing policy that requires a parent, it is not considered good practice and I suspect that if a parent pushed the DDA angle, most schools under most circumstances would have to have an extremely good reason (not ‘it’s our policy’) to argue that it was not discrimination.

It’s the ones attached to schools.

No. It is against the Disability Discrimination Act both to refuse to admit a child in nappies AND to require a parent to come to change them (because in both cases you are treating a child who may have a disability differently from one who does not).

That’s been the case for going on 20 years now; really surprised it’s still not universally acknowledged.

That is schools. What about preschools?

I work with over 30 nurseries and not one of them refuses to take children in nappies.

A quick google says you are wrong and have been for a while. Parents in schools in England can and will be called in to change their child’s nappies

Well most nurseries in England are apparently breaking the law then. I have children ranging from 6 to 18, they’ve gone through many nurseries between them, not one will change a 3 year olds nappy

They should have changed it. My son is attending one soon and it does say they will help with potty training. I don't think they can refuse any non potty trained children as that means all SEN kids wouldn't be able to attend. I am not convinced my son will be properly trained before he starts due to some SEN.

if the nursery is in England they are breaking the law.

This is not legal in England.

In England a school will not refuse to change a child’s nappy. This is absolutely untrue. It’s also not true that staff can’t remove clothing.

Of course they are allowed to, they choose not to.

A nappy at three and a half?

They might not be allowed to refuse them, but they will refuse to change them themselves, they are not allowed to remove clothing. When my eldest dd was 3 and in nursery she’d fallen on a stool and injured her bum. I got called in to see if she was injured as the school wasn’t allowed to even look. In our school nurseries they will phone the parents to come in to change nappies.

3.5 year olds do big wees, if she was changed after lunch she will probably need changing again.

My son’s nursery won’t accept them if they’re not toilet trained unless they have significant SEN.

My son is at a school nursery and they take them from 2. He started at 3 and was out of nappies but they definitely do nappy changes as it was mentioned when we did the welcome meeting.