The new government has said it will protect single-sex services for women, but it hasn’t said how.
The previous government said how - by making toilet cubicles very private and enclosed.
There is a school design document (Dec 23) that specially mentions privacy 4 times for secondary schools but neglects safety (not mentioned) and health (not mentioned). Likewise the toilet document T (May 2024) for almost all other non-domestic toilet blocks (shops, pubs, offices). Again, no mention of a toilet door gap top and bottom. All about enclosure and privacy. All the diagrams shown have enclosed cubicles with doors to the floor.
Although all documents also say that you should be able to open the door from outside and the door pull outwards in case of an emergency inside the cubicle. How will anyone know there’s an emergency?!
This is discrimination for disabled people who may have greater risk of collapse and not be seen in time for rescue such as those with epilepsy, diabetes, (asthma and other conditions too). It is discrimination against the elderly who are more frail and are more likely to fall and have strokes. It is dangerous for everyone who is likely to collapse due to a medical emergency - such as a brain injury/seizure brought on illness or drugs such as those in vapes.
This is discrimination against women and girls. Because they are more likely to have drinks spiked in public places and when people feel ‘off’ they go to the loo. It is also discrimination to women and girls as they are more likely to suffer sexual assaults. These assaults are more likely to take place where males can go undetected (in an enclosed cubicle) or in mixed sex toilets and then enter the private space a woman/girl is in and it not be witnessed.
So that’s how the government have ‘solved it’. It’s all about privacy.
Safety and health (more likely to catch a disease through concentrated air particles and dirtier less-cleanable cubicles) has been sacrificed for all. But particularly everyone who is more vulnerable.
The young person I saved ‘in the ladies’ - by realising immediately when I walked in she was on the floor inside the cubicle - would be dead. I saw her from the gap underneath the door and climbed over the top to get in.
I have written and spoken to civil servants in the old and new government, to the Health and Safety Executive and to the Department of Education. None of the 6 politicians I have sent details and statistics to has sent any form of reply. No one will take responsibility. Everyone has forgotten why gaps were under doors in the first place. There has been no mention on door gaps except for privacy on any recent government document. No mention that you need a degree of visibility for safety - though the HSE said that I made a strong argument (for reasons which they had not considered). There has been no risk assessment about losing the traditional toilet gap on people with protected characteristics.
The Department of Education say school governors have the responsibility if toilets aren’t safe. How are enclosed cubicles safe? There is at least one rape inside a school premises each school day. There are on average 9 students with epilepsy and 3 students with Type 1 diabetes. And there are the rare times children collapse for cardiac problems. Ironically, there is also a defibrillator in every secondary school so the government do know that there is a possibility children collapse and the importance of finding a child quickly. But they are telling schools to have enclosed toilets and shirking responsibility to governors when it goes wrong.
Door gaps save lives.
Door gaps prevent assaults.