How do we support toilet training for a SEND child in early years?

Start now, with the family

Start without delay: almost all children with SEND can learn to be clean and dry. Work with parents and specialists, make reasonable adjustments, agree an intimate care plan, never refuse a place over toilet training. Some children need more time and effort, but the DfE’s 2025 guidance is clear that waiting to begin makes learning harder, not easier Help for early years providers. Open the conversation with the family this week. Find out what works at home, what the child already shows you they understand, and which health professionals are involved — a health visitor, school nurse, paediatrician, or a service such as ERIC.

Agree a written intimate care plan

Turn that conversation into a written, individual plan rather than a verbal arrangement. The plan sets out the toileting routine, prompts and signs the child responds to, the reasonable adjustments you will make, and how you will keep everyone giving the same consistent message. Where the child is on SEN Support or has an EHCP, line the plan up with it. Agree how you record nappy changes and accidents, and keep the whole approach within your setting’s intimate care and safeguarding policy — changing a child must be done safely, promptly and with privacy and dignity, balancing the child’s privacy with safeguarding as the EYFS statutory framework in force from September 2025 requires. Children who need intimate care can be more vulnerable, so follow your policy on who supports them and how it is recorded; do not improvise lone-working that conflicts with it.

Know the legal line on places and adjustments

You cannot refuse, delay, or restrict a place because a child is not yet toilet trained. Under the Equality Act 2010 a setting must not discriminate in its admission arrangements s.85, and the duty to make reasonable adjustments is anticipatory — you plan toileting support and facilities in advance rather than reacting once a child arrives s.20, EHRC technical guidance. The qualifier most setting policies miss: delay in achieving continence can itself be a disability, so this protection applies even where there is no formal diagnosis, and a blanket “must be toilet trained” admissions rule is unlawful. Sending a child home, or cutting their hours, over nappies or accidents is not a lawful response.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.