Immediately after starting my post I realised that the condition of the school toilets was well below what I would have expected. I started to report issues via the communications system set up within the school but nothing was being done. By 21st November 2008 I had had enough of being ignored and decided to put my reports in writing. Here is an extract of the email I sent to the Premises Manager and the Senior Site Officer of School X:
‘I reported over the past 6 weeks or more to you that some of the children’s toilets are in need of repair and also the male staff one at the lower site (....)
1. Girls – toilets. One toilet is out of action and from what I have been told has been since April 2008. Two hot water taps are not working and also some of the toilet seats need refitting or possibly replacing.
2. Boys – toilets. One possibly two toilets are loose from the floor and move. More than one toilet seat are loose etc or again may need replacing. One urinal is loose and broken, appears to have been broken or fitted incorrectly? It appears not to be flushing correctly.
3. Male staff toilets have one unstable toilet and both need new toilet seats
4. Please can the children toilets have replacement lockable toilet roll holders?
Upper site -
I do have some issues with this site with the cleaning, particular the children’s toilets. There are some broken toilet seats which again need to be replaced or fixed.’
As you can see from the email, there were very few lockable toilet roll holders in the children’s toilets, there were a large number of toilet seats that required replacing and one of the girls toilets had been out of order for at least 7 months. Perhaps most shockingly however at least three toilets and one urinal were actually loose from the floor and moving – surely a risk to the children?
The lack of toilet roll holders resulted in the toilet rolls being put down the toilet or thrown across the floor meaning the children often had access to no clean toilet roll – not very encouraging when hygiene and continence are such important issues for our children. When new ones were finally purchased they were not really robust enough for school but were better than nothing, however after a few weeks they’d still not been fitted, when I asked why I was told that they were awaiting bolts to fit them but that there was no money to buy them. I am unsure as to whether that was true or not. Tired of finding toilets everyday without usable toilet roll I eventually purchased the bolts out of my own pocket- only then were the holders fitted.
I was satisfied that this had finally been resolved however it was the only issue that I had reported that had been. I had reported broken or missing soap dispensers which had also been ignored despite being outlined as a requirement in the 2009 H&S Act which came into force due to the Swine flu. Any establishment must provide adequate hand washing facilities.
I was also surprised to find that regulations stipulate that for over 5’s only 1 toilet per 20 students is required, with there being so few toilets you would think that it would be more of a priority to maintain them to a high standard.
While I was at School X one of the urinals was removed, I was told that it was not going to be replaced and would instead be used as a storage room – I was also told by the senior site officer that the remaining ’18.5’ were enough (apparently a urinal makes up the .5!) however with the girls toilet having been out of order since April 2008 does it not take it down to 17.5 and therefore under the quota? – I highlighted these points in a letter to a political figure however was told that while they were also shocked, there was no political gain for them in pursuing such an issue
