KaleidoscopeKitty said:
I’m in the UK. Nurseries/ pre-schools etc aren’t legally allowed to ban children from being in diapers as that could be seen as disability discrimination; they can state a preference that children are toilet trained but they can’t enforce it. Not sure if that rule was in place when I was in preschool over 30 years ago though as I was already potty trained when I started pre-school and my memories of it are hazy and none diaper-based.
^This.^
For some background before answering, there is more to this info but for a basic breakdown.
In the UK early years education is broken into 3 age groups which define the minimum ratio of staff to children a setting must have for each group:
Infant (birth to 2yo, 1 adult to 3 children), Toddler (2yo, 1 adult to 4 children) and preschool (3-5yo, 1 adult to 8 children).
If a child turns 4 before the school year starts in september they will usually move from a preschool into a primary schools "reception" class. (there are some finicky points where a child moves up later in the school year)
While some schools will have an attached Preschool which takes children at 3+ (some may take younger) it is generally intended for children who will move into the same primary school at the right age, but lots of schools don't have this.
The other options for early years care besides nannies (employed by a family at their own home) and childminders (individuals who provide care in their home for smaller numbers of children) are.
Private Nurseries, who will take children usually from 3 months up to 5 years.
Or Children's Centers (essentially the same as a nursery but they receive additional government funding and provide other services like health care clinics and parental training).
Now to the question. I'm not 100% sure about nannies and childminders, they may or may not be able to refuse to take on a child still in nappies as a policy but they would still have a legal duty of care to change a child left in their care that wets/soils themself either in a nappy or pants.
Preschools, nurseries, children's centers and schools however have no legal standing to deny admitting a child due to still wearing a nappy, it is outlined in the "equality act 2010". which states that schools "must not discriminate against disadvantaged or disabled children or children with special educational needs" further in the document it describes a delay in achieving continence as a disability.
Furthermore the "children and families act 2014" requires that schools support pupils with medical needs including continence, bladder and bowel problems.
So for preschool care, Yes pretty much everyone has to accept children in nappies but different settings may have different policies on when they start potty training and how strongly they push for it.
And at school age again Yes schools must accept those children and support them. It is quite commonly, wrongly, believed by parents that school teaching staff are not allowed to child nappies and worry that they will constantly be called in to do it themselves or the child left to change themselves but this is not true the staff have a duty of care to clean and change the children in their classes, if not the teacher then a supporting staff member or nurse.
