For children, having problems with wetting or soiling is very difficult and distressing. According to research, they think that it's the third worst thing that can happen to them after losing a parent and going blind. It is a major health and rights issue that children should not have to go through.

Education and Resources for Improving Childhood Continence (Eric) was set up in 1987 and initially focused on bed-wetting. But we quickly found that daytime incontinence was a massively neglected problem, which could often be solved through simple measures.

Importantly, school nurses said that children didn't drink enough water in school. Ironically, this contributes to continence difficulties - the more you drink, the more your bladder can hold. Research also indicated that drinking facilities in schools were largely unsatisfactory.

In 2000 we launched a Water is Cool in School campaign to improve provision and awareness. We advised schools on simple changes, such as taking taps out of lavatory areas and installing chilled water facilities. Now, all schools in Scotland have mains-linked water coolers, as do all Welsh schools in disadvantaged areas.

We also needed to get over a second impediment - that children didn't want to drink because they didn't want to use school lavatories. A survey again painted a sorry picture - lavatories were often smelly or inadequately cleaned and access was sometimes limited.

Since 2004 our Bog Standard campaign has worked with organisations such as the UK Youth Parliament and the Schools Council UK. Our More Than a Loo competition for pupils to design their ideal toilet area drew 900 really imaginative, practical entries.

The winning school got a makeover. But we also took the ideas to the Government, so that it knew what children wanted and why. They were published as part of a Building Schools for the Future document last year, with Eric being on the programme's steering committee.

The Government is also reviewing the regulations that guide schools' provision of water and lavatories. Eric is drafting these and hopes to see the guidelines built into the Ofsted self-assessment process.

ERIC's School Toilet Award has been piloted in Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. Pupils, head teachers and caretakers audit the facilities, and award a gold-plus, gold or silver standard. Joanne Almond, the council's healthy schools co-ordinator, says that the scheme has had a huge impact on schools.

“The first thing most pupils on school councils want to do is improve the toilets. Before these awards lots of pupils ran home at lunchtime. Now, the whole school gets involved in an action plan. If they win it, the award is signed by representatives from across the school, including pupils.” In one school, toilets were previously locked but have now earned an award after measures to combat vandalism and bullying. “The award sets tough criteria, but we wouldn't want to lower them,” Almond says.

www.eric.org.uk

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