Toilet-training: Support for Parents
Baroness Freeman of Steventon
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that parents are given enough support to toilet train their children between 18 and 30 months.
Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)
My Lords, we are committed to giving every child the best start in life. As part of this, we are investing in Best Start family hubs across the country. These hubs will offer wider parenting and home-learning environment support, and are well placed to support parents needing advice on toilet-training. We welcome the recent potty-training guide produced by partners, and signpost to it on our website pages on the best start in life and help for early years providers.
Baroness Freeman of Steventon (CB)
I thank the Minister for that Answer. I am delighted to talk about this important subject first thing in the new year. It is not just for the health of children that it is best to potty-train early; we send about 3.6 billion single-use nappies to landfill or incineration every year in England alone. Earlier potty-training therefore saves parents and councils money, and saves environmental costs, yet over half of all parents are unsure of the right time to toilet-train. Now that the official advice is clear, would the Minister consider making a clear statement of that advice mandatory on nappy products sold in the UK?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I wondered where the first Question would lead. Given the noble Baroness’s background, it should not come as a surprise that the environment is involved. This is an important issue, for the children involved and for parents, and the cost of nappies is important. But I am not in a position to give the commitment that she is asking for at this time.
Baroness Pidgeon (LD)
My Lords, how are the Government ensuring that parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities receive tailored, specialist support for toilet-training, rather than being expected to rely on generic guidance that may not meet their child’s needs?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
The noble Baroness raises an important question. Our plan for change is committed to the milestone that children at the end of reception, including those with SEND, have received a good level of development. Children with special needs are at the heart of our strategy. We need to make sure that the advice and support given through the hubs is bespoke, tailored to the specific needs of families and children.
Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Lab)
My Lords, while I warmly welcome the Best Start family hubs, when the programme was launched it was said that they would be rolled out throughout England by at least the end of April this year. I live in the Forest of Dean, where many parents would benefit greatly from this service, but, to my knowledge, there is no family hub there yet. Can my noble friend the Minister tell me when the rollout will be complete, to rural as well as urban areas?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
My noble friend raises the rollout of Best Start family hubs. We are investing £500 million in this rollout and have committed to every local authority area having a hub, delivering over 1,000 hubs by 2028 and reaching an estimated 500,000 additional children. I do not know the specifics of the particular areas, but I am sure that we will get back to my noble friend.
The Lord Bishop of Chester
My Lords, can the Minister comment on the way in which these hubs will relate to voluntary groups? I warmly welcome the Question, which seems important, and the introduction of the hubs, but in an age when parenting can get increasingly lonely, the many voluntary groups that provide community are essential, if it takes a village to raise a child.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
The voluntary community and faith sector are absolutely critical in this agenda. The whole basis of the Best Start family hubs model is to bring together all the relevant people in an integrated, coherent way, increasing communication and making sure that everyone who has a contribution to make is able to do so, putting children at the centre of everything that we do.
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)
With increasing knowledge of the health impacts of microplastics and nanoplastics, and children facing a lifetime of an environment increasingly choked with plastics and other noxious substances, are the Government taking that into consideration when considering policy in the area raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Freeman? What are the Government doing to support parents to move towards reusable nappies rather than single-use?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
The whole basis of the policy is that local is best and that these programmes are run through the local communities. I do not have the specific answers that the noble Baroness asks for, but all these considerations need to be taken into account. We need a holistic approach. People will be motivated by different aspects, and we need to bring that into the conversation so that we can make as much progress as we possibly can.
The Earl of Effingham (Con)
My Lords, education experts are seeing children who have not experienced regular conversations, children who have not developed the listening skills needed for nursery and reception, and children with delayed motor skills. Excessive screen time is a key factor. Device usage in early years is incredibly damaging. Toilet-training is just the tip of the iceberg. When will the Government act decisively and take steps to control this epidemic of screen addiction?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
The most important aspect of the agenda that the noble Earl raises is that we work from the emerging evidence base, taking into account the findings that are being made and looking into this in great detail. We must not rush forward and make assumptions. However, he raises important points. Readiness for school is a top priority of this Government. Focusing on public health visits for two to two and a half year-olds will be a priority in making early assessments of where children need more intervention and making sure that they are ready for school when school comes.
Baroness Watkins of Tavistock (CB)
My Lords, what is His Majesty’s Government’s strategy to ensure that health visiting advice is available to parents, particularly in rural areas where there can be extreme difficulty in getting a child to the specialist hubs that the Government are introducing, which I so welcome?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
Again, that is an important point. We all welcome that a lot of advice and guidance from the Best Start family hubs, including advice from public health visitors, will be available online. We have to embrace the digital aspect of this to enable people to be in communication with other people, access information in a timely manner, and feed back their concerns.
Lord Watts (Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that it was a mistake by the previous Government to close down Sure Start centres and that the Labour Government are having to pick up the mess that they left on this occasion?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I could not agree with my noble friend more. As someone on the front line who had to deal with the cuts to grants almost from day one of the new Government after 2010, so many of which fell on front-line children’s services, I think we are seeing the impact of those cuts. Sure Start was a proven model. I look forward to the rollout of the Best Start family hubs, which look to replace what was lost over the past decade and a half.
Baroness Manzoor (Con)
My Lords, as an ex-nurse, ex-midwife and ex-health visitor, and having run a large part of the National Health Service, I am aware, as my noble friend on the Front Bench has already said, that there is a real psychological impact on children who go to school without being appropriately toilet trained. On top of that, the number of health visitors has reduced quite dramatically, so they cannot provide the services, help and support that they need to give to mothers in need.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I am looking forward, as I am sure the noble Baroness is, to the professional strategy for nursing and midwifery, which will come out with our workforce plan through the 10-year plan for the health service. These are really important areas; we need to have a real focus. I am pleased that she recognises just what an important issue this is, how it can actually indicate further problems and what can be done to resolve them.
Baroness Bousted (Lab)
Does the Minister agree that the exponential rise in child poverty in the period in government of the previous Administration caused huge harm to children in school readiness, in toilet-training, and in speech and language development? Teachers reported that children came to school significantly harmed by the poverty in which their families lived. Does she agree that that is one of the major causes of the problems we now see?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
My noble friend is right to highlight this. A situation where 4.5 million children in this country live in poverty and over a million children are reliant on food banks is a terrible indictment of what has happened to families and their children over the past decade or so. I am delighted that tackling child poverty is a top priority for this Government and look forward to rolling out the recommendations.