'Toilet Letters' for schools

The Surgery receives many enquiries requesting that we write a letter to school requesting a toilet pass.

We are aware that this sometimes occurs because patients are told by the schools to obtain this, this can lead to distress as the surgery does not provide these.

We have created a template letter which can be given to the school highlighting the reasons we do not provide these and the human rights of a pupil needing the toilet.

If the pupil is under a consultant they may be able to provide you with more detailed evidence.

You may use the template shown here when contacting the school. (Click and drag over the text in the panel on the right, copy and paste into your document, then add your personal details).

Date: <enter date>

 

<enter School address here>

 

Dear Head Teacher,

We have been contacted with the request that a Doctor’s note should be provided in order to allow the provision of a “toilet pass” to pupils whilst at school. 

Access to safe, timely and appropriate personal hygiene is considered to be essential to human dignity. This is particularly important to people who have periods, which often vary in timing and heaviness, especially in the years surrounding menarche. 

While discipline issues are important and a small percentage of pupils abuse their right to access personal hygiene, this is not a medical issue. It is also not an NHS matter to provide evidence of a child’s lack of continence, urinary or faecal urgency or menstrual difficulties. It is not dignified for a pupil to be singled out as having toileting difficulties and there are significant potential medical ramifications in either deliberately dehydrating to prevent the need for a toilet or in withholding either stool or urine and both can worsen continence issues. It is also significantly harmful to a young person’s mental wellbeing to risk an episode of incontinence within the classroom or to prevent them accessing menstrual hygiene, leading to soiling. 

In addition, especially in these uniquely challenging times, where both workload and finance are significantly strained in all public sectors, it is not possible for us to take on additional non-funded work. We are also not prepared to charge the children or their families for paperwork to allow them basic dignity. 

As such, Otford Medical Practice will not be providing separate notes to specific pupils to allow them to use the toilet. Whether an individual child can delay their needs until the end of a lesson is a matter for the school, the child and their family. If you feel it necessary, please accept this letter as confirmation that we consider that all children have a need to access a toilet when they need to use it for urinary, defecation or menstrual reasons.

Yours sincerely,

 

Otford Medical Practice