Disabled Access Toilets: Disabled Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities

If you have not read the posting that talks about disabled access toilets in general please do so (below). This posting is written with a presumption that it follows on from the previous. Please note the general, obvious, and very sensible issue about child and vulnerable person safety note below *.

So now you have secured your disabled access toilet for differently abled people, and stopped using it as a general store. It is clean and tidy and you have provided adequate facilities inside, including hot and cold water, or have you? Have you thought about the needs of children with disabilities? Have you also thought of the needs of adults with learning disabilities that need to use disabled access toilets? Possibly not, but do not panic, this is not one of those moments when you have to dash back to the planning stage and start over, because when someone new comes to your place of worship with particular needs they will also come along with an expert; their parents or guardians or even carers^#.

Do not think of this as a problem, an issue or even a nuisance, it isn’t; it is welcome, it is about being inclusive, it is what we do - we look after one of our own. It is the privilege of welcoming one of God’s own into our family.

So let us go back to the toilet question. Well in short you need to just allow the parent, guardian or carer’s room and space to bring with them whatever equipment they may need. This equipment may take up space and must be available during services should their child or adult with learning difficulties require the toilet. So this may be one of the few occasions where something may be kept in the disabled access toilet by the parent or guardian. Clearly if the equipment restricts room space a lot then alternative storage needs to be made very close to the disabled access toilet as the facility will still need to be available to other users.

Consideration should be made to the fact that a child or a person with learning disabilities requiring disabled access toilets may need to be changed, clothing wise, so the toilet area may need to be big enough to facilitate this. Of course this may create a dilemma as often disabled access toilets are not designed with changing larger children, or adults in mind. If it isn’t large enough then what other facility adjacent to the toilet can be offered? There may well be another room adjacent to the toilet that is private and clean where the parent, guardian or carer would feel comfortable. Asking the question early on when they start to attend the church helps. 1. It shows the church cares and wants to be pro-active in its relationship. 2. It gives the church a chance to rethink what can be done otherwise.

Dependent where the disabled access toilet is located it is possible to have curtain rails in the corridor outside creating a larger space, so when the toilet door is open no one can see in. The rail would need to be three sided protruding outwards to give the additional space, so this would not work in a corridor.

Alternatively a church may need to consider its main toilet facilities and how often they are used, would it be possible to create a second larger disabled access toilet inside the main toilets?

If you have no other space within the church, of church hall that would be appropriate then would an extension be answer. Toileting is a basic human need, if we cannot provide this then we are failing badly, and it would be sad to see the new family leave and shake our sand from their shoes.

* Now I am going to state that which should not need to be stated, but I am going to do it anyway. When it comes to toileting children or young people only their parents, guardians or carers can do this no one else from the church no matter your DBS standing. Never allow yourself, or someone from your church, to be put into a position by a parent or guardian whereby you are left with the child or young person even though you have the parents or guardians permission. It is not right, safe or appropriate. This will also apply to adults who are vulnerable and have carers, be they family or professional people.

^#One word of clarification. When speaking about children and adults with learning disabilities in this post, I refer only to those who need to use disabled access toilets, and who may have continence problems. There is no intention here of inferring that children who are disabled, or adults with learning disabilities have continence as this is clearly not the case.

Cyber Faud and the vulnerable

Cyber Freud is a risk to all who use the internet, particularly those who are not as aware of the risks involved in what they are doing. So advice from the i newspaper is very timely particularly for people who are house bound and those who rely very much on internet shopping, banking etc. The very people who are often the most vulnerable in society, and yet are the ones picked on.

Cyber Freud: Advice from the i newspaper, plus a little more:

• Never give personal details on the phone if someone phones you up asking. Even if they have already lots of information such as your address, date of birth, even the last four digits of your credit/debit card – this they can hack.
• Use three random words for you password, which protects against hacking software. Use of upper case and lower case and numbers randomly placed helps.
• Change passwords regularly, use different ones for different applications.
• Do not record passwords where others can find them!
• Avoid clicking on embedded suspicious emails, if you do not recognise them don’t open, delete!
• Be careful about what you post online, identity theft is a huge problem.
• Carry regular updates of security and good security software.
• Keep a close eye on your bank account.

Health and Safety digging near electric cables; and Employer Liability Insurance

I want to share with you all a couple of very interesting health and safety cases that local church’s need be aware of. I know this Blog is dedicated to disabilities but safety and health affects all of us so please allow me a little elbow room.

As is often the case the cases referred to are speaking about private organisations that are set up to generate income and profit, but places of worship do fall under the same health and safety legislation and should therefore be aware of these serious matters.

The first is about a joiner who was replacing fence posts in domestic properties for his employer. The joiner struck an underground cable receiving an electric shock. This could easily had led to death, but in this instance, thankfully, did not. The employer was found guilty of failing to protect its employee from being exposed to a foreseeable risk. The fine and costs came to over £15,000. Not a sum any church council I know could afford.

Comment: Churches do have buried services, i.e. electric cables, water pipes, and gas pipes. Some of these may be on plans of the church property. But even if they are often the plans are not precise, believe me this is my area of expertise and I am still amazed how wrong plans can be. When such work is planned a risk assessment is necessary, and the possibility of such hazards being present must be noted. Actions may be to get an organisation in to map the services for you, but costly. Or to dig with great care, not with heavy spades, less costly but the confidence of no injury would need to be much higher. That is what the risk assessment is all about, not just a paper exercise.

The second Case:

Quite simple, and one I have written about before. Employer Liability Insurance.

The law requires that any employer has Employer Liability Insurance, so where a church pays someone to clean the church, garden, verger, bookkeeping and so on even if it is only for a couple of hours per week it is an employer employee relationship hence Employer Liability Insurance is required; see - https://www.gov.uk/employers-liability-insurance

Recently a restaurant in Maidstone found themselves over £3,000 worse off after going to court for failing to have Employer Liability Insurance, and no doubt that they have now forked out for the insurance.

Comment: Interestingly if any of their employees has had an accident over the past three years and makes a claim against the restaurant the owner will have a shock; a very costly shock! This is why we need such an insurance cover, often churches will find that they are covered as part of their general policy – but this must be checked and then the certificate of Employer Liability Insurance must be displayed. We should never consider Employer Liability Insurance as a problem but rather as a friend, for if things do go wrong and someone working for us is injured then the insurance could be worth more than its weight in gold.

Case one: HSE v Berneslai Homes Ltd [2015] (http://press.hse.gov.uk/2015/company-sentenced-after-employee-received-electric-shock/ Accessed 07/10/2015)

Case Two: HSE v Hasret Sasmaz, trading as Starburger [2015] (http://press.hse.gov.uk/2015/restaurant-owner-fined-over-employer-liability-insurance/ Accessed 07/10/2015)