Rock and River Changing Places…
OUTDOOR PURSUITS SPECIALIST ROCK AND RIVER is making sure everyone can be adventurous, with the opening of the first Changing Places toilet at an outdoor activity centre…
The organisation, which operates on a 180 acre former farm in rural Lancashire, has an emphasis on working with children to stimulate learning, to the extent it holds the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge. To help ensure children of all abilities can benefit from activities, Rock and River worked with a specialist care provider to secure local authority funding for a Changing Places toilet in the Rock & River cafe.
The toilet, supplied and installed by Total Hygiene – sponsor of the Changing Places campaign (www.changing-places.org) – is purpose-designed for people with profound and multiple disabilities who need the help of up to two carers, providing adequate, clean space with a peninsular toilet, changing bench, height adjustable basin and hoist.
John Wareing, director at Rock and River, said,
We have always been passionate about enabling everyone, regardless of ability, to enjoy the outdoors, and aim to give our visitors the most exhilarating and rewarding time imaginable. That extends to ‘answering the call of nature’ when they are here, with clean, appropriate facilities. The reaction in the few weeks the Changing Places toilet has been open has been good – to the extent we would like to now install one in the ‘bunkhouse’, our converted barn accommodation for residential visitors!
Under British Standard BS8300:2009 Design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people- Code of practice, inclusion of a Changing Places toilet is recommended as ‘good practice’ in all buildings to which numbers of the public have access. Since the campaign began, approximately 300 Changing Places toilets have been installed across the country, in centres such as visitor attractions, shopping malls and leisure centres. Total Hygiene, manufacturer of the top-selling ‘wash and dry’ toilet the Closomat, has 50 years’ experience in providing specialist toileting solutions for disabled people, hence its partnership with the Changing Places campaig
