Meeting the skills challenge for all
CREATION of a 21st century training environment for all is being achieved at Wakefield College…
The College is extending the inclusive ethos throughout its sites, commissioning the UK’s leading disabled toileting solutions provider, Total Hygiene, to install special Changing Places toilet facilities not only in the new SkillsXchange, but also in its existing Thornes Park campus, with plans to further include them in another new block at the main Wakefield campus.
Explained Wakefield College Estates Manager Diane Henry,
We want to promote access and education to all, and therefore felt the way forward was to put in Changing Places toilets, each on the ground floor near reception for optimum accessibility.
Changing Places toilets are for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities and other people with severe disabilities who need the support of at least one carer, and include adequate space in the changing area for the disabled person and up to two carers, a height adjustable changing bench and hoist. Both of the Wakefield College toilets fur ther incorporate a height adjustable washbasin and Closomat ‘wash and dry’ toilet.
The biggest-selling unit of its type, the Closomat looks like a conventional WC but features integral douching and drying, removing the need for the user or their carer to manually cleanse after toileting, thus improving hygiene, dignity and independence. Closomat toilets are manufactured in the UK by Total Hygiene sponsor of the Changing Places campaign. Observed Kelvin Grimes, Total Hygiene’s Changing Places specialist,
Wakefield College felt a Changing Places toilet with supplementary equipment of a Closomat rather than a standard WC would truly fulfill its ethos of access and education to all, regardless of type of disability.
The Changing Places campaign is seeing rapid acceptance of the need for its toilets: in the past year alone, almost 100 Changing Places toilets have been opened in venues across the country, from museums to shopping centres and car parks, bringing the total to over 350 nationwide.
