York bundled potty-training guides with school offers — untrained starters fell 43%

England has a school-readiness problem: about one in four children started school not toilet-trained, and teachers reported over an hour a day changing nappies (Kindred Squared research). York ran a city-wide pilot on a simple delivery trick — since April 2026, every family in the city with a child starting reception that September received potty-training guides with their school offer, backed by workshops for parents, drop-in sessions at children's centres, and special training for early-years staff, with messaging pushed through GP surgeries, pharmacies, family hubs, schools and nurseries.

Results shared with BBC News from all 55 mainstream primaries showed a 43% one-year drop in children starting school untrained: from 148 of 1,364 (11%) in 2025 to 85 of 1,374 (6%) in 2026. Reception teacher Jo Mould of Robert Wilkinson Primary Academy said her class came in 'so ready to learn' and that the school had spent more time teaching in the first three weeks than in previous years. Councillor Bob Webb credited collaboration across health visitors, schools and community settings, while acknowledging a continuing 'gap in support' between health visits and school arrival.

The government called the pilot's results 'encouraging' and reiterated its target of 75% of pupils reaching a good level of development by the end of reception by 2028 (currently 68.3%). Twenty local authorities — including North Lincolnshire, Suffolk, Solihull, Rotherham, Hampshire, Halton, Redbridge, Hounslow, and Cheshire West and Chester — have now committed to adopt the Kindred Squared-developed model.

Every family with a rising reception child is identified and reachable at one guaranteed moment — the school-place offer — so the guide rode along on mail parents already open.

The message was repeated in the places parents already visit, from GP surgeries to pharmacies and family hubs, rather than waiting for them to seek help.

Early-years staff got training too, so the school side reinforced what the campaign started.

The pilot measured every mainstream primary in the city, producing a 43% improvement that gave twenty other councils something concrete to adopt.

Distribution is the hard part of any behavior campaign: piggyback on a message every target household already receives, instead of building outreach nobody reads.

Twenty local authorities across England have committed to launch similar schemes, and the government confirmed its commitment to 75% of pupils reaching a good level of development in their first school year by 2028. Kindred Squared's model is the template being rolled out.