After apologising for joking about parents who fail to toilet train their kids, Louise Thompson has come under fire, but the Mirror takes a look at the big picture, revealing the real reasons why children are not “school-ready”.
Louise Thompson has faced a backlash after questioning parents who send their children to school in nappies – as struggling mums hit back to reveal the traumatising reality of the UK’s diagnosis backlog.
The Made in Chelsea star, 36, and husband Ryan Libbey, 35, caused an immediate storm on their podcast He Said, She Said. Discussing a survey that shows 24% of reception pupils aren’t fully toilet trained, Louise questioned if it was a “cop-out” by parents who “can’t be bothered.”
The survey indicated that 28% of children starting reception are unable to drink independently, or feed themselves, and 2.4 hours of teaching time are being taken up as staff attend to these needs, with 1.4 hours of that being toilet issues.
While the figures, from the Kindred² 2025 School Readiness Survey, claim to focus on non-SEND children, the diagnosis gap means thousands of four-year-old are entering school without a label simply because waitlists for assessments now stretch for years. And for the parents of children with additional needs, the reality is far from “taking the easy route”.
READ MORE: Louise Thompson called out for laughing at school kids not being potty trainedREAD MORE: Louise Thompson issues apology over controversial parenting comments after receiving backlash
Carla Hoskins, a mum of six from London, has two autistic children. Her six-year-old Romeo, still wears nappies and attends mainstream school part-time.
“ I’m just shocked that she even thought that it was okay to put it out” Carla, 38, told the Mirror, “My son is in a mainstream school currently, so he would be part of that statistic. Many children aren’t getting a diagnosis until they are six or seven, so those kids are included. No one wants a kid to be going to school in a nappy. I don’t think you’d speak to any parent who would say ‘I’m comfortable with my child going to school in a nappy.'”
Carla, who had to stop working in education to care for Romeo, highlighted the “embarrassment” and shame parents face at the school gate, often apologising to staff for something they cannot control.
She said: “There are many kids with autism even a lot worse than Romeo and the teachers are having to deal with it and they’re understaffed, I feel bad for them because that isn’t what they signed up for, they didn’t sign up to be basically working with specialist children to that degree.”
Carla adds that she thought the Louise laughing during the podcast episode was “ probably the worst part of it. Imagine your a parent struggling to potty train your child and you are having to send them into school and then you see that basically taking the p**s out of you.”
Frankie Gulliver, 29, from Devon, whose son Cole has autism and global development delay, invited the couple to see her reality. She told the Mirror: “My son will likely never live independently. We don’t have a choice or a silver spoon. We’re fighting a system that is not built for children like my son.”
She branded the comments a sign of “privilege” that is worlds away from parents working long hours during a Cost of Living crisis to afford nappies, and other essentials.
This was something the survey found as a major barrier to school-readiness, with many parents highlighting money as a major issue, as people increasingly work long hours to make ends meet, meaning they have less time to get their children fully prepared to start reception.
One teacher with 18 years experience called the SEND funding situation “diabolical”, telling the Mirror that there are “so many factors” why children are not school ready, such as the closure of hundreds of SureStart clinics.
The centre’s offered a wide range of support to families with children under five in England, with a child poverty task force last year urging the government to return the early years service.
Describing the fight to get an Education, Health and Care Plan, which offers extra support for a child, as “soul destroying”, the teacher said only parents with the capacity to “fight” now succeed in getting them secured for their child.
“I’ve had many many parents through my door and It’s very rare that you’re getting a lazy parent,” the teacher said. “You are getting parents that want the best for their children and I wouldn’t put the toilet training down to lazy parenting or iPad usage. Screen time is a go-to blame because it takes the onus off the actual government doing anything and dealing with it.”
One difficulty is that i ncontinence clinics often won’t see children until they are seven , yet schools expect them trained by four. Another important factor is diet, with the teacher noting an uptick in childhood constipation and laxative use, linked to the declining quality of diets as families struggle to afford fresh food.
Following the backlash, the post was removed and the podcast’s official Instagram page shared a comment admitting they failed to account for the SEND community. They stated they wanted to “learn more” about the challenge families face, stating: “In a previous clip we included a conversation around potty training based on recent stats and our own lived experience. This however did not include the very important reference to SEN children and families which was an oversight so we removed the clip to avoid further offence. It’s an important topic we are very keen to learn more about.”
Louise Thompson and the Department for Education have been contacted for comment.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
