On 7th February 2016 Ted and I posted a video showing our under cover mission to find dad-friendly baby change facilities in our local town. Hopefully you’ve seen the video but if not, take a look here.
We were shocked at the major high street names that couldn’t cater for me (a dad) to change my sons nappy. Caffe Nero, Pizza Express, Strada all had changing facilities only in the women’s toilets. I have a certain level of understanding for independent establishments, where space is a major issue but these giants have no excuse.
The reason for this post however, is to tell you how the chains have responded. We approached them to ask what they made of our findings and if they had anything to say in response. Here’s what they said:
Strada:
We’re disappointed to hear on this occasion we have not met expectation of Al and his son. We support the ‘dads for Change’ movement and are now working closely with our teams across the UK to improve this facility for dads, and also reviewing our facilities for parents as a whole. We look forward to welcoming Ted and his dad back to Strada soon.
Pizza Express:
We’re sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and we will review the issues highlighted in the film. We are committed to ensuring that our restaurants are family friendly; most of our baby changing facilities are accessible to both men and women.
Caffe Nero:
We agree that any customer regardless of their gender should be able to use the baby changing facilities when using Caffè Nero and, in this instance, this was not the case. For that, we apologise, and we are looking at fitting baby changing facilities in the store that Al Ferguson visited in the near future.
However, that specific store is an exception. Almost all our stores have baby changing facilities that can be used by men or women. Those stores located within a shopping centre (such as the one that Al Ferguson visited) or within a Department Store are the exceptions as they tend to have toilets and facilities in the larger centre or in the umbrella store rather than in our store. That was precisely the case with Al Ferguson.
BHS:
We provide private baby changing facilities for all customers in our stores. Any uncertainty in regards to this should be presented to a member of staff who will gladly direct you to your nearest baby changing room.
All positive responses in their own right, but there’s always that cynical doubt in my mind that change will actually happen. You often get campaigns that have very little impact. I’m pleased to say that this is not one of those campaigns.
I’ve just gotten off the phone with Strada who have informed me of a nationwide sweep of all their branches to check that there are baby change facilities available to dads. And the best bit is that where the facilities are only available to mums, they’re actually adding in a changing table either in the gents or the disabled toilet so that dads can access a safe and clean space to change their baby’s nappy.
That, in my mind, is a success.
Whether the other companies will follow suit, I’m not sure. I hope so, but either way the bar has definitely been set by Strada.
One thing is for sure, the support for this campaign has been overwhelming, and like I said in the orginal video, one voice will get drowned out but if we stand together united and shout about something loud enough, we can inspire change. And we have. Thank you to all who have supported #dadsforchange. It’s not over, but round 1 has gone to us dads.
Check out this interactive map showing dad friendly & dad un-friendly baby change facilities throughout the UK. Add you own locations too!
Great result Al, fantastic campaign and fantastic response from Strada too. :-)
Thanks Jim :) Appreciate your support. Need you get you writing on The Dad Network again!
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As a mum that has infiltrated your site because of some great posts on car seats etc I would like to say I am completely behind this campaign-I am always surprised when there are no unisex change facilities. My husband often changes our 2 children when out or we do a joint effort for the 2 of them! One of the funniest and most heartwarming anecdotes we have is in a McDonald’s in Mauritius when my son was 6 months old. I was still eating and my husband went to change my son. We just expected unisex change facilities but when he asked they seemed embarrassed that the only facilities were in the ladies and led him to the staff room and offered for him to use the table in there – Edward was changed with all the staff (mainly women) giving him loads of attention! I think a dad doing the changing was a bit of a novelty!
My husband wanted me to add that all the ladies were taking selfies with him changing my son – possibly to show their other halves! Starting a revolution…!
Can I just suggest that this campaign should be highlighted to all the stores involved by using the Equality Act 2010.
There in that case should be no excuse as they have all had reasonable time to address any gender specific issues within their premises.
I welcome baby change facilities within the accessible toilets as I expect they are more hygienic than any other facility area.
I am disabled myself and have no issues with parents changing nappies within that area, every premisis should have accessible toilet facilities by now and therefore that seems to be the best place to put the baby change, especially as they are usually sited on the ground floor and so safety is kept at the highest priority.