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Celebrating 35 years of ERIC, The Children’s Bowel & Bladder Charity
As our charity celebrates a landmark year in our history, we look back at some of our achievements, at where we are now, and at what the future holds for the UK’s only charity dedicated solely to children’s bowel and bladder health.
On 2 April 1991 ERIC was officially incorporated as a standalone charity and registered with the Charity Commission, making this year a landmark anniversary for us.
That’s the day ERIC as we know it today began, but of course we can trace our roots back even further to 1987, when Dr Penny Dobson MBE, who was then employed by The Children’s Society, with three year’s funding to set up the first service to support families of children who wet the bed.
We’ve expanded over the years and now cover so much more of children’s bowel and bladder health in addition to that, from potty training, through to constipation, soiling, daytime bladder problems, complex bowels and bladders and so much more.
We also provide training and resources for the professionals who support children and young people, including healthcare professionals, early years practitioners and local authorities and family hubs, to name a few. We provide a bedwetting alarm service and a specialist online shop to cater for children's needs.
Our mission is to get everyone talking about good bowel and bladder health from birth and taking action that:
Empowers children, young people, and their carers with accessible support, information and resources.
Delivers the best education and learning for healthcare, social care, early years and education professionals across the children’s workforce.
Influences research, policy development and products, which focus on innovative practice and positive change.
Did you know that...?
- 1 in 9 children and young people across the UK (over 1.5 million) have bowel/bladder problems - that’s around three children in every primary school class, higher than the number of children living with asthma.
- 1 in 4 children in England and Wales are starting school not toilet trained, which has a huge impact on children’s health and education.
- Up to 1 in 3 children in the UK struggle with constipation.
- Almost 1 in 4 children are scared to use the toilet at school.
ERIC’s support and advice on children’s bowels and bladders is more needed than ever to reach these children and families.
Taking action for children and families
Some landmark achievements for ERIC over the past 35 years have included:
- Founding our Helpline, which last year supported 6243 people.
- Developing the ERIC Conference, which has grown into one of the leading events in the paediatric continence community, both nationally and internationally.
- Winning the GlaxoSmithKline IMPACT Award (2007), a national award for small and medium sized charities in the healthcare sector; a year later, winning the Children’s category of the National Charity Awards, again for effectiveness in improving child health; ERIC's Communications team winning Team of the Year at the CharityComms Inspiring Communicator Awards 2025; and ERIC Trustee Dr Eve Fleming winning a Lifetime Service Award at the Helplines Partnership Awards.
- Achieving Helplines Standard accreditation, being PIF-Tick certified and being registered with the Fundraising Regulator.
- Recruiting our ERIC Young Champions, who help to shape the content and resources we offer for young people, and who recently launched our landmark Voices for Change Report.
- Appointing our Professional Advisory Committee to oversee governance and help inform policy around children’s bowel and bladder care.
- Being a part of several coalitions in the children’s health and education space, including The Child Health Workforce Alliance and Children and Young People's Health Policy Influencing Group (HPIG).
- Being a member of the APPG Continence.
- Collaborating with the University of Kent to produce a workshop for secondary schools, Buzzers For Bedwetters, about bowel and bladder health, the history of incontinence and where the shame and stigma came from.
- Partnering with Bristol Family Hubs (Bristol City Council) to co-create a potty training animation, Potty and toilet training: A three-stage journey, to offer an accessible introduction to potty training for parents and carers across the country.
- Launching the UK’s first national programme to promote toilet readiness for schools, All Aboard The Toilet Train.
- Hosting our first Parliamentary roundtable, bringing together stakeholders from across the children’s health, education and social care sectors – which led to…
- Collaborating with the Institute of Health Visiting to provide national guidance for potty training.
- Best Start in Life collation with early years providers led by Kindred Squared, providing expert resources for potty training, leading to updated Department of Education guidance.
...and there’s so much more!
Our impact
The effect that bowel and bladder problems can have on children and their families cannot be underestimated. It impacts every area of their lives, and families tell us all the time what a difference our support has made to them.
This year...
96% said ERIC understood their needs well
79% said ERIC helped them develop a plan for tackling the problem
71% understood more about their children's wee or poo problem
81% said they felt more supported
73% said they now knew where to go for help or information
Don’t just take our word for it though, here’s what some of the parents we have supported had to say...
“ERIC gave my daughter her childhood back. I don’t know where we’d be without their support” - Dawn, mum of Neveah.
“Knowing that ERIC was there was a lifeline. ERIC became that one source I knew I could trust for information, that I knew were supportive if I had a question. There are so many questions that people can’t answer. Even around doctors, I felt there was a bit of taboo around poo. I needed some advice from somewhere. It’s just lovely knowing that, where there are some areas that other people can’t help, ERIC can” - Kelly, mum of Katie.
“ERIC understands us. There are sympathetic experts on the end of the line and that’s just worth so much to us” - Elissa, mum of Ivan.
To find out just how much of an impact ERIC has been having on families and the professionals who support them, access our Impact Report here.
Looking to the future
We continue to be outward focused, finding opportunities to raise awareness of the impact of bowel and bladder conditions on the health and wellbeing of children, young people and their families. It is vital that good bowel and bladder health from birth is recognised and included as a key milestone in childhood development, across public health, primary health, the early years sector, primary schools and with parents.
We’re working hard to ensure the children’s workforce across health, public health, social care and early years have the skills and knowledge they need to assess, treat, manage and signpost families to appropriate support and intervention.
We diversify our income and self-generate approximately 50% of our revenue to ensure financial sustainability.
A word from our CEO
“It is with great pride that we celebrate the 35th anniversary of ERIC, The Children’s Bowel & Bladder Charity. The organisation has come a long way and achieved so much – but we’re also aware that there’s much still to do. There couldn’t be a more pressing time for interventions to take place. Demand is so high that ERIC needs to collaborate, innovate and expand our reach to improve outcomes for children and young people, and I am excited to drive this mission forward.
“None of this would be possible without the tremendous support from our supporters and partners. Each year, we reach out for help, and each year you generously help to sustain our wonderful organisation. Our achievements have only been possible through the dedication of our staff, volunteers, Trustee Board, and the generosity of you, our wonderful supporters and partners. We are incredibly grateful to be a part of this amazing community of care. We are looking forward to achieving much more together.”
Siân Wicks, CEO of ERIC, The Children’s Bowel & Bladder Charity
A word from our founding director
“Unbelievably, it is 35 years since I sat in front of a plain sheet of paper, in a small room in Bristol, to plan how to set up a new national charity! I am thrilled to see how much impact ERIC has continued to have today – and how much our hard work and achievements in the early years have been a stepping stone to its current development and success.
“When our small team set up a national Helpline in1988, we were overwhelmed with requests for support – and much gratitude that, at last, there was help available! An immediate task was to publish information leaflets for parents and to put together treatment manuals for professionals. All our work was overseen by an enthusiastic research panel of experts, led by the now late Professor of Child Health (Bristol), Professor David Baum.
“Our first national conference at the Barbican in London in 1989 was fully booked and was opened by the then Minister for Health, Virginia Bottomley MP, who herself had treated children with bedwetting in her previous work as a social worker! This was a beginning to 10 national and international conferences over the next 20 years.
“My background in nursing and social work was a great help to me, but to become an independent registered charity within a three-year time frame was a challenge, particularly for such an “unglamorous” cause. Yet it was a joy to develop an in-house team with the skills and dedication to take ERIC forward - as well as a wider team of loyal supporters who worked with us to make sure ERIC’s voice was heard and that we had the funding to continue.
“Two supporters stand out, amongst many, as key to our success. Firstly, Dr Jill White, who gave me wise council and provided world class musicians for fundraising dinners at Berkeley Castle and Badminton House. The second is John Savage CBE, who came on board as a treasurer of the Management Committee in 1991 and remained an experienced and steady hand at the tiller until 2008.
It is of huge benefit to ERIC that the charity is in the extremely capable hands of Siân Wicks LLM RGN, its current CEO.”
Dr Penny Dobson MBE, founding director and Patron of ERIC, The Children’s Bowel & Bladder Charity
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