The guidelines in this work represent principles of good practice supported by evidence-based rationales for the Primary Health Care Team in the care of individuals for all ages suffering from urinary and faecal incontinence. The guidelines were developed as part of the NHS Executive Consensus Strategy for Major Clinical Guidelines. The methods used for the production of the guidelines were: a systematic review of the literature on continence and incontinence promotion; and a multidisciplinary consensus conference of invited experts and clinicians in continence care and consumers of continence services. Since advances in health care may soon outdate current methods, the guidelines do not aim to direct the practitioner to specific forms of treatment. Rather, the aim is to aid clinicians in making decisions about purchasing and providing appropriate continence services in primary care.