Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Male teachers can supervise girls changing rooms under new NSPCC guidance.

58 replies

allthingsinmoderation · 14/09/2026 13:52

Male teachers can supervise girls changing rooms under new NSPCC guidance.
Previous guidance said supervision must be by the same sex staff.
That guidance has been removed/omitted.
AIBU to think that is an unwise lack of safeguarding and wonder why the same sex staff guidance was omitted?

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Missey85 · 15/09/2026 09:29

Batties · 14/09/2026 14:05

Because to some, the safety, dignity and privacy of girls is not as important as the feelings of men

Just like all the female swimmers in America that got told off because they didn't want to share a locker room with a man it was the girls that got told to like it or lump it

EnterQueene · 15/09/2026 09:20

saraclara · 15/09/2026 01:01

The Telegraph is a really shitty newspaper. Often worse than the DM.
Having a knee-jerk reaction to anything they publish without waiting to check the actual facts, is unwise.

Yup, pure clickbait. As I said in an earlier post, they know exactly which buttons to push for the clicks.

WearyAuldWumman · 15/09/2026 02:18

If this is correct, then it should not be.

I'll add that I once put in a complaint on behalf of some male pupils because a female P.E. teacher had walked into a boys' changing room. The boys had complained to me.

saraclara · 15/09/2026 01:01

The Telegraph is a really shitty newspaper. Often worse than the DM.
Having a knee-jerk reaction to anything they publish without waiting to check the actual facts, is unwise.

SconehengeRevenge · 15/09/2026 00:11

Work in schools.
NSPCC guidance is nowhere.

Only KCSIE matters.

Bones101 · 14/09/2026 23:50

But trans people cant use their correct bathroom????

Glad I dont live in the UK 😂

Bloau · 14/09/2026 23:11

pragmatismuniversalsentimentalist · 14/09/2026 14:26

The problem with this you are all forgetting is that there are male primary school teachers who necessarily have to supervise a mixed class of children changing for PE. A male year 2 or year 3 teacher who doesn't have a female TA or otherwise available to them doesnt have much choice do they, primary schools rarely have dedicated changing rooms for children, in year 6 often the self conscious girls with changing bodies will use the toilets to change.

Exactly, what age is this guidance for? Also, as a teacher I've never been given NSPCC guidance to follow. We follow legislation like KCSIE.

StrawberryFreckles · 14/09/2026 22:53

Amygx762 · 14/09/2026 20:20

This is dangerous because, especially younger girls, they will start to think it’s okay for a man to watch them while they’re changing or showering, which can lead to predators taking advantage.

Well, they won’t because it’s not true.

noblegiraffe · 14/09/2026 21:04

allthingsinmoderation · 14/09/2026 14:40

Today the NSPCC Statement uses the term sex.
It explains the guidance for sports remains that same sex supervision is recommended but its schools guidance omits this to reflect the lack of clarity from the government and awaits updates from EHRC.its on the NSPCC website.

The EHRC technical guidance which is out for consultation, as far as I can see doesn't mention anything about supervision of changing rooms, so it's unclear why they need to wait on this.

NoisyMonster678 · 14/09/2026 20:51

Oh my god.

TheodoreisntBeth · 14/09/2026 20:45

So it used to say gender, and now because they're too scared of genderists kicking off they won't say sex, so they don't say anything?

My local hospital has just done this with their chaperone policy, it used to say a same gender chaperone should be offered, now post EHRC Guidance they can't say that but they're too scared/ captured to say same sex, so they've deleted any mention at all.

We'll probably be seeing a lot more of this type of cowardice in policies being amended to grudgingly comply with the Equality Act.

GargoylesofBeelzebub · 14/09/2026 20:39

dustabsorber · 14/09/2026 14:34

So if there is a serious medical emergency in a female changing room, a male first responder couldn't go in?

🙄 oh FFS

GargoylesofBeelzebub · 14/09/2026 20:38

The NSPCC has been infiltrated by predators.

DinnerinfrontoftheTV · 14/09/2026 20:35

None of this is okay.

Amygx762 · 14/09/2026 20:20

This is dangerous because, especially younger girls, they will start to think it’s okay for a man to watch them while they’re changing or showering, which can lead to predators taking advantage.

StrawberryFreckles · 14/09/2026 15:58

dustabsorber · 14/09/2026 14:34

So if there is a serious medical emergency in a female changing room, a male first responder couldn't go in?

Or if Hitler came. Is that want they are saying!?!?! That we should just let Hitler in the changing rooms! Discusting…

LeftieRightsHoarder · 14/09/2026 15:56

Don’t forget the NSPCC were reluctant to sack a sex-fetishist employee in 2019, after he’d uploaded videos of himself indulging in ‘inappropriate behaviour’ in the workplace toilets to a fetishist website!

I haven’t trusted them since then.

StSpiridian · 14/09/2026 15:51

Sex Matters wrote to NSPCC on 4th September to warn that it is a serious institutional failure for the nation’s pre-eminent child-protection charity to lose sight of the need for clear policies.
Some useful links:
Previous mumsnet thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3611447-Potential-Systemic-Safeguarding-failures-in-NSPCC-Childline-illustrated-by-appointment-ending-of-relationship-with-Munroe-Bergdorf-Thread-2

sexmattersorg article online outlining the current problem
https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/nspccs-changing-room-guidance-fails-girls/

Apparently the NSPCC background includes them supporting men using babies in the sexual fetish 'lactophilia' (ie supporting CSA/ drug abuse of babies if the perpetrator is trans), not having any training materials to help staff recognise the child safeguarding risks if a man IDs as a woman (or has sexual fetishes/ paraphilias around this), senior staff publicly supporting one of their staff members making porn videos
uncommongroundmedia.com/nspcc-employee-films-himself-masturbating-at-work/
& also calling women who raised SG concerns 'bullies' (before then quietly sacking him after deciding it was 'inconsistent with the values expected of an employee' (the email confirming this from NSPCC has been widely retweeted on x).

NSPCC’s changing-room guidance fails girls

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is the country’s best-known child-protection charity, and the only one with

https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/nspccs-changing-room-guidance-fails-girls/

Lougle · 14/09/2026 15:40

I think the NSPCC is limited in their scope because they are a charity. Their guidance fleshes out the law and makes it accessible by staff who can't be expected to read the legislation and decide what each word means in a legal sense.

The NSPCC have revised their guidance to remove 'gender' but there is nothing specific in the law to say that supervision in changing rooms must be single sex. Therefore, they've described a range of steps that can make young people safe regardless of the sex of teacher (don't hang around in the changing room, listen from a distance, give a warning if you need to enter, try to supervise in twos).

UniquePinkSwan · 14/09/2026 15:30

Clickbait headline to start the frothing

Icedvanillacoffee · 14/09/2026 15:19

For goodness sake, obviously male staff should not be in girls changing rooms. I worked in secondary schools for 30 plus years, no headteacher in their right mind would countenance having a situation where men are
in girls changing rooms.
And if the NSPCC advice is so unclear Sex Matters has flagged it then thats not fake news its poorly written advice, and its not hard to get this right.
And to claim that the advice from government is not clear is also nonsense. At some point adults need to accept responsibility for making choices based on reality.
Maybe if boys who think they are transgirls are unsafe in boys school changing rooms the male PE staff could be stationed in there to prevent bullying. A practice so common good schools do it routinely!
Schools must stick to clear and lawful boundaries or girls will suffer.

PumpinkSpice · 14/09/2026 14:50

allthingsinmoderation · 14/09/2026 14:12

Are you saying the reason guidance about same sex changing room supervision has been removed because potential emergency situations may occur .
Surely they could have said : changing rooms should be supervised by same sex staff exceptions being emergency situations.

The telegraph might have an angle to take

allthingsinmoderation · 14/09/2026 14:40

BreezyClouds · 14/09/2026 14:30

No, you are wrong

Today the NSPCC Statement uses the term sex.
It explains the guidance for sports remains that same sex supervision is recommended but its schools guidance omits this to reflect the lack of clarity from the government and awaits updates from EHRC.its on the NSPCC website.

OP posts:
Shudacudawuda · 14/09/2026 14:37

dustabsorber · 14/09/2026 14:34

So if there is a serious medical emergency in a female changing room, a male first responder couldn't go in?

That wouldn't be supervising changing would it? So nothing to do with this and would be fine.

Beece · 14/09/2026 14:37

dustabsorber · 14/09/2026 14:34

So if there is a serious medical emergency in a female changing room, a male first responder couldn't go in?

There’s always one person on AIBU who brings in the very direst of scenarios as reasons why we can’t have every day common sense.

YES if the male teacher is the only one defib trained and a girl has a heart attack in the shower he goes in, but if it’s not a life or death situation he stays the fuck out. Got it?