Twitter thread: no impact assessments carried out for school guidance in Scotland

When kids start relaying this back to the parents I imagine there will be a lot of parents upset with teachers. Poor teachers having to be party to this and made to teach it knowing it is very controversial. Not only is this a safe guarding issue for children but it will be the teachers who get the wrath. This is not fair. It needs to be a workable policy and one that takes all views into account. Parents protect their kids and it is important they have a say. The rights of all kids need to be considered but I would understand any parent who gets angry with a system that even hints at a possible risk to females. It is something that cannot just be brought in sneakily. It needs an open debate. Sexual assault happens on schools. But then again, bullying doesn’t happen. According to schools the anti bullying policy is magic. Tell that to my child who was bullied and the best the school could say was we don’t tolerate this. Well. I know better.

I think that's quite encouraging. I hope the pressure is kept up, especially on the local authorities.

As she says, it does however demonstrate that the Scottish government are concerned it might not stand up to a legal challenge

Yes, they have backed down from that pretty sharpish.

Hi all. Just bumping with an update for you. It's not great...

As she says, it does however demonstrate that the Scottish government are concerned it might not stand up to a legal challenge.

The local authority I work for finally got back to me and said they didn't need to do one as they didn't write it. I am not shocked. However given the legal challenge they may need to change position on this soon.
They are the local authority that didn't respond to the FOI

Yet some on these boards have posted some things that would put a wedge between alliances (rather than deal with their family issues in therapy) such as the group funding the legal challenge, talk about own goals!

It’s a good idea charley - I asked this up thread. I think it’d be particularly useful for the girl guides. Schools too.

Had a chat today with a friend whose DH is an actuary. She's thinking that asking insurers directly regarding public liability insurance may be another way to stress that there's a safeguarding problem with these new guidelines. Insurers assess and calculate risks based on a known set of circumstances and common assumptions after all and this obviously changes those.

What do you all think? And has anyone tried this, even informally?

Lemonjello's 0837 post re west Lothian council removing sex and adding gender was what I was thinking of re the stuff about not needing to do an equality assessment.

I have seen sex replaced with gender in other places as well, quoting equality act, before all this.

I am a bit flummoxed at the idea feminists are trying to change language. Agree that is a reversal so massive it can prob be seen from moon :D

Done. Hoping it’s a simple mistake and will be fixed.

This is what I sent

Dear Madam/ Sir

I am writing to express concern at something I read in your document “Assessing impact and the Public Sector Equality Duty A guide for public authorities in Scotland”.

On page 6 of the guide, you have neglected to include he protected characteristic of sex. Instead you have included ‘gender’ which is not a protected characteristic.

I would like an explanation as to why an organisation tasked with the promotion and enforcement of the Equality Act 2010, has misrepresented it in such a way.

In your own words, from your consultation response to the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Bill, you say “...’sex’ and ‘gender’ are not synonymous terms” and that “...’gender’ is not a protected characteristic.”

Why then, would you misrepresent the law and state that it is, in your guide to the public sector equality duty?

Done. Lets wait and see how they respond.

You're way ahead of me Lemonjello, thank you!

Thanks Lemonjello

Yes, it's not really good enough coming from those who should absolutely know the difference between sex and gender.

I deffo think I'll be writing to them regarding this mistake.

Here’s a handy online form to make your complaint.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/contact-us/general-enquiries-and-information

uptheduffy it is from the document Assessing impact and the Public
Sector Equality Duty A guide for public authorities in Scotland. It’s on page 6.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/6.assessing_impact-_formatted_0.pdf

Yes definitely we should complain, particularly in light of pencils quote above, where they recognise the difference between sex and gender.

If there are not the same thing then they are misrepresenting the Equality Act 2010 in their guidance by removing sex as a protected characteristic and including something which is not a defined protected characteristic in law. They are misrepresenting the law basically. IANAL but that seems...negligent.

It’s difficult to know Terry. I think that in general people are squeamish about the word sex and think that sex and gender are synonymous.

However, I don’t think that’s an adequate explanation when the organisation in question is tasked with providing guidance about the law- they should be using the correct legal terminology and the fact they are not is very odd.

Pencils that is very interesting. I will have a read through that link you posted.

R0wantrees I quite agree re the importance of sexual assault and harrasent, I don’t suppose in all your fabulous links database, you have anything about this but specifically related to Scotland?

Lemonjello, where is that from specifically - surely we could write to them to point out their mistake? It could be as simple as a mistake, I'd like to hope...
Thanks to all for the reassuring info re the equality act.

Lemonjello

I can't believe what I just read in your post wrt that info from the equalities commission!

Can I ask, d'you think it's deliberate or incompetence?

I've been asking myself that question about a lot of things recently and whatever the answer is it's

leyat
Thats good to hear. Thank you for doing this.

On the substantive differences between sexual harrassment of girls and boys:
twitter.com/Commonswomequ/status/1003667705415831552

the video is evidence given to Women's & Equalities committee by @ VeraJ (Twitter)
www.womenonporn.org

There are important recent findings on sexual assault & harrassment of girls in school & I think this is really relevent.