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

From Fairplay for Women:
(extract)
"Last year while we were all looking the other way and distracted by the UK government’s proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act the word woman was stolen from us. It was sneakily done by the Scottish parliament and hidden behind a smoke screen. That smoke screen was The Gender Representation on Public Boards Bill.

The Bill introduced the ‘gender representation objective’ – a target that women should make up 50% of non-executive board membership.

The purpose of this bill was admirable. It was to help women overcome the institutional sexism we suffer due to our sex. Positive action to redress the imbalances that have arisen from centuries of historical disadvantage. It was to acknowledge the reality that institutionalised inequality and sexist attitudes stop most women from reaching their full potential in public life. Financial barriers, income inequality, the gender pay gap, sexist attitudes, gender stereotyping, women’s disproportionate share of caring responsibilities, the undervaluing of women’s paid work, and media portrayals of women, to name but a few influences, all play a role in the sexism that prevents a fair number of women being involved in public life.

But in a cruel twist of irony it was also to be the perfect trojan horse to steal the very meaning of the words woman and female from us."
fairplayforwomen.com/scottish_stole_woman/

That's a link about public authorities duties on a scot gov webisite, the quote of equality act 2010 will be accurate though generally.

Is that others reading of it?

Yes it is. And under a previous name I think I have raised this point a while back - the change in the law will make all sex based protections invalid. Because it will be indefineable.

The current wording is still up here:

"The Equality Act 2010 and The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 require public authorities, in the exercise of their functions, to have due regard to the need to:

eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other prohibited conduct
advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not
foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
The Equality Act defines the following as protected characteristics:

age
disability
gender reassignment
marriage and civil partnership
pregnancy and maternity
race
religion or belief
sex
sexual orientation"

which I thnink is the same as in england and wales

I know we talked about this on the guiding thread but I think anyone providing insurance for schools needs to be made aware of this - it’s a direct route to the school or body having their arses sued off.
Maybe being unable to get insurance would focus some minds on just how risky impartial third parties think this is.

Yes this is what I thought on the train after reading thread on way home.

There is no longer a protected charcteristic of sex in scotland, only gender.

The term gender - is that defined? There are multiple definitions as far as I am aware.

IF the term gender is defined / meant in the sense of gender ID then there is no need to do an equality assessment as to how any of this affects girls as they are of the female sex. If gender can include male or female then then it is already mixed and so there is no need to do any equality impact assessment.

The changing in the wording of the equality act to REMOVE the protected characteristic of sex is a massive move meaning that logically there is no possibility or prospect of doing anything around equalities based on sex - so no more need to consider girls / women as a group in anything.

Is that others reading of it?

Allowing confidential disclosure is an abusers charter. How on earth can that go unchallenged?

It's beyond unconscionable. The Allsorts guidance recommends schools socially transitioning SEN children without informing parents. SEN children! FFS.

exactly there is no longer a need for an Equality Impact Assessment which creates a document. It is perfectly sufficient, I think, for an LA decide that a national body has more resources to consider matters and just to adopt guidance passed down the chain.

You would think, providing that the national body had done an impact assessment themselves. Which they haven’t. The problem is that to scotgov and even the LA’s, these guidelines aren’t policy, just recommendations that they endorse. Therefore there is no incentive to do a EQIA. The guidelines don’t become policy until they are actually written into individual schools policies, But I imagine schools think, as you have, that equality duty has been considered further up the chain.

the assessment has to be made against a protected characteristic of gender, rather than sex. Interesting that is now official policy.

I wouldn’t say interesting.
I would say negligent.

@dragongirlx thank you for explaining, I get ever so confused with all the information around trans issues.

That is really concerning, I’ll definitely have a chat with my local MSP (who is a feminist so I should be able to at least have a decent conversation with her) and raise awareness of this locally. It makes me very, very uncomfortable that my DD (I also have 2 sons but I honestly can’t see this affecting boys in the same way as girls) would be put in this position, even potentially, or any girls at all.

Lemonjello, exactly there is no longer a need for an Equality Impact Assessment which creates a document. It is perfectly sufficient, I think, for an LA decide that a national body has more resources to consider matters and just to adopt guidance passed down the chain.

BTW its unusual here to see someone promoting a document that says that the assessment has to be made against a protected characteristic of gender, rather than sex. Interesting that is now official policy.

Just how remiss is this? Are Impact assessments the norm when taking up any new guidance or changing/adapting rules/protocols? I don’t work in the public sector or know much about policy implementation. Have they broken any laws by not carrying them out? Excuse my ignorance - of course I know in principle it’s ‘wrong’ and shows a complete disregard for young girls and boy’s rights to segregated spaces and sex-based protections.

Allowing confidential disclosure is an abusers charter. How on earth can that go unchallenged?

It blows my mind too Bowl but there it is.

I can't work out if those in charge truly do not give a shit about fucking over women and girls in order to push a so called progessive agenda or if they are just lazy and incompetent.

Both options scare the bejesus out of me tbh...

Some relevent threads:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3156036-Please-email-ScotGov-re-school-guidelines

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3201080-URGENTLY-calling-all-Scottish-gender-critical-Mumsnetters

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3174483-Examples-of-women-and-girls-self-excluding-in-Scotland-being-excluded-post-re-the-GRA

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3235429-Meeting-with-Scottish-women-s-equality-orgs-re-changes-to-GRA

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3187665-The-Faculty-of-Advocates-Response-to-the-Scottish-Governments-Consultation-on-GRA-Reform

Allowing confidential disclosure is an abusers charter. How on earth can that go unchallenged?

I wonder if they’ll change their minds once they first get sued?

wrote to the equalities commission regarding this schools guidance earlier in the year but have heard nothing from them, not even an acknowledgement of my email
So did i . Me neither terryleather

Also important to be aware of this statement on WPUK website:
(extracts)
"I’m writing as a feminist who has devoted over two decades of my life to ending violence against women (VAW). I’ve worked in frontline services in both domestic abuse and sexual violence services across the country and now I head up a VAW sector charity...."

"Unfortunately, in recent months the changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the incredibly toxic debate around the issue of ‘gender self ID’ has left many more women under a heavy veil of silence, particularly for those of us who work in the VAW sector. The dark, uncomfortable irony of this silence is not lost on me, nor is it lost on the many women in the sector I have recently spoken to about this issue.

As someone who has worked with many survivors of violence over the last two decades, I am terrified – both professionally and personally – about the impact of self ID on ensuring safe spaces are available to women who have experienced and are escaping male violence. Even without the legal changes to the GRA, gender inclusive policies are already happening in many areas, these changes are ahead of the law and already upon us...." continues

womansplaceuk.org/the-silencing-of-feminists-silences-survivors/

Cheers R0wantrees!

Epic bold fail.....

terryleather
Lisa Muggeridge writes here: idgeofreason.wordpress.com

The Government have responded to the petition to consult women with regards changes to the GRA see thread below:

(extracts)
"Gender recognition is a devolved issue and the Scottish Government ran a separate consultation, which closed on 1 March 2018."

The Government does not intend to change the safeguarding processes that are currently used in refuges and healthcare services. Providers of women-only services can continue to provide services in a different way, or even not provide services to trans individuals, provided it is objectively justified on a case-by-case basis. The same can be said about toilets, changing rooms or single sex activities. Providers may exclude trans people from facilities of the sex they identify with, provided it is a proportionate means of meeting a legitimate aim."

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3269463-Government-response-to-the-petition

Thanks for that link *R0wantrees", I've started following LM on Twitter and she seems to be very good on this topic.

They do not seem to give the tiniest shiny shit about safeguarding, consent, respecting boundaries or the rights of girls in that document unless they are transgirls.

There are important points made by Lisa Muggeridge on the thread below re safeguarding and the consequences of disregarding established good practise and frameworks:

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1003783835581145093.html

So if the government can weasel out of it, and the LA too, is there another angle to go after on safeguarding? Or is that what the EQIA is for?

I wrote to the equalities commission regarding this schools guidance earlier in the year but have heard nothing from them, not even an acknowledgement of my email.

I was in shock and then hugely angry when I first read it and dragongirlx has pretty much covered all the things that jumped out at me.

They do not seem to give the tiniest shiny shit about safeguarding, consent, respecting boundaries or the rights of girls in that document unless they are transgirls.

I was also struck by the concern shown in the document over the adverse medical implications of trans identified pupils not going to the toilet during school if they couldn't use the ones they wanted, but the use of binders which have terrible side effects was unquestioningly accepted.