Has anyone had a meeting with their child's school following non-acknowledgement of reciept of Transgender Trend Schools guide?

The topdown approach (pincer movement) would be to write to your Local Safeguarding Children's Board, LSCB to ask them how they are dealing with the issues raised, and to ask the same question of the LADO, Local Authority Designated Officer. Let them know you have contacted the school, let the school know you have contacted them. Make clear you are seeking clarity where there is none - eg conflation of sex with gender, legal position on single-sex provision, status of lobby groups carrying out training - NOT dobbing schools in, hoping to support them & parents alike in this uncharted territory.

We must continue to fight this.

Yes, the reach of these organisations is massive, and the infiltration runs deep, bit it takes ever such a long time to build a house of cards, and only a moment to knock it down.

The moment is coming.

I'm afraid that the reach of these organisations has been massive. I presume that using the hashtag #nodebate, labelling anyone who dares to mention women's rights, safeguarding or AGP as transphobic and making repeated threats has been very successful in silencing all opposition. As is demonstrated on this board on a daily basis.

CatandtheFiddle gives good advice about focus. As you can see from the length of my posts safeguarding is complex and multi faceted and it's hard to capture the issues succinctly.
Boundaries is a good word to use - people who try to erode boundaries are dangerous. Schools need to keep their boundaries clear. Their role is not to facilitate a child's transition or to enable anyone to drive a wedge between a child and their parents.

Jog22
Gillick competence is concerned with determining a child’s capacity to consent. Fraser guidelines are used specifically to decide if a child can consent to contraceptive or sexual health advice and treatment. Where transitioning fits into this is arguable.
Advising a school to make a decision about a child's competency in isolation is a massive overreach. These are complex areas. I've sat in a number of courts listening to barristers and judges arguing the level of competence that a child or an adult has in relation to issues of consent and listening to them discussing whether to remove parental responsibility from a neglectful parent - working out where the bar sits.

This is yet another example of trans 'advice' being professionally dangerous - advising schools to determine matters well beyond their level of competence.

I would focus on the outcomes you want to ensure (eg single sex provision, normal safeguarding practice, no lobby groups teaching contested ideology)

And maybe point out that "self-ID" is not the law, and that the 2010 Equalities Act is still in force.

It seems to me that a lot of the real problems with organisations (Girl Guides, YHA) are because they assume that self-id is the law. They're jumping the gun - that may never (we hope) be fired.

RedHoodGirl If you are in any way involved with the creation, implementation or promotion of the 'trans-rights' schools' policies please read very carefully the posts above by truth & Lumene

Safeguarding frameworks are there to protect children and vulnerable adults from risk. Disruption or denial of well-established principles and policies will always be exploited by those who intend to cause harm.

It's also worth pointing out that the comment: I can understand where children who are at risk (ie those living in potentially abusive households, are involved with drugs / criminal activity, are at risk of sexual exploitation) might need to be flagged by schools .. is desperately naive.
Children who are abused come from all types of backgrounds. It is that complacent 'abuse only happens to certain types of children' that has led to the torrent of abuse scandals in independent schools, specialist schools of music and sport, private tutors, gifted musicians, swimmers, footballers and endless other groups being targeted because people assumed that only a 'certain type' of child would be the target of abusers.

FFS, we know this stuff and yet people post rubbish like this

RedHoodGirl
Your comments are wrong and very very dangerous. Individual teachers never make a decision to withhold information or to keep confidences by themselves. School safeguarding is governed by safeguarding policies (written in line with 'Working together to safeguard children'). Schools will also have pastoral care policies, anti bullying policies and possibly a confidentiality policy and these dictate what information a teacher must share within in a school.

You are making the same error as trans pressure groups do - assuming that individual teachers make decisions about confidentiality. But they don't - schools don't let them. We share all sorts of information about children that give us concern as, on occasions, all the small pieces fitted together to indicate a child at risk of significant harm. Individual teachers don't have the 'big picture' about a child, just as a school may not have the whole picture of a child's life - it's why safeguarding legislation is called 'Working Together'. Everyone shares information.

Our safeguarding history (seen in Serious Case Reviews) is littered with the careers of individuals and sometimes organisations who decided that they did not need to share critical information about a child with others - and children were abused as a result. I cannot stress how dangerous it is, both to adults working in schools let alone to vulnerable children to promote the lie that individual teachers can risk assess this type of information and decide to keep it confidential.

Coming out as trans may not be a safeguarding issue. But that is not for an individual to decide that alone. The disclosure must be shared in line with school policies and then decisions will be made about what to do and how to support the child.

I do hope that you don't work in a school if this is your understanding of safeguarding.

Let’s imagine that a teacher DID break a confidence and tell a child’s parents that they had been told by the child that they were trans?

A teacher should not be promising a child they can keep a secret for them in the first place.

These are the guidelines that are currently adhered to within schools. Hopefully my explanation above helps explain why that is the case.

Trans-rights activists don't understand Safeguarding frameworks.
Its a systemic failing.

As truthisarevolutionaryact has explained this leaves the children questioning the gender identity/ who are trans especially vulnerable:

Schools manage this balance all the time and our safeguarding legislation is predicated on working in partnership with parents
In order to remove parental rights / responsibilities, authorities have to go to court. Trans groups are the only ones to recommend removing parental rights in this way - thus leaving this group of vulnerable children alienated from their families and not safeguarded by their schools

It’s similar principles that therapists adhere to with minors. They make it very clear at the beginning of any counselling that everything discussed between the therapist and the child is confidential and that the ONLY time that confidence would be broken is if the child indicated they would hurt themselves or others.

Teachers are not therapists and there are very good reasons, to do with safeguarding children from abuse, that teachers do not keep secrets with children. Anyone challenging this is either dangerously ignorant in regard to safeguarding of vulnerable children or frankly downright suspect.

Please see this and other threads by someone who has a good professional understanding of safeguarding, particularly if vulnerable children: mobile.twitter.com/mrkhtake2/status/1011552247132704770

It explains the safeguarding red flags in regard to advice in packs and such as Red’s above. School guidance should not be being written by lobby groups at all, let alone those who either don’t understand or ignore established safeguarding practice.

RedHoodGirl what safeguarding training and experience do you have?

I can understand where children who are at risk (ie those living in potentially abusive households, are involved with drugs / criminal activity, are at risk of sexual exploitation) might need to be flagged by schools - with information confidentially held by a safeguarding officer and divulged on a ‘need to know’ basis to key teachers etc. However, these are situations which the parents are already likely aware of (if not directly, they’re potentially part of the ‘problem’)? A pupil telling a teacher in confidence that they think they are struggling with their gender identity / think they might be trans / are trans is hardly the same thing. There is no risk to the child in divulging that, and it would be a serious breach of trust and potentially dangerous to pass that information on to their parents.

In the same way that I wouldn’t expect a teacher to tell parents if their child had come out as gay to them (in confidence), I wouldn’t expect a teacher to break a confidence and tell the parents they said they were trans. Obviously if the child has come to the teacher to ask for support in telling their parents, that is a different matter.

It’s similar principles that therapists adhere to with minors. They make it very clear at the beginning of any counselling that everything discussed between the therapist and the child is confidential and that the ONLY time that confidence would be broken is if the child indicated they would hurt themselves or others.

Let’s imagine that a teacher DID break a confidence and tell a child’s parents that they had been told by the child that they were trans? While I’m sure everyone here would react calmly and in a measured way, not all parents would. Imagine if that news meant the child was physically beaten by the parent? Subject to psychological abuse? Subjected to some religious ‘cure’ therapy? Kicked out of the house?... How is the school to know which parents might react like that, and which wouldn’t? In a large secondary school where parents often don’t meet the teachers (especially in households which might already be less engaged with their child’s wellbeing), it’s a huge risk.

Because teachers can not predict how parents will respond and because questioning your sexuality or gender identity is not a danger to life (or significant physical welfare) of the child or others, it is considered a safeguarding risk to TELL parents and is not considered a safeguarding issue in itself.

These are the guidelines that are currently adhered to within schools. Hopefully my explanation above helps explain why that is the case.

RedHoodGirl
It's true that some parents are not supportive of their children. The problem is that trans training is ignorant of safeguarding in schools and tells individual teachers to keep a child's disclosures - whereas teachers are taught to always share disclosures within the school - then a decision will be made about talking to parents by the safeguarding lead.
You can find awful examples of this in some of the the GIRES training materials. Schools manage this balance all the time and our safeguarding legislation is predicated on working in partnership with parents.
In order to remove parental rights / responsibilities, authorities have to go to court. Trans groups are the only ones to recommend removing parental rights in this way - thus leaving this group of vulnerable children alienated from their families and not safeguarded by their schools. And which group of adults benefits from that?

I think the reason teachers are not supposed to share information shared in confidence about a child’s gender identity is in case it might put them at risk by telling the parents? Not all parents are as understanding as you or I, and I can imagine that there are some parents that might react really badly?

I've c&ped one of LangCleg's many posts explaining these are fundamental principles when working with children:

confidential disclosures safeguarding 101. A child with a secret you are keeping for it, is a child easiest to control for grooming and abuse purposes.

parental alienation/not keeping parents informed - parents cannot parent successfully if they are not informed of things going on their children's lives, nor can they be alerted to or protect their children from the possibility of abuse. Best practice is to inform parents (unless they are abusive themselves)

no involvement of other agencies - multi agency working provides a check and balance against abuser infiltration and is helpful working with children who may need different expertise to resolve issues. This is statutory practice.

These are just three points of many. And it should be noted that with regard to SEND children, some of this advice is almost certainly unlawful.

Good Twitter thread with other detail here: twitter.com/mrkhtake2/status/1011552247132704770

Statutory safeguarding guidance here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2

I think the reason teachers are not supposed to share information shared in confidence about a child’s gender identity is in case it might put them at risk by telling the parents? Not all parents are as understanding as you or I, and I can imagine that there are some parents that might react really badly?

OP
Trans groups use an adult interpretation of confidentiality. If you look at all their demands about the evils of dead naming, records being changed to remove original names, their trans identity always being positively affirmed, they have just applied these beliefs about secrecy to schools and children.
They are far too arrogant / ignorant to appreciate that we safeguard children through openness, a level of scepticism (every adult being DBS checked etc) and not allowing adults to keep confidences, making them report all concerns. I can think of countless children who were abused - even when they told teachers back in the 70s and early 80s - because the adult failed to share the information appropriately. That's why we have the safeguarding legislation that we do.

These groups are dismantling this legislation bit by bit for their own purposes.