Shropshire County Council has withdrawn the toolkit

Not read the whole thread but if people want help challenging their LAs, get in touch with safe schools alliance. We want to help and we want to keep a record!

Thanks.

NiceLegs

I'd start by writing to the education department at your city council, referencing the now withdrawn toolkits in Oxfordshire and Shropshire. They probably won't do anything, but as more of these documents are withdrawn, they might see the writing on the wall and just quietly remove it.

If that fails, I'd contact the third parties others have suggested, but I would start by giving the council a chance to do the right thing of their own accord. You can then pass any correspondence you have had with them to your councillor/MP/anyone else you decide to contact if the council fails to take action.

Spot on Datun

Nicelegs

Write to your MP and also write to the Director of Children's Services and copy in the MP to this.
It doesn't matter if your feelings show, this is emotive stuff and you care.
Use the facts - EA2010 Lists Gender reassignment (not identity) and also Sex as protected characteristics. It's the sex that is being ignored. Point out that girls are entititled BY LAW to single sex toilets, changing rooms and dorms. It is unlawful to force girls to share with boys in their changing rooms.
Check your own CC toolkits, they do vary and some are worse than others. Reference the part you are concerned - copy & paste and point out why it is unlawful
Remind them that Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Shropshire have withdrawn before Court action and ask that yours does the same as a matter of urgency.

It took the threat of a letter before action for Shropshire to act.

Best of luck. No scrub that. You don't need luck, Law is on your side.

Go for it!

It always surprises me that people buy the term gender identity as anything that could be put into law. Because it basically means you could be a woman one day, and a man the next, neither on the third or a fetishistic cross dresser on Saturday afternoons, and a perfectly recognisable man the rest of the time.

It's a massive cover all for absolutely anything. And as a legal term should therefore either be held to account, or binned.

Females who identify as men, I meant.

Yes, gender identity includes a lot of other identities than a person identifying as the opposite sex. Cross dressing, non binary, genderfluid etc are not explicitly protected in law. Gender reassignment is when someone has begun a permanent process to change "gender". Unfortunately that is very woolly and can include virtually all males who permanently identify as women (and females who identify as males)

archive.acas.org.uk/genderreassignment

@RoyalCorgi

Thank you. Again, I'm just trying to get my head around all this. The Equality Act has gender reassignment as a protected characteristic. Does this differ from gender identity that you referred to?

Sorry for the questions. I'm quite a way behind but I do like to be in possession of the facts before I launch in (53 years and occasionally making an arse of myself over the years) has taught me that

Joe Butler at SEND Support (Special Educational Needs and Disability Consultancy and Training).
Special thanks go to Brighton and Hove City Council and Allsorts Youth Project for allowing some of the content of this toolkit to be based on their ‘Trans Inclusion Schools Toolkit’, and to Gendered Intelligence for commentary on the final draft.

We briefly touched on Joe Butler in the autism discussion thread. Seems like SEN schools will be awash with gender identity ideology as well.

network.autism.org.uk/knowledge/insight-opinion/supporting-trans-and-gender-questioning-autistic-pupils

NiceLegs - I'd recommend writing to your county councillor and asking them to raise it, rather than to your MP. Though perhaps no harm in copying your MP on the letter.

What you need to do is calmly point out that the guidance doesn't comply with the Equality Act (gender identity is not a protected characteristic) and that it breaches basic safeguarding rules by recommending that boys should be allowed to share changing areas and dormitories with girls.

Safe Schools Alliance do have some templates that you can adapt to local circumstances: safeschoolsallianceuk.net/resources-2/letter-templates/

Good morning. I'm (relatively) new to this issue, for which I am quite sad. It's only quite recently that it's come onto my radar and that I've had the chance to look into the issues Anyway, now to the future .....

My city council introduced the Toolkit in May 2018 and I can't see any evidence of it having been withdrawn. With the news from Oxfordshire and Shropshire, I would like my city council to follow suit.

Should I write to my MP about this and, if so, can anyone give me some pointers as to what to say? I don't need a copy and paste template or anything — I can write reasonably well — but I do tend to let my feelings shown in my communications and would like to get a concise communication to her (my MP), without getting over emotional (over what is a very emotive issue).

Is that the right thing for me to do? I'm sorry if I seem a little unsure; as I said I'm fairly new to the cause and I just want to add my voice in the appropriate way.

Thank you in advance for your advice and all the great work that you are doing on behalf of women everywhere

I couldn't find it on the site @Jintyfer, so I just used a Google search and it came up. All our schools come under the jurisdiction of Brighton, surprise, surprise...

Totally agree @ThinEndoftheWedge.

Great news: it's put a big smile on my face

My local council is promoting the advice pack Cornwall council produced
www.intercomtrust.org.uk/item/55-schools-transgender-guidance-july-2015
I'd be interested in people's thoughts on this one

Baroness Nichols is on the case...

I was looking a ‘maths’ question - dear lord above! Talk about propaganda!

So they didn’t feel it was necessary to consult any parenting organisations? 🧐

However, stonewall are pushing their own little lockdown education packs - inclusive of course - for parents and education... you can only imagine what’s on it.

Special thanks go to Brighton and Hove City Council and Allsorts Youth Project for allowing some of the content of this toolkit to be based on their ‘Trans* Inclusion Schools Toolkit’, and to Gendered Intelligence for commentary on the final draft.

No surprises there.

All good questions, DickKerrLadies. As for who was involved in getting the councils to implement the toolkit, there's a clue in the Warwickshire guidance linked to above:

The following local authorities and organisations have contributed to the creation of this toolkit: Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Birmingham City Council, Derbyshire County Council, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, Kent County Council, Leicester City
Council, Leicestershire County Council, Lincolnshire County Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Sheffield City Council, Warwickshire County Council, the Young Transgender Centre of Excellence at the Leicester LGBT Centre, and
Joe Butler at SEND Support (Special Educational Needs and Disability Consultancy and Training).
Special thanks go to Brighton and Hove City Council and Allsorts Youth Project for allowing some of the content of this toolkit to be based on their ‘Trans* Inclusion Schools Toolkit’, and to Gendered Intelligence for commentary on the final draft.

Weird, isn't it, how they seem to have consulted with a bunch of lobby groups but not, apparently, any lawyers or anyone with expertise in safeguarding?

Considering how keen the councils seem to be to withdraw them rather than defend them, why didn't they just not implement them in the first place if they are not fit for purpose? Surely they looked into it this deeply before releasing it to schools, and not only after someone challenged it?

Who was involved in getting these councils to implement the toolkit in the first place?

I'm guessing these are the sorts of questions we'd need a court to get answers for.

@SisyphusLangClegRocks

Thanks for posting
Had a v quick peruse - the definition section includes ‘neither male or female’

The idiots involved in this toolkit should be sacked on those four words in themselves.

Its available in several places online and still includes incorrect information on toilets, changing rooms, residential sleeping arrangements, and The Equality Act (especially Page 30, 31)

mermaidsuk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AllsortsYouthProject-Trans-Inclusion-Schools-Toolkit-Sept-18.pdf

www.oscb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Trans-Inclusion-Toolkit-for-Schools-and-Education-Settings-Oxfordshire-2019-FINAL.pdf

uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5888a640d61795123f8192db/5c0ff2e6f554ac6a3f017600_Trans_Inclusion_Schools_Toolkit_Version_3.3_Jan2019.pdf

headsup.warwickshire.gov.uk/assets/1/r0566_trans_inclusion_toolkit_for_schools.pdf

@SisyphusLangClegRocks

Hey, good find. Now you can act. Out of interest, what section of the council website did you find it in? I've searched ours (Bracknell Forest) but can't see anything related, but could be looking in the wrong places. Thnx.

Looks like we've still got it but as it's East Sussex, I'm not at all surprised.

czone.eastsussex.gov.uk/media/1990/transgender-toolkit.pdf