What's going on with Genspect?

As a desperate parent myself, who felt completely lost at sea when I first entered this whole arena (all I had was a gut instinct that the puberty blockers that my daughter requested seemed like the tip of an iceberg that didn't make sense), I have nothing but gratitude for SSA, and also Transgender Trend, in helping me to step up and find my voice in supporting my daughter in her education setting. I started with her EHCP, for which the Cass Review was helpful as well to reference social transition, and the conversation has expanded since then. The work that the volunteers at SSA have done been a key part of this. Safeguarding is at the heart of all of it and their experience in this area really shows.

Thank you @2fallsfromSSA for all the hard work that you continue to do💐

Set up your own organisation then @Georgeburgess you’re coming across as quite the charmer …

Schools have to be contactable at all times. - within opening hours as listed on website.

Ofsted have to be able to get through to speak to someone as that could be a safeguarding issue.

SSAUK don't have children in their care

Um no it's not. It is if it's a School. Schools have to be contactable at all times.

All the advice they'd give is there on the website for you to use and follow.

As described here:

x.com/safeschools_uk/status/1726217941895545335?s=46&t=A2fpFNgDRyXF2d6ye97wEA

Also, safeguarding is about challenging what we see in front of us when we see it. It's an ongoing process. The general public and parents don't know the ins and out of this, hence the website giving examples and templates etc.

The difficulty some have had with Genspect is that when they've had issues pointed out (and there's been other things not mentioned in this thread) there's more defensiveness than there really should be with children.

This

Don't be daft, George.

It's a major safeguarding fail to set up an organisation that pretends to help but then doesn't have the resources to actually help and then blame lack of funding. SSA should be honest and just admit the truth of what they can and can't do. It's a major safeguarding fail to have out of office replies from summer till November. Its dangerous to pretend to offer help to desperate parents like me but not be able to. Its reckless with people's lives.

Maybe you've missed their countless resources on their website Georgeburgess? All made by unpaid volunteers.

Those of us who work with schools and children are very grateful for the time and effort they put in and their contribution to safeguarding children at a time when countless organisations have abandoned child protection.

Do let us know when you've set up your own resources to support parents in safeguarding children.

It's reflective of the SSA that the answer they write on mumsnet is much longer and more reflective than any emails they have sent to me. The SSA doesn't seem to understand ANYTHING about safeguarding (I've learnt loads about this subject in recent months) as they often break the foundational principles of safeguarding on their twitter account eg proportionality, appropriate target, sent in the correct manner etc etc. Let's face it, SSA is just a twitter account that does no actually work. Imagine changing your summer holiday message in November

Yes we quite often say this. What we have achieved as a group of volunteers with no funding at all is amazing. People are beginning to talk the language of safeguarding and are finally getting it. But it's also appalling given that there are people who are paid 6 figure sums to be responsible for safeguarding who are in dereliction of their duties.

Be nice if the people being paid fat salaries to devise the curriculum were actually addressing these issues, rather than working parents who are already run bloody ragged.

Thank you for all that you do.

2fallsfromSSA

And a little reminder of what we do: https://x.com/SafeSchools_UK/status/1726217941895545335?s=20

As for GEnspect, we posted this in response to The Split article:
https://x.com/SafeSchools_UK/status/1723794527813587166?s=20

I am sorry we were not helpful to you. We do try and help as many people who contact us as possible but we are a small group of women who all have jobs, and families and we simply can answer every single email in the way we would like to be able to. We are unfunded and have been running SSA in our spare time for well over 4 years. We get some donations (thank you so much for those!) which we use primary to be able travel to meetings and, run the website. We have numerous resources on on website which we have written to help parents challenge poor policy and RSE and also to navigate the complaints system at their school. We also signpost people to other groups for support (parents we generally signpost to Bayswater). We can put people in touch with legal representation if they wish. And we advise people to write to their MPs about the problems they are experiencing as well as flagging to OFSTED. We are not able to intervene on individual's behalf, all we can do is advise people and we have written as much as we can to support people through that process. Sometimes we can help individuals but due to the sheer volume of email we receive every day, that is. not always possible.

As much as we would love to be, we are not a support group, we advocate for a safeguarding first approach to be taken. A lot of the work we do is not public.

Thank you for pointing out that our out of office response has not changed since the summer break. I will rectify that today, however the message will be the same - we are unable to support everyone who contacts us individually and we will continue to signpost people to our website which we do keep up to date with news and resources.

Most of our supporters are very understanding. We sometimes do get angry messages from people we have not been able to give as much time to as we would like and whilst we understand their frustration (we have all had to challenge our own schools) we will not engage with those people.

Thank you for the support shown to SSA on this thread. And sorry I have not been around much on MN for the last few months. We are all mothers of teenagers with jobs and other responsibilities and life challenges. We do what we can to amplify our safeguarding first message and provide resources for parents to help challenge their schools policy and RSE.

Tayto, I like a personal recommendation but is it really a good episode? I’ll give it a wee listen if it’s not a 'Complainers are so small-minded' episode but neither of them has much of a clue about safeguarding which makes me want to scream at times.

Katie can be such a contrarian and Jesse is sometimes so open minded his good sense escapes him. Somehow, even though she lived in Britain for a while, Katie doesn’t really grok Terf Island, nor does Jesse. I usually enjoy their internet drama episodes but on this subject they’ve often left me discombobulated because they tie themselves in knots trying to be kind.

Dipping back in after a couple of busy days at home.

This thread continues to be one of the sanest navigations available in this current point at which gender identity belief finds itself.

The backlash on paraphilias being normalised appears to be kicking in. Fingers crossed that this continues in the same way that PIE and paedophile sympathisers were eventually stopped. Unfortunately those sympathisers and enablers are still being weedled out. Most recently it was Peter Whilby. Perhaps another well known Peter will soon be seen for who he is on this subject in the public discourse.

As has been said many times before on several threads, there are many parallels with several scandals in history. To add in to the mix: the lobotomy scandal has been mentioned before. I got curious as to how long it lasted end to end, from when doctors were being hailed as heroes and pioneers until it fizzled out and got consigned to its rightful place for the mistreatment of those with mental health conditions. About 40 years was the answer. Treatment for gender dysphoria is more complex because it is firstly underpinned by a belief that "everyone has a gender identity" and then there is the mental health aspect of those who feel that their "gender" differs from their sex(ed body).

One interesting turning point in the demise of lobotomies as the go-to treatment was the re-examination of the known data that showed the following:

...when doctors investigated long-term outcomes for his patients they found that just one-third could be regarded as experiencing some improvement, while another third were significantly worse off.

Coincidentally, the recent re-examination in the Tavistock data on puberty blockers found exactly the same ratios. In both the case of lobotomies and physical interventions for gender dysphoria, it's very difficult to justify any treatment that has this outcome given the inevitable and irrevocable consequences of doing so (physical and mental impairment - plus sterility in the case of puberty blockers when administered from before puberty until the end of the natural period within which puberty would complete). In both cases, the risk/benefit balance just isn't there.

Here's the article from which the above quote is taken:
https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-55854145

Hopefully, the fact that paraphilias eventually do get recognised for what they are and we're at this stage of understanding may offer some green shoots of hope.. I just really hope that Genspect takes stock.

Also just to add: as a parent who has made use of Safe Schools Alliance information to challenge the PHSE materials in my daughters' school, I'm incredibly impressed with what they are doing. It's a rather lonely journey trying to help my gender-questioning daughter access good care and exercise her own critical thinking (and knowing that I can't trust education or mental healthcare regarding the bias towards gender identity belief) so it's important to have access to different agencies with different and complementary goals.

Some insightful tweets

x.com/zaelefty/status/1725943359674466413?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

x.com/womenreadwomen/status/1725945852433424412?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

There is a good Blocked and Reported episode on this. Made me think about how i position my opposition to gender ideology.
https://open.substack.com/pub/blockedandreported/p/episode-191-a-man-in-a-dress-in-a?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=n3hup

Reddit for the burgeoning 'AGP as sexuality' movement.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askAGP/

I imagine they are utterly overwhelmed with parents contacting them about their school. That's why they sent you links perhaps?

SSA, Genspect etc offer general support via their websites & published materials. I don't think they set themselves up as offering much 1 - 1 support for individuals. In some way it's a shame as many of the individuals concerned have professional qualifications in safeguarding and working with children/ adolescents. But offering counselling & therapeutic support requires significant training, supervision, insurance etc and as they are mainly volunteers with other jobs, families etc doing this is a massive undertaking.

Unlike so many of the professionally dangerous lobby groups with their groups for 12 - 19 year olds, adults with a personal investment in transitioning & queer theory who claim to offer "support" for children below the age of consent. 🙄

Illy is now grifting on Twitter. What a fucking surprise. How any self respecting woman can have anything to do with him I will never know!

How dare volunteers not make themselves available 24/7.

Georgeburgess do tell how you are volunteering your time to help others with safeguarding?