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

[SunsetBeetch]

Well this is concerning, although probably not surprising:

Government funded school guidance has been issued across Scotland, endorsed by Children's Commissioner, charities, LA's etc which discards the need for single sex spaces/sports t.co/ye3ekBGSEi

No Equality Impact Assessments were carried out, neither by the organisations who compiled the guidance nor the Local Authorities who have distributed it amongst their schools.

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

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

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?

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

Good article in The Herald:

www.heraldscotland.com/news/16311379.schools-forget-girls-in-rush-to-adopt-pro-trans-guidance-campaigners-claim-as-christian-group-threatens-legal-action/

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!

Another article with some details about the legal action.

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/threat-of-legal-action-over-pupils-transgender-rights-qqr2dk97v

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

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

"Scottish Government have done a U-turn and no longer endorse this controversial transgender school guidance. This guidance has been distributed across all Local Authorities, many of which presumably adopted it on the understanding it had full Government backing.t.co/OFee3o7zR5

The statement came as a result of threatened legal action over the guidance. The govt deny ever having endorsed it, saying it was an error of LGBT Scotland. The document has since been updated with the Govts logo removed.t.co/ysNm8i8OLm

The government say they are still supportive of it, so I'm not sure how much difference that makes.t.co/ZSXGMd4Ljm "

Full twitter thread here:

twitter.com/Scottish_Women/status/1029077567423356930?s=19

twitter.com/Scottish_Women/status/1029077567423356930?s=19

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.

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.

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

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.