Parents of Girls Staying in Girlguiding - Consent Forms

[GirlguidingSafeguarding]

If you are the parent of a girl who is remaining in Girlguiding despite the recent debacle, there is still something that you can do to protect your daughter:

Every time you sign a consent form, you can write on it (just find a blank space on the form) 'I do not consent to my daughter sharing accommodation or washing facilities with a male bodied child'.

If they are going to remove the right to informed consent then we need to withdraw that consent in the first place. You can also point out to the leader that any safeguarding matters should be forwarded to HQ for storage so she should probably think about forwarding your consent forms each time.

Girlguiding parents fill in so many consent forms and it's a great way of drawing attention to this policy (and protecting your daughter) at a grassroots level.

#InformedConsentForms

... or adult

I do not consent to by child being cared for by a male-bodied adult, unless I am told in advance that is to happen

That's what I did for a camp in May - it was very last minute & I was still trying to find out what was going on so I'd already agreed to trip & there was no discussion of this at meeting with leaders so I was kind of boxed into a corner & stated exactly that.

Excellent!

I don't see how a leader could avoid respecting the written wishes of parents.

Guide leaders may just refuse to allow the girl to go on the trip though.

I don't think most leaders would stop a girl coming if you did this - most think the whole thing is a nonsense and are just hoping it doesnot. Happen in their unit. It's the paid people 'at the top' who are imposing this.

No leader would stop a girl coming for this. Most of them are either entirely unaware of the policy or think it's nonsense.

Can you specify you don't consent to sharing with 'girls with a penis' Or 'girls that are able to produce sperm' because male bodied is a bit vague as they might have just helped a boy with a vagina to leave so woukd see vaginas as male bodied.

sadly I think an awful lot of these forms would need to be sent to chq for it to make them listen.

I did something similar for my daughter's most recent pack holiday in the spring. No comment from Brown Owl and I wasn't brave enough to approach her directly (though I will next time I think).

What worried me a little though was that I specifically asked whether any other units would be present and was told there would be none 'in the building' or something along those lines. However, at the briefing for parents some months later and just before the holiday took place, we were told several unknown guide groups would be camping in the grounds and using one toilet inside the building where the Brownies were.

It's not that I thought that anything would happen, I know the chances are rare. It's the feeling that you can ask the right questions and, to a certain extent, get the 'right' answers but there will always be something you didn't anticipate. I don't want to feel worried like this, having to second guess whether the risk assessment is up to scratch.

Yeah, that's part of the problem. You can trust the leaders of your own child's unit but you have no idea who else they are coming into contact with. It's why national safeguarding policies need to be up to scratch.

You can consent to whatever you feel is appropriate grasspidgeons - she's your daughter.

And yeah, it would need an awful lot to get HQ to think. But it might be a start (maybe...hopefully...).

Guides should be adding this to the permission forms themselves, and making sure every parent is clear on what would happen, why, how safeguarding would work, that they wouldn't know etc.