Calling Oxfordshire women? I have shit show of a response from OCC and need some parent power to challenge

[GColdtimer]

This was my email to them challenging their Trans Toolkit (like the Brighton one basically). My friend did a thorough critique of it which they have totally ignored. I will post their response in my next post.

We are going to write again asking that they address our actual questions but we need a critical mass of parents to make it worth our while.

Please comment here or PM me.

I am writing to you following a FOI request submitted (14449) last year regarding the Trans Toolkit for School you issued to schools in Oxfordshire. Whilst we received a satisfactory response from a FOI point of view, I am afraid to say we are not happy with the guidelines issued, or the process in which they were developed and would like to formally report our concerns.

I have attached a thorough review of the guidelines and attach a summary of our concerns below:

The guidelines continually conflate sex and gender - sex is biological and fixed, whereas gender is purely social and highly subjective
The guidelines are socially regressive and promotes the stereotyping of girls and boys.
They are contrary to what you are trying to do
They overstep boundaries and undermine parents
They are potentially homophobic
Any school adopting these guidelines is likely to be in breach of their safeguarding guidelines as there are numerous safeguarding issues which put girls in danger
The guidelines show no concern whatsoever for the privacy, safety or dignity of other children in a setting, specifically girls
The statistics quoted are wildly inaccurate and are based on flawed research which holds no statistical significance
The law is misrepresented throughout the guidelines and specific laws are omitted which deal with the protection of the protected characteristic of sex
The guidance directly conflicts with previous, well researched NUT guidance
Notes in the appendix shut down discussion with parents.
The lesson plans ask teachers to put aside biological reality

We discovered via our FOI the guidelines were written by representatives from children’s services across Oxfordshire and other authorities as well as with the assistance of All Sorts and Gendered Intelligence. The FOI stated that no checks had been carried out on these organisations or on the people who are providing this advice and guidance to schools. We understand it was created by Children’s Services and signed off by the OSCB. We would like to see the minutes from the meeting where you discussed the safeguarding aspects of this Toolkit (eg. allowing teenage boys to be allowed to share toilets, changing rooms and dorm rooms with teenage girls) and the impact on other children in schools, specifically girls. We would like to know which parent and teacher groups you consulted with. We would also like to be assured that you informed the schools that they would need to carry out their own equality impact assessment if they adopted the guidelines. Didcot Girls School was not aware of this and have subsequently taken down their policy.

We would like to ask that you take down the Tool kit until you have had change to thoroughly review it and carry out a Children’s Rights Impact Assessment in order to make it legally compliant, non-sexist and inclusive of ALL pupils. We would like to refer you to www.transgendertrend.com who have published a balanced and scientifically researched and robust alternative policy. I would also like to refer you to this Children’s Rights Impact Assessment produced by Women and Girls in Scotland Group which states that similar guidelines issued in Scotland “could breach as many as 15 articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child” - wgscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Childrens-Rights-Impact-Assessment-by-Women-and-Girls-in-Scotland.pdf and news article here: www.heraldscotland.com/news/17393697.trans-guidance-for-scottish-schools-breaches-11-childrens-rights-campaigners-warn/?ref=fbshr&fbclid=IwAR210Le60d71r3OpeQ35cZZYSYRqYPyMFfyeqF403L-d_WMG4Diz8iS8T94

Myself alongside a number of other parents (at least 50 so far and growing) would be happy to put their name to a complaint but I would like to think in the interests of all children in your care you will be happy to address our concerns.

I look forward to hearing from you.

People who identify as men can have babies because they have FEMALE bodies. Surely this is obvious.

We sent this to all 300 schools in Oxon today. About 100 have opened it so far. I am hoping some of those will follow up with the council directly.

We asked who will be involved in the review, who the groups are they are working with, etc. They were not particularly forthcoming. We asked if we could attend as observers to ensure parents views were represented, they said no. We asked if there will be minutes, they said no. We will see what happens tomorrow.

Dear Head Teacher

We just wanted to follow up our previous email to let you know the OSCB and the OCC are meeting on Friday 26th April to review our concerns about the Trans Toolkit published by the OCC. We sent over a comprehensive list of our concerns relating to the Toolkit and how it contravenes the Equalities Act. The Toolkit conflates sex and gender, misrepresents the law and ignores girls rights to safety, privacy and dignity. The Toolkit also encourages teachers to override safeguarding measures and compels them to set aside material reality in favour of supporting gender ideology (the Toolkit encourages teachers to look out for “gender non conforming behaviour” in pre verbal children.). Correspondence from OCSB indicated:

"The Review is being led by the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board, so the stakeholders are the member agencies of the Board. We will also look to have the voice of children and young people included in the Review, as Working Together 2018 (our statutory guidance) states “Anyone working with children should see and speak to the child, listen to what they say; take their views seriously; and work with them and their families collaboratively when deciding how to support their needs”. We are also drawing on the advice of a Service with recognised LGBT expertise that is neither Stonewall or Mermaids. We are aiming to get together as members of the Board on 26th April to discuss your concerns and have a detailed look at both your Toolkit and the Oxfordshire one. The aim will be to use this meeting to inform a report for the June Board of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board (this is our next full meeting) to inform a discussion about what we will then do in terms of the Toolkit.”

There has been a number of extremely worrying articles published in the press recently regarding this issue. We have collated 4 recent articles we think as teachers you may wish to read

Given the TransToolkit contravenes so many safeguarding guidelines we are hoping the OSCB will recommend the removal of the Toolkit and an alternative policy put in place. However should this not happen we would like to remind you that the Toolkit is only suggested guidance and you do not have to adopt it. If you do choose to adopt it, you will need to communicate with parents and carry out your own Equalities Impact Assessment, consulting with all pupils and parents in your school.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Kind Regards

That is a fantastic letter twofalls

Any HT who reads that and decides to proceed with the toolkit needs their head read

Congratulations on such effective direct action, I’m in awe

I would reply and ask given that 'information' could cover many different and conflicting things, what framework is used to decide what is hosted by their website and what is not. It can't simply be the case that they stick any old thing up just because "it's information".

twofalls

Wow, that's impressive. You're impressive. It's incredible activism.

*twofalls

Wow, that's impressive. You're impressive. It's incredible activism.*

I couldn't agree more.

Thank you for your encouragement. We are lucky that we have a great local group offering back up and support. I think OCC know that we won't give up on this and we won't go away quietly. But they are Stonewall champions so will be under significant pressure to bow down.

Let's hope there are enough people in the room tomorrow to raise concerns with the council policy and address the points we made. I know there will be some very senior people present so we have already achieved a lot in getting them in a room to discuss it, and they have to address the points we made. They are hard to argue with. Lets hope.

"We are also drawing on the advice of a Service with recognised LGBT expertise that is neither Stonewall or Mermaids."

That's an odd way to put it. I wonder why they don't want to name the organisation.

Yes twofalls you're doing such amazing work to safeguard children. Thank you.

Oldcrone we asked them to tell us who. They wouldn't. They said it wasn't GI, GIRES or All sorts.

I find that quite dodgy twofalls it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect as a parent to know who is advising OCC on this. Is it even legal for them to refuse to give out this information?

Twofalls My knowledge of the FOIA is a bit rusty, but I can't see there are any exceptions that would apply if you lodged an FOI to find out who'd advised them.

I wonder if their inability to name the advisor is because they didn’t take proper advice, cobbled it together in house from resources available online and are now cacking themselves for not checking it was compliant with existing legislation and safeguarding policy/guidance. Thank you for pursuing this so persistently.

We know who advised them originally. We don't know who is advising them with the review. Just "not stonewall, mermaids, GI, etc".

Agree it's dodgy. We will be pursuing if it doesn't go out way.

Twofalls was that meeting this afternoon?

I also wanted to know some other things as I'm an Oxfordshire based parent and I've already had some conversations with the HT (primary)

I will DM you

Well done twofalls and thank you for all the work you've done so effectively.

Just a quick update to say no news from Oxfordshire apart from "we had the meeting, we won't tell you who was there, who advised or anything really. The meeting was part of the review and will inform the report that will go to the full OCSB board meeting in June, -now can you fuck off and leave us alone, we will tell you what's what when we are good and ready-" Obviously they didn't actually say the last bit but it was pretty clear they wanted to.

I just sent this (we also sent a long email asking lots of questions they mostly dodged last week).

Thank you for your email. Could you give us some more information about who is writing the report that will go to the Safeguarding Board in June?

I apologise for the questions but we feel that this whole process is less than transparent. We would like to know which organisations were involved at the meeting, which groups are advising, which groups are being consulted and who is responsible for the report. I appreciate you have told us who will not be involved but the very fact you seem unwilling to be open about who you are working with, and unwilling to share further information about the process for the review makes us somewhat uneasy, especially given the fact OCC has have refused to take down the existing Toolkit pending review as the Director of Children's Services found "nothing objectionable" with it.

If you could give us any more information we could share with the 100 parents in Oxfordshire who form part of the Safe Schools Alliance we would appreciate it.

Twofalls bloody well done. They have no business being secretive about children.

twofalls
Can you use the Freedom of Information Act to force them to release the information you're asking for?

That info should be FOI. If it's not then it's a private contract with a business for which someone is getting £££. Which in itself would raise huge questions.

Amazing work twofalls

Good point about FOI. We started with an FOI which they said made them somewhat defensive and they would have rather we just asked. So now we are just asking they are not telling us so probably back to the FOI!

Why are you being so MEAN to them, and asking questions? It's your asking questions that forces them to get defensive and not tell you. 🙄