Concerning tweet from a mum of a disabled child regarding their care at school.

[yourhairiswinterfire]

mobile.twitter.com/Womankind15/status/1323621958886580224

I've looked for a thread but couldn't see if this has been posted. The mum of a disabled child that attends a special needs school has been contacted to say that parents no longer have the right to request a same sex staff member help their child with their intimate care, and the school have removed the "cross gender" consent part from their policy.

Because the school wants to be diverse

Someone please tell me this isn't legal. This absolutely can't be legal.

[NRatched]

Several members of staff are refusing to disclose their 'gender'? Erm, what?

This sounds odd.

Surely the school would know the staff members sex. If thats whats meant (assuming as usual gender is used where sex is meant)

IF its actually about 'gender' then, gender surely doesn't matter to anything anyway? Staff might be refusing to give pronouns or something maybe, but that again, means nowt when it comes to sex specific services?

Very confusing situation here. If theres really a load of staff that suddenly refuse to give their 'gender' and this is causing issues for children with disabilities (or any children, for that matter) then the issue is the staff, you do not change rules/safeguarding to accomodate such self indulgence surely..

[Coconutmeg]

justicedanceson, there’s just one male staff member in ours, out of the whole school.
Round here it seems similar to the ratio in mainstream primary, in that there are few men.
I don’t see how boys could access education if they depended on only having Male staff for personal care unless something drastic was done to lure more men into that type of work.

[papersmith]

This is really strange.

I'm in primary Sen; we have very few men (4 out of about 80 staff) and mostly male pupils. Women and men care for the boys (we have some employees where that's their primary role) and only women care for the few girls we have.

I've written and deleted a few responses.

I'd suggest the mother contacts Ofsted and the LEA safeguarding services.

I'd also point out that any pupil who's religion has certain rules around women and men mixing is very much excluded from such a diversity policy.

[papersmith]

This policy would affect all sorts of activities eg swimming etc.

I don't like to dismiss something this serious as fake and in this Orwellian world I could believe it's true. If so I'm utterly gobsmacked at the behaviour of that staff.

Could anyone clarify what would be the outcome of removing this consent from?

Surely it means fewer male pupils could be attended to by women?

Given we have to have consent forms to breath these days I also really query what the hell is going on in such a school.

[EyesOpening]

@MrsFionaCharming

Whenever I’ve started a new job, a copy has been taken of my passport to prove right to work. Presumably this could also be used to determine sex in those who won’t disclose their gender?

I’ve read that trans people can put what they want on their passport (I don’t know if this is true though) so this might not be their sex

[EyesOpening]

When applying for a job, I’ve been told I need a birth certificate issued within a year of my birth (if I recall correctly), so presumably this would show my actual sex (although I’m not sure as I thought when someone gets a GRC and new BC that you can’t tell the difference )

[MrsSlocombesPussy]

A further update


twitter.com/womankind15/status/1324046137830084608?s=21

[PlanDeRaccordement]

@MrsSlocombesPussy
The plot thickens.... thank you for posting the update.

[Aesopfable]

No one mentioned the Equality Act???

[justicedanceson]

@Coconutmeg

justicedanceson, there’s just one male staff member in ours, out of the whole school.
Round here it seems similar to the ratio in mainstream primary, in that there are few men.
I don’t see how boys could access education if they depended on only having Male staff for personal care unless something drastic was done to lure more men into that type of work.

Surely that’s a practical consideration you could discuss with parents?
In general my experience is that special needs schools have more men but there will obviously be massive variation.
I’m not against cross-sex intimate care. I’ve done it and so have male members of my team. I’m against the idea that without good reason (I.e a lack of male staff) parents and children’s wishes about who gets access to their bodies can be trumped by supposed diversity and equality.

[cabbageking]

The change in wording of the policy doesn't mean anything is going to change. The poster needs to check the same person is providing the care as usual.

[EyesOpening]

@cabbageking

The change in wording of the policy doesn't mean anything is going to change. The poster needs to check the same person is providing the care as usual.

but what if that person is sick, or leaves?

[BettyDuKeiraBellisMyShero]

@EyesOpening

When applying for a job, I’ve been told I need a birth certificate issued within a year of my birth (if I recall correctly), so presumably this would show my actual sex (although I’m not sure as I thought when someone gets a GRC and new BC that you can’t tell the difference )

I think the new, post GRC birth certificate has the date the registry entry changed written on it, ie, at least 18 years after the actual birthdate.

There are some other reasons for this, but not many (one of my relatives was never registered, but he was born immediately post war so paperwork wasn’t required for everything the way it is now. He only realised when he tried to get a first passport and he didn’t officially exist )

[cabbageking]

Staff can change, people can go off sick and there may be odd times there is no one of that sex on duty in a small school. This can happen in any school regardless of any policy.

But you would know that at the start of the day and look at alternatives or discuss the situation with the parents.