Brighton and Hove Schools Trans Toolkit

[Version4needsabitofwork]

I live in Brighton and Hove and we've been asked for feedback on a 59 page Trans Toolkit that the council are planning to send out to schools.

I sat down to fill in the form but became quickly overwhelmed. Can someone help me whittle down what I need to say, so I can object in a way that follows the form?

Basically my objections are as follows:

I/ Sex is observed, not "assigned"
2/ Sex is binary and can't be changed
3/ Gender stereotypes are outdated old nonsense and children are quite right to reject them in any way they see fit
4/ Schools need to practice good safeguarding as they do so (and this is the bit I want to get right - post the Kiera Bell case, what is the guidance here? The toolkit talks about children who are transitioning, but I think they shouldn't be medically transitioning until they are 18. I'm not up to date with legislation at all on this and is it likely to change?)
5/ I want schools to do proper impact assessments for things like toilets. I believe that children need the choice of sex-segregated and gender-neutral toilets. Is that confused thinking though? I want to be clear.

Link here: files.smartsurvey.io

Interesting to read this. I'm fairly familiar with the original trans toolkit and they've clearly tried to modify it to make it a bit more in line with the DfE guidelines. For example, they're very keen to say that you should only allow a trans identifying child to use the opposite-sex toilets or changing rooms if they are definitely in a process of social transitioning - ie don't let any old male pupil who claim to be female into the girls' changing rooms.

But the dodgy stuff remains. So e.g.

"Brighton and Hove recommend that in making that assessment, schools should take into account the fact that for trans children accessing the changing room which corresponds to their gender identity can be extremely important. We would therefore encourage schools to enable this wherever possible."

And

"Trans children and young people (who fit the gender reassignment protected characteristic under Equality Act and have taken ‘steps to live in the opposite gender’) should be able to take part in lessons or teams in accordance with their gender identity as appropriate to their age, stage of development and guidance from sporting bodies."

They spend a lot of time talking about the vulnerability of trans children and no time at all talking about the vulnerability of girls.

Agreed Royal Corgi - they've gone to considerable efforts not to breach guidelines. There's talk of single sex sessions being OK and using sex specific language on occasions - Mum, Grandma etc.
I notice they're still maintaining that schools don't necessarily have to tell parents about a child's decisions about coming out as "lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans" The conflation of these is of course problematic and a school that chose to support transitioning a child in secret from their parents could be in real difficulties if the parents complained.
At the same time, settings will encourage pupils and students to talk with their parents and carers, if it is in the child’s best interests including offering to talk with the parent or carer on the child’s behalf

Although I despair that lobby groups are able to influence schools and children to this extent, it is a small positive to see some evidence that safeguarding and the rights of children are starting to appear.

I notice they're still maintaining that schools don't necessarily have to tell parents about a child's decisions about coming out as "lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans" The conflation of these is of course problematic and a school that chose to support transitioning a child in secret from their parents could be in real difficulties if the parents complained.

Yes, I spotted that. Obviously that's a deliberate conflation. It's one thing to keep a child's identity as gay from parents, quite another to keep their trans identity secret. I notice they also say that if a child wants to be known by a different pronouns and name in school, then those should be adopted in correspondence with the parents, which will come as a hell of a shock to some parents.

I find the changing rooms stuff really chilling. Suppose a girl decides to identify as a boy and then wants to use the boys' changing room. Think about the risks to her. Think about what the parents will say if they find out this is happening and they haven't been told about it.

Taken steps to live in the opposite gender

What does this even mean though?

Putting on your sisters spare school skirt is still letting any old male pupil who claim to be female into the girls' changing rooms.

Changing a name is the same thing as it can be undone, changed.

Children do not qualify for the protected characteristic of gender reassignment in terms of surgery, so their protections are the EA2010 remain as age, sex, disability, race and religion etc - but social transition could be argued as proposing to undergo or undergoing gender reassignment but then there is the issue of what gender reassignment is and parents can legally change birth names by deed poll for under 16s. This part of the EA is such a mess.

Ultimately the schools following this toolkit will be forced to define was a 'trans child' is, how they (the HT?) perceives them and will have to explain why they are different and should be treated differently to any other child so to explain the hierarchy of their provisions.

It's SO important that sensible people respond to this consultation!

Can anyone fill it in OP? I wasn't able to access the link and I'm not in Brighton.

I imagine it's sent specifically to parents of the children in the relevant schools.

Thank you so much for all the comments. I've got to do the school run now and have a busy evening, but I will make time tomorrow to read all your comments and follow the links you've provided.

Just a few thoughts before then - I'm really glad I'm not the only B&H parent on here is my first thought. It's easy to think that the whole town has subscribed to this - it's clear that's not the case. I personally think that the council have made this consultation as difficult as possible to feed back on because they definitely don't want to hear our feed back. As onerous as it is to wade through 59 pages of this stuff, please PLEASE do it. Perhaps we can help each other to do so? More thoughts to follow when I've had time to read through some of the links provided.

Also, Royal Corgi, I think you're on to something. This is quite likely their attempt to comply with new guidance in the light of recent court rulings, so thank you for flagging that up. It's really important that anyone who replies is aware of the updated guidance and responds with that in mind.

God, what a thing. Who's got time for this shit? Not me, and I don't even have a job at the moment... I feel compelled to do so, becuase until recently I'd have considered myself classic super-woke Brightonian. Green voting, Labour campaigning, proud Pride-going leftie.... If I think this is a load of old bollocks, I'm guessing anyone who could be arsed to wade through it will to.

Skim reading the comments so far, this really jumped out at me

They spend a lot of time talking about the vulnerability of trans children and no time at all talking about the vulnerability of girls.

Exactly right. I'm not standing by any more. Thanks for all the help so far.

(apologies for the duff link in the OP by the way and for the typos. I'm trying to do too many things at once today )

OhHolyJesus I think it's just for B&H parents, but the council have sent it out to every primary and secondary school in the city to consult on it.

I am in Brighton. I got this too. I think it's mostly okay. I haven't responded to it yet as I couldn't see anything really bad.

I haven't responded to it yet as I couldn't see anything really bad.

Even the bit about putting legally and biologically male pupils in the girls changing rooms if it is really important to their feelings

No disrespect intended, I just saw that in the guidance and think it's so wrong.

As a matter of interest, if they do sex segregated sport, what is their guidance on that?
What of y11 males of the stature of rugby players doing sport with y11 girls?

Given the lack of funds in the public sector I cannot believe that so much money has been wasted on this.

putting legally and biologically male pupils in the girls changing rooms if it is really important to their feelings

That reads bizarrely as if it was desperately important to the girls' feelings.

But then that's an interesting thought - if a bunch of girls thought it was really important to have a boy in there, would they do it for the girls? Not sure they would even if the boy was up for it, let alone against his will.

TeenMinusTests this was in last year's guide:

Scenario 3

Parent to school: ‘It’s not fair that he enters the 100 metres race for girls when he is a boy’ or ‘Won’t she get injured playing rugby with boys?’

Underpinning this scenario is the idea that all boys or all girls share the same physical attributes and fails to acknowledge that there is a range of differences in physical strength and ability within single gender groups. Trans boys are boys, not girls, and therefore entitled to play rugby with boys and in consultation with relevant sporting bodies. Teachers already differentiate according to ability.

Trans pupils and students are entitled to access sporting opportunities equally to cisgender pupils and students.

Further guidance can be sought from sporting bodies.

The new guide does seem a bit better on this point, although is hopelessly vague and still downplays safety and fairness risks for female pupils IMO.

The issue of physical risk within certain sports should be managed properly within the lesson context rather than by preventing young trans people from participating, (which would be discriminatory).

The exception to this is where their exclusion is ‘a proportionate means to achieve a legitimate aim’ in that specific case. The Equality & Human Rights Commission explains what would be required to prove objective justification:

● the aim must be a real, objective consideration, and not in itself discriminatory (for example, ensuring the health and safety of others would be a legitimate aim)

● if the aim is simply to reduce costs because it is cheaper to discriminate, this will not be legitimate

● working out whether the means is ‘proportionate’ is a balancing exercise: does the importance of the aim outweigh any discriminatory effects of the unfavourable treatment?

● there must be no alternative measures available that would meet the aim without too much difficulty and would avoid such a discriminatory effect: if proportionate alternative steps could have been taken, there is unlikely to be a good reason for the policy or age-based rule.

That reads bizarrely as if it was desperately important to the girls' feelings.

Yes sorry I am struggling to find appropriate words here as I don't think transgirl is an appropriate term, as I think we shouldn't put these kind of labels on young children who are going to go/are going through puberty.

"Pupil who is legally and biologically male and has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010" is the more accurate term in my view, but a bit of a mouthful to keep repeating.

The toolkit has been revised and some of the more extreme bits have been removed but it still misrepresents the Equality Act and it is not compliant with the new DoE guidelines. This document from Transgender Trend helpfully summarises the legislation regarding single-sex provision, sports and confidentiality so there is really useful information in there. As many people as possible should fill out the consultation so that Brighton know we are not going to let them continue this discrimination against girls. www.transgendertrend.com/product/equality-law-and-statutory-schools-guidance/

This 100% ...

Oh for goodness sake. I hope they also have a 59-page autism-friendly toolkit? Plus a similar one ti combat sexism, one on spotting child sex abuse, one for young carers and other disadvantaged children, etc?

Seriously yes - more kids are affected by Autism and ADHD and both would benefit from this....

1. which other groups are they providing guides for
2. what is it costing - to produce, and to distribute

I'm a B&H parent too- have two kids in primary including a gender non-conforming daughter, and am starting to read the document with a view to filling in this consultation.
I was struck by the size of the document as well- and I do wonder if there are similar toolkits for the other EA2010 protected characteristics- I somehow doubt it.

Thank you previous posters for all the links, they're going to be very useful.

Its different to the last one but still insidious.

for example, top of page 15 - "curriculum, assemblies and environment are used to prevent and challenge gender stereotypes, sexism and binary notions of sex and gender"
Which seems to be saying sex isn't binary.

There's lots of these small looking phrases but which are significant, I think. The inclusion in trans of people who are "not male or female" - who are they then.

Solidarity is needed. Maybe all the boys, every single one, should identify as girls and use the girls’ changing room. Then the actual girls can use an alternative space. It should be easy to find one as there will be nobody left in the boys’.

Sorry if this is a repeat but I've not got time to read all the comments.
I would get in touch with Sage Schools Alliance. Last year they successfully got a trans toolkit for schools pulled from many councils with the help of grassroot mums like me writing to our local council. It was different to the Brighton and Hove one but I'm sure there were plans to tackle that one.
It is overwhelming, but just treat it like a critical analysis of a document. If you can request a Word document you will be able to add comments to each sentence, paragraph etc that you ardcwuestioning. You can probably do this in pdf too but I don't know.
Remember no school us allowed to use born in the wrong body rhetoric and should not be suggesting to gender non-confirming children they are the opposite sex. Children should be taught facts.This was advice from the Education Department last year. www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education/relationships-and-sex-education-rse-secondary

Good luck!

I’ve neither RTFT nor the booklet but I’m getting the sense that if you have a daughter and she tells staff she’s trans, but doesn’t tell you and so neither do they, they’ll put/let her play in boys’ rugby team?! If she gets injured, there’ll be a lot of explaining to do!

I'm a Brighton parent and I plan to respond to this consultation. It is ridiculous that other protected characteristics are not given this same level of attention. Even year 10 pupils are being invited to comment!
Transgender Trend did a thorough analysis of the previous toolkit, does anyone know how much has changed in this new version?

@EyesOpening

I’ve neither RTFT nor the booklet but I’m getting the sense that if you have a daughter and she tells staff she’s trans, but doesn’t tell you and so neither do they, they’ll put/let her play in boys’ rugby team?! If she gets injured, there’ll be a lot of explaining to do!

Also they "take confidentiality seriously and not ‘out’ a trans child or young person without their permission including to parents and carers"

And "provide support to a trans child or young person by referring them to “named supporting individual”, Allsorts Youth Project and other services as appropriate"