Primary schools given advice on children who want to change gender (supposedly now agreed)

[IwantToRetire]

The government had been planning to introduce an outright ban on social transitioning, under which children can change their names, pronouns and uniforms.
However, Victoria Prentis, the attorney-general, said that an outright ban would be unlawful under the Equality Act and would require new legislation.

The guidance will instead urge schools to proceed with caution and allow pupils to identify as the opposite sex only in limited circumstances.

Schools will be urged to take particular care with younger children amid concerns that social transitioning could have a more significant impact.

The guidance will also ensure that nearly all parents are informed if their children tell staff that they want to change their gender identity, except for children with safeguarding issues. Campaigners have raised concerns that many parents are being kept in the dark.

Ministers had weighed up putting the legislation on a statutory footing. However, Prentis said that a blanket ban would be unlawful because the Equalities Act states that gender reassignment is a “protected characteristic”, regardless of age. She gave the same advice when ministers asked whether there could be a ban on social transitioning for primary school children.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/primary-schools-children-change-gender-caution-new-guidance-9fzhbp66z

Also at https://archive.ph/XuEfX

Is anyone here a lawyer and able to explain this advice? I get that children, despite not qualifying for a grc, can have the PC of gender reassignment, and therefore enjoy protection from discrimination on that basis, but in that case the comparator (for judging discrimination) is another child of the same sex. None of the children are allowed to identify out of their sex, so there is no discrimination.

I also get that it goes against personal autonomy to block transition. But we stop children doing stuff all the time, and in any case what does the EA have to do with it?

Not a lawyer, but I think there may be an indirect discrimination claim.
Not allowing children to pretend to be the other sex at school, while applied equally to all children, might be considered to be disproportionately making school difficult to access for children with the protected characteristic and therefore indirect discrimination.

That doesn't mean you have to let them use the opposite sex loos or change for swimming with the opposite sex, or indeed that it wouldn't be deemed discriminatory to other children if you did let them. A reasonable adjustment should be reached like letting them use a staff loo, or change in a single cubicle, or change before/after the other children, or something.

As I say I'm not a lawyer so this might be completely wrong and interested to hear from any actual legal bods.

we stop children doing stuff all the time, and in any case what does the EA have to do with it?

Precisely. The EA has been weaponised in order to ride over safeguarding.

Given the rapid rise in teen girls identifying as trans, it's far from clear why they are seemingly not deemed worthy of a safeguarding first approach.

Or why those around them are, by extension, expected to play along and encourage the trans identity.

Actually, @thirdfiddle has convinced me. If a transgirl or transwoman is barred from the ladies and has a fear of using the gents, they have no provision, which disadvantages them compared to the boys/men.

Why isn't Victoria Prentis also advising that all institutions must provide guaranteed female-only toilets, in order to avoid indirect discrimination against religious minorities and females with a fear of men? The logic is the same.

Third spaces.

Also, I agree, safeguarding.

"The EA has been weaponised in order to ride over safeguarding.
Given the rapid rise in teen girls identifying as trans, it's far from clear why they are seemingly not deemed worthy of a safeguarding first approach".

THIS

We've spectacularly failed to protect children from an adult ideology run by adults only interested in pushing their niche beliefs at children. Adults have stood by and watched this happen.

Well if the issue is the EA why cant schools use the single sex exemptions, particularly as this is about safeguarding children.

See https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/notes/division/3/16/20/7

You'd think there'd be lots of workarounds given that safeguarding is meant to be the priority. But to me it shows how those determined to transition children for their own ends have gained a secure hold in our institutions. Just look at this male politician in the HoL calling out safeguarding children as right wing bigotry:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4954762-pushing-back-against-safeguarding

shows how those determined to transition children for their own ends have gained a secure hold in our institutions

Maybe, but what it really shows is what a complete failure the EA became once it was "adjusted" to incorporate the GRA ie women's rights was / are totally sacrificed.

Some teachers are planning to ignore it anyway:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12872913/Activist-teachers-say-NOT-tell-parents-child-says-trans-admit-willing-sacked-comply-Government-guidance.html

If a transgirl or transwoman is barred from the ladies and has a fear of using the gents, they have no provision, which disadvantages them compared to the boys/men.

As this is about schools, the issue is about what is happening in the boys' toilets and changing rooms to make them unsafe for boys with gender identities.

The schools' job here is to address the bullying and the other boys' attitude to someone who is a bit different. Bullying a boy with a gender identity should be dealt with the same way as they would deal with any other bullying.

The guidance will also ensure that nearly all parents are informed if their children tell staff that they want to change their gender identity, except for children with safeguarding issues.

I'd like to see some examples of the sort of safeguarding issues that would make it appropriate for schools to trans children without informing their parents.

The waiting list for children desperately needing SEND diagnosis and subsequent help is vast. That should absolutely be the priority because children regardless of gender are disappearing into an educational gap that will destroy their futures which could be saved. They're worth the extra time because they're extraordinarily valuable as humans ffs!

The GRA and Eq A created this mess and now we can see the hold they have

I couldn’t see clarification on what happens with pronoun use but maybe I missed it

The whole thing is hugely disappointing and not helpful to schools.
It is however a shuffle in the right direction I suppose.

The guidance on sport looks very disappointing. Only a ban on contact sport? Other sport can be by identity if 'fair'. So girls running, tennis, netball all fair game for the teenage boys??

Schools ‘do not have duty’ to let children change gender identity

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/789e1fd3-4a82-4b71-a0bf-e165b5f410b1?shareToken=a70bb1ef3bfe0282c7c2ab7b9de09be9

Thanks for the share token.

Some teachers are vowing not to tell parents if their child is transgender because they say it could put pupils at risk of being withdrawn from school.
How fucking dare they?

How have we got to a point where (some) teachers think it's ok to openly declare they know what a child needs better than the parents?

Quite. Yet ask them for another time/day on parents' evening because you genuinely can't make it, or try to access help for your SEN child and suddenly it's no, these are our rules. Or even if you buy the wrong kind of shoes. Are there rules and are they followed, or not?

Mermaids have released a video on TikTok saying it's not law it's "just guidance" and teachers can call their helpline for advice with how to support children who "come out" to them.

Apart from them being an outside provider, there's a god complex there that's really quite concerning.

Am I right in thinking that. although non-statutory guidance isn't legally enforceable, it's still not a choice, that there is a presumption that schools will follow it and that Ofsted would take you to the cleaners if you didn't?

If a child claims they feel unsafe in any toilet apart from one set aside only for them, that would not be tolerated - so there are limits. If a reasonable adjustment would be, eg, using staff toilets, this would seem to me to be preferential treatment, which is therefore encouraging a trans identity. These things need proper (probably ongoing) action, not a quick fix.

I agree with pp that if the problems are being created in the boys’ toilets then this needs addressing - boys without special identities deserve protection too

I don't disagree hag, but I think the way the law stands, gender reassignment is a protected characteristic, it has been established that children embarking on a pathway have it, and I think a case might be made for indirect discrimination if no reasonable adjustments are made.

More recently built or renovated schools may also have some single facilities available as a matter of course available to any child who feels the need, in which case no special privileges would be needed. Ours does this, except they also say they'll support 'trans' children to access opposite facilities if they want and if so the others can use the separate facilities if they aren't happy about it. In DS's year the 'transboys' have no desire to share with the boys, and DD's year the issue has not arisen yet. I suspect the reaction would depend who the boy is as well as who the girl is. Most of us wouldn't have had a problem changing with the nice gay lad, but if it was the creepy one who was known to try to spy on the girls' changing rooms, there would have been a stampede and a queue a mile long for the single cubicles.

I wonder if kids suffering gender dysphoria would generally rather use the separate facilities anyway, and wanting to be on the other sex's space may be more an adult activist thing.

They're going to find it pretty difficult to ignore it because of Ofsted (hopefully) but also because of several law suits heading towards the dfe.

Schools and teachers would be putting themselves at risk of being sued or disciplinary action.

I would imagine and hope that we would start to see the reasoning behind it begin to filter into safeguarding training.

The ideal would be for it to be within KCSIE but I'm not sure how details legally make it into that.

KCSIE is law and is the safeguarding document, it's based on evidence.

It's possible there's not enough "hard evidence" yet, or law details, but the evidence collected on the website everyone's invited (detailing sexual assaults at school and on school premises) made it in pdq.

Hopefully outside providers will also start to make sure their resources comply with the guidance -stating that they do is a nudge game in the absence of hard law.

At the very least it does highlight the issues for schools and why and how there are different approaches taken.

It's now easier for providers and teachers who do know about the issues to say "I'm making a stand about this because this goes against this guidance."

It's not the best but I don't think many teachers had a clue there were opposed positions on this, OR we felt we had no ability to speak up against the perceived status quo peddled left right and centre by TRAs.

Thanks @WarriorN

Because sometimes for safeguarding reasons it isn't appropriate. Thankfully I'm not a DSL so don't have to make those decisions.
safeguarding in schools is full of decisions that in an ideal world we wouldn't need to make. The world is not ideal. And yes, these cases are referred on to relevant bodies outside of school!