A model policy for schools that protects all children’s wellbeing - Sex Matters

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Teachers and pupils in England are going back to school this week, and are still lacking finalised guidance or a model policy from the Department for Education on what to do if children ask to be allowed to “socially transition” and be treated as the opposite sex.

Sex Matters has been calling for the Department for Education to produce a simple, straightforward model policy that schools can adopt, to be confident of giving safe and lawful answers which protect the wellbeing of all children.

Today we are publishing our model policy, which is aligned to safeguarding legislation, the Cass Review, the Equality Act 2010 and the DfE draft guidance.

More and download at https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/a-model-policy-that-protects-all-childrens-wellbeing/

(Sorry if there is an existing thread. I did look and couldn't find anything.)

Thank you for starting this thread. Placemarking to come back to it.
I've had a quick skim read of the first section and one thing that confuses me is why would they use the 2023 KCSIE guidance upon which to base it?! The section on "LGBT" is terrible and includes the Stonewall wording. By contrast, the 2024 KCSIE guidance is a vast improvement. Sex Matters knows this ... How odd.

Maybe worth sending them comments?

Disappointed by the toilet section. They do not mention the new school toilet designs that are not safe. In fact they mention enclosed unisex toilets being suitable for school trips.

The Department of Education ‘School output specification Generic design brief document’ dated December 2023 never mentions health or safety in toilets. Just privacy. The practical result being secondary school toilet manufacturers have now changed their designs for secondary schools so that the toilet doors and partitions go from floor to ceiling. Because of this you have to have an easy way for others to unlock and open them from outside. This is the worst of both worlds. The DfE also mention a private gender neutral toilet on every floor.

Sex Matters missed a really important safeguarding issue here. They should state single sex toilet cubicles in schools need door gaps (top and bottom of doors) for health and safety. They could have really emphasised this for the more vulnerable children that the DfE have ignored in their document.

Any private space like an enclosed toilet is obvious space for abuse and harm. There’s at least one child that gets raped every school day inside a school premises. Floor-to-door gaps prevent bad behaviour occurring in the first place as they provide a witness view for how many pupils are in the cubicle. Schools need to reduce the number of private spaces to a minimum, for safeguarding.

There are also hundreds of girls and boys (who may or may not have individual care plans) who are at risk of collapse. Heart conditions, epilepsy (average 9 per secondary school), diabetes (average 3 per secondary school), asthma. They typically use the boys and girls toilets, not the disabled toilets. A failure to provide safe toilets is discrimination against children with these conditions as well as being unsafe for any child that may collapse (spiked vapes, fever) and can’t be seen.

The government know children collapse in schools. There is a defibrillator in every school, because every minute matters when someone collapses, but the place where children go to when they ‘feel off’ is now going to be hidden from view.

Gaps have always been there for safety and health. Until recently when privacy suddenly overrode them.

When I have emailed concerns with their school design document, the DfE replied that safety is ultimately the school governors’ responsibility. This is unfair. Governors should not be responsible for following (unsafe) documents and then something happening. Unfortunately it is a certainty that private cubicles are less safe and incidents will occur.

Very happy for anyone to contact me about this. Sex Matters - if you are on here, please do. I can back all this information up.

I have asked them this question.

I've also now read the guidance in full and it is well-written. Unfortunately, it does have quite a few formatting errors where they have used bold, which is likely to be off-putting as it conveys shoddy proof-reading. This is a shame, as it's distracting from what is otherwise a good document. I wonder what SSA and other school-focused "GC" groups think of it.

@Keeptoiletssafe your points make sense. I wonder though if they are limited by what the DfE has said and, if they create their own "off-piste" section on this, it might be rejected by schools as "lobbying"?

After a first read, I think it's great. It's evidently written by education professionals and practitioners. It uses all the relevant education legislation as the framework (hopefully now KCSIE is out of the consultation stage that will be updated). It gives schools a framework for re establishing what we all know - that schools are places of learning with the needs of children at the heart of everything that happens.

One of the most dangerous aspects of the "trans policies" written for schools by a range of dubious organisations and individuals is that they focus on adult desires and political demands so are generally age inappropriate, sit in isolation of, or actively undermine other school policies such as pastoral care, safeguarding, political impartiality, confidentiality etc.

Well done Sex Matters.

@BonfireLady below, in italics, is what I received back from the DfE (my bolds). Basically they are forgetting all about the reasons why gaps are important because of phones. I believe no one at the DfE has done a risk assessment on what happens when you enclose toilets which is why they put it discourages antisocial behaviour. I have real life experience and case studies that show enclosing toilets is dangerous and, at worst, life threatening. Most people ‘get it’ when I explain the realities. For example, the rape statistics. This DfE answer assumes all the hypos, seizures, strokes, drug-dealing/taking, assaults that happen in schools are predictable and school staff would somehow know when someone was in trouble behind closed doors. Unlike their safeguarding documents, this was not been written with reality in mind and contradicts other DfE documents about equality, safety and health:

DfE response:
We appreciate feedback on all aspects of the design brief and the content of the brief is periodically reviewed and is updated appropriately.

You raise the following about enclosed toilet designs and that these:
1. discriminate against medically vulnerable people
2. conflict with safeguarding by not putting the safety of vulnerable pupils first
3. create a greater disease spreading risk
4. increase risks for rescuers and occupants in an emergency building evacuation

The safeguarding and safety of pupils in an operational school rests with the school’s responsible body.
Our generic brief states that in secondary schools, a floor to ceiling cubicle system is to be constructed for increased pupil privacy unless specifically stated otherwise within the school specific brief – this is to discourage anti-social behaviour (including by use of mobile phone cameras). Where schools feel that this arrangement is not correct for them, then they are able to change this requirement for their new school building through their school’s specific brief.
There is a duty of care on a school to ensure the safety of their pupils, staff and other building users. Many of the specific issues concerning the welfare of vulnerable and other pupils are known to the school and are managed appropriately ensuring that pupils have access to the correct facilities under appropriate supervision.
Under the School Premises Regulations (The School Premises (England) Regulations 2012 (legislation.gov.uk)), there is a requirement on the school’s responsible body to ensure that school premises and the accommodation and facilities provided must be maintained to a standard such that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of pupils are ensured (there is a similar requirement for academies). A well designed toilet facility should allow for effective cleaning, whatever the arrangement of the side walls and doors – our brief sets many requirements for the building surfaces and fittings to be easy to clean.
Our generic brief requires that inward opening cubicle doors shall be able to open outwards through use of an emergency releasable door hinge or a lift-off facility to facilitate emergency assistance to someone who has fallen against the door inside the cubicle and are blocking the door from opening.

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https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/drug-dealing-drinking-dirt-problems-28517175