Secondary School mixed sex changing rooms complaint: Update from school (again)

[TangenitalContrivences]

Hello everyone - Have just received a further update from my daughters (14) secondary school (Brighton) regarding my complaint - which is at stage 2 - go to governors complaint, and my further email to the school asking them to comply with the EHRC interim guidance.

I'll copy both responses below, redacted.

I would very, very much appreciate specific feedback to include in my responses to the school, it's been people here (and elsewhere) who have helped me put together really powerful letters that have clearly rattled the school.

However - there is still a male in the female changing spaces at this school. Therefore it is mixed sex.

(link to the last discussion if you want context https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5309038-secondary-school-complaint-about-mixed-sex-changing-rooms-update-school-response-and-request-for-help-writing-the-escalated-complaint-to-governors )

The skill I am least skilful at :D

You can do it!

Go and do something else, knowing you have them rattled.
You can do overkill!
If they take ages in response, you can address that later
Have a well earned beer

LADO Response:

Thank you for your e mail to the Brighton and Hove LADO regarding your complaint in regard to xxxx School .

The LADO oversees allegation management where there is an allegation that a member of staff in regulated work with children has directly harmed a child . Your complaint below is in regard to school policy which the LADO would not be involved in .

I note you have sent your complaint to Ofsted and are currently in the process of the school complaints system which is the right pathway to address school policy complaints and concerns regarding school policy issues raised by parents and carers of children attending the school .

I hope this clarifies the LADO position .

Regards

I intend to write back saying that there has been specific safeguard failures by specific individuals.

Comment and feedback welcome as always!

I imagine you're not surprised by that response, OP.

Nuffink to do wiv me, guv.

indeed not!

I am intending to write back and say that I believe this IS direct harm to children, and is therefore in their remit. and if not, why not.

Provides another FOIable internal conversation.

Absolutely LAME response from LADO booooo!

Unsurprising really. And I'm guessing you didn't have specific individuals in mind then fair enough. If you do, e.g the head, then that is within their remit as stated by them, surely.

I literally named the head, the safeguarding lead and the head of governors in my opening email to the LADO !

Going to send this....

Thank you for clarifying that your remit covers concerns involving professionals in regulated activity who may be causing harm to children. I am now submitting a formal safeguarding concern involving three such individuals whose actions and omissions, in my view, meet the threshold for direct harm as defined by statutory guidance and legislation.

Individuals named in this concern:

• xxxx – Headteacher
• xxxx – Designated Safeguarding Lead
• xxxx – Chair of Governors

These individuals have overseen and endorsed a “case-by-case” policy that permits male pupils to access female changing rooms and toilets based on gender identity, and vice versa. This policy has been confirmed in writing and remains in effect. This policy is in direct breach of:

• The Supreme Court judgment clarifying that “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 means biological sex
• The EHRC’s April 2025 interim guidance, which instructs that trans-identified male pupils must not be permitted to use girls’ changing or toilet facilities
• The School Premises (England) Regulations 2012, which legally require single-sex changing facilities from age 11
• Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2024, which defines safeguarding as protecting children from abuse and harm, and obliges staff to act if children are at risk
• The Education Act 2002, which mandates that governing bodies and headteachers have a legal duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children

How harm is being caused:
This is not a hypothetical concern. The actions of the above individuals are:

• Causing psychological distress to female students who know that male pupils may be permitted to enter spaces where they undress
• Breaching the privacy and dignity of children by removing their right to single-sex facilities
• Placing male pupils at risk of criminal exposure (e.g., allegations of voyeurism or indecent exposure) by enabling them to be present in spaces where girls are changing
• Creating an environment of coercion and silence, where pupils are unable to speak up without social or institutional pressure
• Operating with no disclosed risk assessments, and no documented safeguarding mitigations, despite repeated requests

The Designated Safeguarding Lead, xxxx, has failed to demonstrate that appropriate safeguarding risk assessments have been conducted. The Headteacher, xxxx, has refused to suspend the unlawful policy even after being presented with binding legal guidance. And the Chair of Governors, xxx, has failed to exercise her legal duty to oversee and ensure safe, lawful governance.
This situation meets the threshold for regulated professionals causing direct harm to children as described in the LADO’s responsibilities under Working Together to Safeguard Children and KCSIE. It involves:

• Failure to act on known risks
• Breach of statutory duties
• Continued exposure of children to distress and legal risk

My request:
I now ask the LADO to:

1. Log this as a formal safeguarding allegation against professionals in regulated activity.
2. Confirm whether this meets your threshold for intervention. If not, please provide a detailed explanation referencing your published remit.
3. Confirm how you will proceed in accordance with local safeguarding procedures.

I can provide extensive documentary evidence, including written statements from the school confirming the policy, my correspondence with governors and staff, and references to all relevant legal frameworks.
Kind regards,
xxxxx
Father of two children at xxx School
This referral is made in good faith, in line with my legal duty as a parent and citizen to report safeguarding concerns. My sole intention is to ensure that children — including my own — are protected from foreseeable harm, in accordance with statutory safeguarding guidance and the law.

Looks good to me, maybe say all children rather than just children in the last para?

Great note only point i would change if this bit

I can provide extensive documentary evidence, including written statements from the school confirming the policy, my correspondence with governors and staff, and references to all relevant legal frameworks.

To

I have also provided as attachments extensive documentary evidence, including written statements from the school confirming the policy, my correspondence with governors and staff, and references to all relevant legal frameworks

And send them everything in your response so they have ZERO plausible deniability and can't pretend any of it is heresay

This interview with Kishwer Faulkner advises orgs is at ions not to wait for publication of the final guidance as the law is the law.
https://x.com/sexmattersorg/status/1925139345205326207?s=61&t=708dEn_EkpuN3JVBO9mR8A
You may find some of her statements useful?

I would definitely quote Baroness Falkner.

I was going to say this.

See also the thread on this board re her WH appearance today.

@TangenitalContrivences BBC Radio 2 Women’s Hour at 10:00 today https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002cdzr?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

The important quote from Baroness Falkner, Chair of EHRC

”I should emphasise for your listeners the Supreme Court judgement and clarification it provided is the law of the land and was the law of the land immediately. So all service providers should be getting their own legal advice on interpreting the judgement as of 16th April 2025.”

If an adult man exposed himself to a woman, what would happen? Yet a teenage boy who has gone through puberty doing so to a teenage girl, which is possible in shared changing places, in my view could be said to have directly harmed someone.

Just typing thinking aloud, I wonder if Llyn’s point above is actually a useful path to take.

Sorry I edited Tangenital. I think I made some good points, then messed up editing my really long post! Cursing myself now.

In short, though, I find that angle interesting.

It gives them their concrete harm: facilitating abuse in law.

Any attempt by the school to defend themselves on the basis of the male student being trans is likely to force an acknowledgement of their total disregard for females’ perspectives relative to a male’s.

Definitions of indecent exposure and its impact seem like to be entirely apt.

Ah - edit history shows it. Ok!

It's also about the girls having to undress infront of a boy. It's humiliating.

Yes. It's a form of emotional abuse - creating a hostile environment for girls where they're compelled by named adults to undress in front of random teenage boysin fear of being called transphobes / bigots.
Coercive control writ large.
I'd like to see these adults defend these decisions in court which if the OP is successful might happen.

Ask them why they placed boy's feelings above girls' needs and how are they fit for purpose if they openly preach and support mysoginy and discrimination.

Do the adults at the school claim to have the girls' consent for their sex segregated spaces to be shared?

'... has a trans identity. Trans people are one of the most persecuted groups in our society. You don't mind if they share your changing room ...'

(question mark not necessary as it is not a question)

Thanks everyone for the recent comments.

absolutely agree on all counts but unfortunately those suggestions have not been the slam dunk we would expect.

I have directly stated multiple times to both the head and the safeguarding lead that they are directly harming children, directly encouraging crimes of indecent exposure, disregarding female rights etc etc

this is the worst school in the worst town. It won’t lay down easily. I need more local parents to start emailing their own schools so it’s not just my voice in the wilderness! (I know I’m not the only one really!)

Have you reported them to Ofsted yet @TangenitalContrivences?