Single Sex Changing Spaces in Brighton Secondary schools Part 4

[SingleSexSpacesInSchools]

Hello - my partner has been giving updates on this but they are rather busy and burnt out so I am using my account to update you all. All the great ideas and support can from mumsnet suggestions - thanks so much.

If you are new to this, all secondary schools in Brighton have made their changing rooms mixed sex and not told either parents or children. Much back and forth has been happening with the school, official complaints, governors complaints etc. For more see https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5330837-secondary-school-mixed-sex-changing-rooms-complaint-update-from-school-again

What's happening:

FOI Request 1 - details on the liability insurers of the school - received

FOI Request 2 (sent same day)
"Copies of all risk assessments undertaken by the school since 1 January 2021 regarding the decision to allow or potentially allow any pupil to access toilet or changing facilities that do not correspond to their biological sex."
Not received. FOI coordinator at school said this request is:

"The status of the request is ‘completed’."

However, no information on that FOI request has been received here.

The second FOI has been followed up on today to ask what is happening.

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Insurers details. The insurer will be written to - but not without feedback and ideas from you all about what to include.

Points to include we believe (please suggest more)

• the insurer has a legal responsibility to act if they are informed their customer is not complying

• The insurer may be exposed to secondary liability if they continue

• That the insurer should investigate the school

• That measurable harm is happening to girls at the school right now, and therefore the insurer could be called upon to act in someway on the liability insurance

Basically - that their policy is unlikely to be valid.

Would be great to get the letter out ASAP as of course, summer holidays are approaching.

No other updates have been received from the school. Last email from head was 3rd June.

Legal position: waiting to speak to a judicial review solicitor

Huge thanks for any pointers and suggestions

Nothing practical to add but huge respect to you and your partner for sticking your heads above the Kafkaesque parapet and fighting to protect girls.

I've been following the other threads and have been gobsmacked at the school's blatant disregard of safeguarding and misogynistic dickhead behaviour 💐

Thanks for your efforts, it sounds like a right slog. I wish you the best of luck with your activities, I hope it all comes out right in the end. 👏👍😁

Bumping this.

Also wanted to make sure you have seen this thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5278805-school-gender-questioning-policy

The poster is a governor and successfully brought in a policy that centred the Cass report and Forstater. She (I think she?) has offered to share a redacted version via DM if other people are dealing with their own schools.

I hope someone will be along soon with some help on the insurance.

I’ve so much respect for you and your partner for standing up to this. I hope he’s doing ok ❤️

Thank you - any tips on the FOI request knock back as well if we have any!

@SingleSexSpacesInSchools, have you shared this in the previous threads relating to your situation? Some of the people on those threads may have ideas, but might not know that you’ve started a new thread.

Ah good thinking

They have 20 working days to respond to your request. If they don’t, you should report them to the ICO.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi/

And presumably you could send them a letter saying just this - that if they don’t reply within the 20 days that you will be reporting them to the ICO. If it’s already been 20 days, send them a reminder and say they have an additional x number of days and then you will be reporting them.

Finally got a response on the second FOI - regarding risk assessments.

For reference the original FOI was:

"I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please provide the following:

1. Copies of all risk assessments undertaken by the school since 1 January 2021 regarding the decision to allow or potentially allow any pupil to access toilet or changing facilities that do not correspond to their biological sex.
2. If such risk assessments do not exist, please confirm whether any such assessments have ever been conducted, and if not, the reason(s) why.
3. Copies of all Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs), or equivalent internal analyses, conducted by the school that relate to or reference:\\
5. Use of single-sex spaces by trans-identified pupils;
6. The school’s application of “case-by-case” policies for access to toilets or changing rooms;
7. Safeguarding implications for other pupils, particularly female pupils or those with protected religious beliefs.
9. A list of any external agencies or consultants (including legal counsel) who were consulted when forming or advising on the school’s current policy or practice regarding trans-identified pupils and the use of opposite-sex facilities.
10. Any recorded training materials, meeting minutes, or internal policy briefings given to staff regarding the risks or safeguarding implications of allowing biological males to use female facilities, or vice versa.

This request is made in the public interest given the implications for safeguarding, compliance with the Equality Act 2010, the Education Act 2002, the School Premises (England) Regulations 2012, and the obligations placed on the school under Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) statutory guidance. Please note: I am not seeking information that would identify individual pupils or staff and am happy for any such personal data to be redacted. I would be grateful for confirmation of receipt and look forward to your full response within the statutory 20 working days. Yours faithfully, "

And the schools reluctant final answer is:

"With reference to the information requested and using the same numbering as set out in your email below:

1 and 2. It has not been necessary to produce risk assessments for the use of toilet facilities. There are single sex toilets, there are additionally divided sides in one toilet block and additionally we have a final set of toilets which are in self contained, floor to ceiling, lockable cubicles.

In so far as risk assessments exist in relation to the use of changing facilities, these assessments contain the personal data of individual pupils and as such are not liable to disclosure under an FOI request.

3. A copy of the LA Equalities Impact Assessment in relation to the Trans Inclusion Toolkit is attached.

4. The school’s current policy and practice has been subject to both external and internal legal advice. As you will be aware this is privileged information. No further external agencies or consultants have been consulted.

5. There are no recorded training materials, meeting minutes or internal policy briefings given to staff on the issues described. All staff receive annual safeguarding and child protection updates, as outlined in the "Keeping Children Safe in Education" (KCSIE) guidance."

This is not very satisfactory at all and clearly hides a lot of the key information - I assume therefore not actually been done.

Would really appreciate any eyes on this and advice - we have held off sending anything to the insurance company until this information on risk assessments was received!

@SingleSexSpacesInSchools The fucking weasley liars.

So no risk assessments have been done and they're trying to hide behind 'personal data' for the changing rooms debacle.

I mean, I think so - given we specifically said to redact as well..

You need to ask for an internal review, state what you are not happy with in the response. They have a further 20 days to respond and if you remain unhappy with their response then you can go to the ICO

So they've done none of the things they should have done, apart from the things they conveniently can't tell you about.

So point 1 and 2 is not done with respect to toilets. But they've not confirmed that single sex really, truly means single sex. Changing areas they say they can't provide them, but don't actually state they have been done. They should at least be able to give you the template they use, even if not copies of a completed one.

Point 3 they've not done any of their own, just relied on the overall LA one. So not specific to the individual pupils in the school. They have done no analysis of their use of case-by-case assessment. They have never looked at safeguarding for their specific pupils.

Point 4, staff administering these case-by-case permissions have had no training in doing so.

https://childlawadvice.org.uk/information-pages/toilets-in-schools/

So they have made a policy decision on changing single sex toilets to mixed sex and did not consider any risks to the children, but they did do a risk assessment on changing facilities but included individuals on the assessment which begs the question why one or more individuals would have a different risk profile to any others. And they have made this policy decision but not trained anyone in these changes?

Pull the other one Brighton it's got bells on.

Update: we are aware of a separate FOI request to the school - asking how many males identify as girls and females who identify as boys in the 23/24 academic year and the schools FOI answer being "We do not hold the data you requested"

Implying no safe guarding checks have been done

Yes that seems like the best bet thank you - their feedback to the FOI does not seem in the spirit of things. they are hiding and trying to run down time to the summer.

Thank you for all that you are doing and remember to look after yourselves as well.

Re insurance perhaps ask them whether they would cover a school knowingly breaking the law and what the implications are if a school has no insurance cover?

Have you tried making the request through whatdotheyknow?

Hmm. On one hand, they'll have to back down and implement the SC judgment at some time. On the other hand they're openly enabling voyeurism and possibly (if it's a swimmimg lessons) indecent exposure by their breach of the EA.

I'd be getting a copy of the timetable (before term ends) and with some careful questioning, calculate the number of occasions & dates / times when this is happening to girls.

I understand that this is hard as it's directly involving children and in my view this is is up to parents to expose this in schools and not down to our children. BUT, in the event this might end up in court, that data would be essential for demonstrating on how many occasions the school chose to breach the EA and expose girls to having their boundaries breached by adults in the school?

Not sure if that's helpful but it gives a data about much the school prioritises the demands of transactivism over the safety and privacy of girls.

We are convinced that the school will be the very very last to backdown and will hold out for so long to save face and to be perceived as such a queer friendly school in the countries most alphabet friendly city

they won’t go quietly or easily or first as the headmaster gets to crow about it so much. It’s identity protection related but in a school

It's very significant that this is happening in Brighton.
If you can stamp this out in Brighton it will have huge positive butterfly effect around the rest of the country.

I saw on another thread that the government are about to release the gender questioning guidelines for schools. In the light of the SC I'd guess that they'll be clear about no mixed sex changing rooms etc. They can't do anything else despite the number of gender loons masquerading as MPs and civil servants.

Also hope that the safeguarding / anti bullying approach of the draft guidelines will be continued and that there'll be no reversal of the principle of parental involvement. So it's only a matter of time before these dangerous schools are compelled to safeguard girls again. Hence my suggestion of gathering data so there's a record of how often these dodgy adults forced mixed sex changing on children. Which would be useful in any future action.

That question could have been better worded with words to thr effect of "that you are aware of...". Because by law, they cannot mandate trans or trans questioning children disclose. So they cannot possibly answer how many there are.

Anyway, I came to find the thread on the basis of the Times article today "Ban trans women from single-sex spaces, equality watchdog to say" suggesting EHRC guidelines will, as we all know, insist that the law is followed. Due to be released 18th August I believe.

The next stalling tactic this school will use is the fact that KCSiE won't be fully updated with meaningful direction on this until Sept 2026. There is a 2025 KCSiE update due (delayed because of this consultation), but DfE have said it won't be making any substantial operational changes in this late release. Hopefully it will include a simple line that the law must be followed tho.