Still Asleep at the Wheel: A Further Examination of Gender and Safeguarding in Schools - Policy Exchange

[IwantToRetire]

A new report by Policy Exchange reveals that secondary schools in England are still heavily influenced by gender ideology. Too many secondary schools are socially transitioning gender-distressed children without reliably informing parents, failing to adhere to their safeguarding responsibilities and compromising the rights and interests of other children in school.

The report includes FOI research assessing schools’ policies, replicating an identical round of FOI research carried out for Asleep at the Wheel: An Examination of Gender and Safeguarding in Schools in 2023.

Despite some progress, particularly regarding the provision of single-sex toilets and changing rooms, we found that many schools still lack adequate policies. In a minority of schools, it appears that contested beliefs about gender identity remain embedded: staff support children to begin a social transition in the school environment and teach contested ideas as fact. In other schools, staff are failing to uphold their safeguarding duties, as they do not reliably involve parents, the Designated Safeguarding Lead, or a medical professional. The interests of other children are often compromised, as all children are required adopt a transitioning child’s new name and pronouns.

Moreover, many schools permit a child to self-identify as a different gender and participate in sports activities with opposite sex. We found that:

• 70% and 73% of schools maintain single-sex toilets and changing rooms.
• 43% of secondary schools reliably inform parents when a child discloses feelings of gender distress.
• 58% of schools reliably involve a safeguarding lead or medical professional in these cases.

More than one third of schools do not maintain single-sex sports.
The report calls for the Government to amend the draft statutory guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026, on which it is currently consulting.

As Baroness Falkner of Margravine, former Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said in her Foreword to the report:

“Schools require greater clarity and authoritative guidance, consistently enforced. They carry a significant responsibility and must be supported to understand how to discharge their duties lawfully, consistently, and with confidence.”

https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/still-asleep-at-the-wheel/

Hope this isn't a duplicate thread. Freezing of MN today so bad have not been able to follow anything properly.

I dont think it's always safe to tell parents this information. I know some parents who would do something extreme if their children came out as non--heterosexual or identified as trans. Extreme can range from physical violence, to religious exorcism, to shipping them out of the country.

I don't think that would be right to do to a homosexual child, and even though I view it quite differently, it wouldn't be okay to do to a child that believes they are trans.

But surely it’s also unsafe for a school to socially transition that child without a parent’s consent. There is damage caused, not just to that child, but to every other child in the school who is forced to use pronouns/ be complicit in the lie.

I'm not sure what the right thing to do is, but I don't think it is to automatically tell every parent. I dont think there is a single approach which is right every time.

If a child thinks they are the wrong sex it's a safeguarding issue. They don't have to tell parents this if they think there is an issue. But they also sure as hell should not be socially transitioning the kid either.

If you want to socially transition your parents get told. The end.

I fail to see how you can socially transition a kid and not tell parents anyway. Everyone who knows that kid will know they've transitioned in school. Do we think kids live in a weird bubble separate from everyone else.

Parents know other parents. Kids tell their parents stuff.

Once again it's not like being gay because you can keep being gay discreet and private.

If you are changing your uniform, demanding wrong sex pronouns from your teachers and all your peers you have put out a public announcement that you are trans.

They idea that being gay and being trans are the same thing is fucking ridiculous.

If a child is in danger from their parents by claiming to be trans, social services will have to be involved.

The school can't keep it secret. It's a safeguarding failure.

Doesn't it come down to facts? It is not possible to be anything other than what you are. We will not use wrong sex pronouns. We refer to you according to your enrolment details. Activist teachers and parents need to be told no.

I dont think that's the right approach every single time

Believe me, if the parents were a known danger, a lot would be in place. It is also possible that the child’s gender distress is tied to the relationship with the parents.

It wouldn’t be framed as “coming out as trans” under new rules; it would be seen as a form of distress/ confusion/ reaction to something else.

Completely separate to “coming out as gay.” And sexuality is private and should be private at school.

If a child were at risk (by risk, serious physical harm and abuse) due to their sexuality it would be taken seriously.

I dont think that is true. A lot of kids.live under the potential of things like so called honour violence just because it is prevalent in their culture. You can't treat every single child from that background as at risk by default, but you have to know when it might be relevant to an individual and their family.

A policy which meant you automatically disclose something like that every single time would not acknowledge those differences.

What about the other children at the school, when is acceptable for them to be forced to play apart in the charade. When adults tell children they must keep things a secret and not tell other adults about what's happening to them, it's a RED, RED flag.

Children from different ethic backgrounds, don't usually go to a school that doesn't have other pupils of the same ethnic background, so the idea that parents won't get to find out what's going on is laughable. It could be argued that the school is placing a child in further danger by allowing them to 'trans' in school without informing the parents.

If the Child Protection procures are followed at least there are official eyes on the parents, and if the child is suddenly sent 'back home' then the parents can be ordered to produce the child, or face criminal charges.

Wouldn't it potentially be worse if the parents found out through the grapevine or by accident that their child had socially transitioned at school, with the school's support? Keeping secrets that are highly likely not to remain secret is a risky strategy. If there is genuine, evidenced, concern about parental behaviour, social services should be involved from the start – do they not have a duty to involve parents in a controlled way?

You’re missing the point; honour violence is what would be taken very seriously. And far more likely to be a sexuality scenario than gender.

Parental alienation - promoting a wedge between children and parents - runs through trans ideology like a stick of rock. Sadly too many schools believed what they were told by trans lobby groups with zero child safeguarding knowledge.

Only the courts can remove parental rights. The parents of Looked After Children still retain their rights and must remain involved even when children are living in care. It's a legal principle but typically, transactivism has attempted to undermine this and pretend that gender confused children are a separate group exempt from all the evidenced safeguarding approaches that apply to children.

As @WarriorN points out upthread from her knowledge of safeguarding in schools, " if the parents were a known danger, a lot would be in place".

Education is currently having to roll back this by locating policy around gender confused children in statutory Safeguarding policy.

Those involved in safeguarding know the challenges of managing a child's insistence on keeping a secret with their overriding responsibility to protect that child. These judgements are made repeatedly about all sorts of situations.

Transactivists have attempted to remove this group of vulnerable children from safeguarding guidance designed to protect all children. That's unforgivable.

You’re also missing the point that the vast majority of gender questioning is linked to sexuality.

If we make that very clear to children, that butch lesbian exist for example, and help them defy gender stereotypes healthily and normally, a lot more gender questioning situations will be avoided.

the T is taken away from the LGB in the RSE and kcsie that are due to be statutory in sept.

It will take time however.

I’m also not aware of any serious case reviews whereby a child has come to serious harm due to parents not supporting a trans identity. We would have it in KCSiE if that were the case.

I’m aware of quite the opposite however. Where parents weren’t informed, the child was encouraged and the result was serious bodily harm.

Safeguarding practice understands this dynamic of parental involvement from the outset. If parents aren't aware of issues they can't safeguard their children (which is why certain groups aim is to remove parents from being involved). If parents are the problem, this has to be directly addressed in order to resolve it.

Safeguarding practice keeps parents involved from the earliest stages (unless there's a serious criminal investigation where as abuser could be alerted ). Social services are open with parents about what the issues are "Your child has said this...has bruises etc". Parents usually attend meetings where the issues are discussed. They are part of the solution, even when they're the problem, and being open about the issues is basic practice.

Schools have been sold a lie about keeping a child's confusion about their sex a secret from parents.

That's the most frustrating thing. None of these lobby groups have any understanding of child safeguarding. Yet they've been allowed (and ironically often funded by the DfE) to promote their anti child safeguarding rhetoric to schools. There are countless examples of this.

I'm very pleased that Policy Exchange have done a follow up like this exposing the continued failure to safeguard this very vulnerable group of children.

“gender questioning” has the potential for medical intervention.

The parents have parental control, not the school. The school is NOT qualified to make diagnoses nor give medical treatment. Social transition is “not a neutral act” aka medical treatment.

ANY medical condition would need the oversight of a medical professional; gender questioning is no different.

This year’s Kcsie has been clear on this; external professionals must be involved and that would include a cautious approach ruling out other issues such as autism, abuse or trauma.

The conflation with sexuality MUST stop.

Schools encouraging allowing a child to self diagnose with a life changing condition that may involve serious medication and surgery down the line and then lying about it to their parents should NEVER be an option.

HTH.

I didn't say that confirming that they are trans and doimg all that is the right approach either. I just dont think telling parents is always the right approach.

This will be the rhetoric in September and will need firmly challenging everywhere, especially in education.

So thank you @GlovedhandsCeciliafor sharpening our skills and helping us to prep for this.

It’s unsafe to socially transition a child at all, under any circumstances.

I dont think encouraging social transition in the situations I am talking about is feasible either. Of course their parents would know.

I do know that kids sometimes privately disclose these things to teachers and other staff when they are still in the "thinking" stage. This is when I don't think telling the parents is always the right approach.

If a school thinks a child has autism do you think they keep it a secret?

same with abuse, adhd, depression and any other condition that needs medical intervention?

Sexuality doesn’t need medical interventions.