Letter to Secondary schools - ensure the EHRC code on single sex spaces is being followed in September - draft letter for feedback

[SingleSexSpacesInSchools]

Purpose as above - make sure secondary schools know what changes they have t make - and - actually make them.

both.

For me, maybe sending it to all local schools, governors, senior leadership teams, and then holding them to public account

@noblegiraffe I blame the time I posted 😬. What I am saying is those photos seemed to be of toilet designs that fitted under the DfE designs briefs for several years up until this year, and it seems unfair that schools following their guidance now have to find funds to change designs.

‘They’ meaning the school trusts and, ultimately the DfE. When I started chuntering about these school toilet designs a couple of years ago, I had a few emails to and fro with the DfE and also looked into the Generic Design Briefs and Specific Design Briefs (2A to be precise). I did a couple of FOIs for more info too. These briefs have been replaced this year with a pattern book and technical guides. I wrote an article where I discussed the disadvantages (and the lack of risk assessments and equality impact assessments) and sent it to them.

England, Scotland and Wales have all played about with mixed sex designs. As they have been excluded in the past from certain Health and Safety Legislation and Approved Document T, they could almost get away with it until FWS.

PM me if you want my old report. I haven’t got the 2023 DfE documents downloaded anymore and the hyperlinks are gone but this is a bit of my report where I quote directly from it:

@MrsOvertonsWindow @noblegiraffe

Look at p.38 and look at the signs. This is from June 2026. Is that single sex? I don’t think so.

How this is ‘inclusive’ design for the thousands of children who attend school with collapsible conditions is beyond me. As well as the privacy problems when girls are sexually assaulted in toilets.

Re their case studies. I gave the DfE case studies of deaths in enclosed toilets and statistics on sexual assaults in schools. I gave them articles on children vaping in toilets, children having seizures in corridors due to spiked vapes, taking other drugs in toilets etc etc. The fact that some schools have had to close these blocks and/or buy in alarms that send texts to staff activated by the phrases ‘stop it’ or ‘help me’, specifically due to cubicle privacy, should surely ring alarm bells?

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a3bb3cf4c7605ab567238e7/inclusive-education-estates.pdf

Thank you so much for persisting with this. The damage done in schools by accepting the Stonewall mantra that mixed sex facilities are inclusive is massive.

In some schools furious parents were able to reverse these decisions but too many schools abandoned their knowledge of how uncomfortable it can be to be a teenager, ignored the safeguarding aspects and any empathy for teenagers navigating puberty, caving in to the bullying exerted by transactvists.

We'll no doubt hear much whining about costs of restoring safe single sex facilities and hopefully every school that does this will be challenged about why they ever thought that children weren't entitled to privacy, safety and dignity from the opposite sex.

Agree. If they're already doing this, great, no action needed. If not, well sending it now shows parents will hold them to account, and they will lose in law so if time, energy and money is an issue, far better to spend the summer retrofitting the toilets than a very expensive day in court with angry parents.

Gearing up to send this to my schools. Thank you @SingleSexSpacesInSchools the letter is brilliant. I think it's fairly concise and about the right length. Personally I'm going to send to the primary school too as children need single sex toilets over 8 - it's hard enough starting menstruation without the chance boys might be there too and these days - in my experience - there's usually at least one girl who starts in year 6.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ehrc-guidance-causes-trans-toilet-trouble-for-schools/

I’ve posted this before but it really is a problem if the DfE don’t put something out to say what is allowed.

The key question appears to be 'is a mixed sex toilet block one where either sex can use any cubicle or does it include toilets where cubicles are single sex but sink areas are shared'? Because the cubicles are technically single sex.

There’s some very good evidence in regulations and legislation and guidance and a recent school ruling that the washbasins are supposed to be in a single sex environment.

If you want I can pull it all together but I am sure I will be repeating stuff I have already said.

Yes. They need to be absolutely clear that the 2012 School Premises Regs etc must now be complied with. As you've repeatedly pointed out the DfE are very compromised over this. They've enabled an array of organisations to influence schools - including businesses looking to profit & dodgy trans groups promoting predatory notions about mixed sex undressing and toileting

Rolling this back for the foolish schools who bought into all this raises countless questions about the DfE's lack of due diligence, knowledge of the law and ability to prioritise children's safety over the niche demands of disordered adults.

Which may result in the DfE never giving clear advice as they'll expose their culpability for this mess.

The OP's letter seems to summarise the situation re toilets and changing rooms very effectively.

But that DfE pic suggests otherwise!

Schools will be very unlikely going to publish their updated safeguarding policies before 1st Sept. They have to be approved by governors which is generally done at the first governing body meeting in September and then published after that.

Yes! I know!!!!!
Do you know what else the DfE can’t give me - any risk assessments or equality impact assessments for these designs. Or any statistics or data on what happens inside school toilets. I know because I have asked them directly under FOIs. It appears I have got more info than they have.

edit: I have been saying this to them for a couple of years now hence the !!!!!!!

agree that most schools will be waiting for policies to be approved by governors etc in Sept - so if you want copies of updated policies, likely to be Oct?

also, many schools are now part of multi-academy trusts, so could contact the board of trustees and ask how they plan to assure that all their schools are complying with the latest guidance.

individual schools are often struggling with funding so raising it at board level might be more effective?