Schools are being ordered to “take a very careful approach” before participating in ‘social transitioning’ of children.
In its revised Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidance that comes into force this September, the Department for Education reiterates that pupils must never be allowed “access to toilets, changing rooms or boarding or residential accommodation designated for the opposite sex”.
The statutory guidance remains largely unchanged from the draft version. Despite its caution, it still fails to definitively prevent schools from supporting children in primary or secondary school to live as if they are the opposite sex.
Active intervention
Teachers are reminded that “social transition should be viewed as an active intervention that may have significant effects on the child or young person in terms of their psychological functioning and longer-term outcomes”.
It said schools should consider any clinical evidence before allowing children to present as the opposite sex during school hours.
It cited the Cass Report’s findings that “children who socially transition before puberty and those who transition prior to receiving clinical advice are more likely to proceed to a medical pathway than those who do not”.
Untrained staff
It also stated: “The Cass Review emphasised that clinical involvement in the decision-making process should include advising on the risks and benefits of social transition as a planned intervention, referencing best available evidence.
“This is not a role that can be undertaken by staff without appropriate clinical training.”
When responding to requests from gender-confused children, schools and colleges are instructed to “consider everything that could be affecting a child, including whether they have any wider health issues or neurodiversity”.
The guidance also states: “Primary schools should exercise particular caution, and we would expect support for full social transition to be agreed very rarely.”
‘Profoundly harmful’
The Christian Institute’s Head of Education John Denning responded: “Social transition is the co-opting of the school to affirm an untruth about a child’s sex, encouraging the child to reject the reality of their body.
“It can never be in the child’s best interest nor is it appropriate for schools to do it. Pupils should be able to trust that teachers are doing their best to be guides to truth, not falsehood.”
He continued: “It’s welcome that this guidance now guarantees single-sex spaces, ensures parents aren’t shut out of decision making, and prevents coercion of individuals against their conscience.
“But the Government should be taking a lead to protect children and the integrity of schools from this profoundly harmful ideology. The guidance should forbid schools from supporting social transition all together.”
Investigation
In April, an investigation published by Policy Exchange found that some secondary schools in England are still “heavily influenced by gender ideology”.
The think tank’s report ‘Still Asleep at the Wheel’ was based on 173 responses to Freedom of Information requests sent to a random selection of secondary schools. It was a follow-up to a similar investigation from 2023.
While noting an improvement between the two studies, researchers reported that, of schools that responded, only 43 per cent reliably inform parents “when a child discloses feelings of gender distress” — up from 28 per cent in 2023.
They also observed that 30 per cent of schools still had no single-sex toilets, and that 27 per cent made no-provision for single-sex changing rooms — although these figures were improvements from 2023, when 60 per cent of schools had no single-sex toilets, and 49 per cent lacked adequate changing facilities.
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