Report: ‘Schools still heavily influenced by gender ideology’

Child safety and wellbeing continues to be compromised in English schools by transgender ideology, a new study has revealed.

An investigation by Policy Exchange found that some secondary schools are still “heavily influenced by gender ideology” and failing gender-confused children and their peers.

The think tank’s report ‘Still Asleep at the Wheel’ is based on 173 responses to Freedom of Information requests sent to a random selection of secondary schools. It is a follow-up to a similar investigation carried out by Policy Exchange in 2023.

Evidence

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 are improvements from 2023, when 60 per cent of schools had no single-sex toilets, and 49 per cent lacked adequate changing facilities.

Information received from schools indicated that almost a quarter continue to “require other children to adopt a transitioning child’s new name and pronouns”.  Again, however, this is scaled back significantly on the 69 per cent of schools reporting a similar policy in 2023.

Welfare failings

In her foreword to the report, former Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Baroness Falkner of Margravine noted that, “despite some improvements, too many schools continue to implement policies that place ideology over evidence”.

She added: “This is simply not acceptable in a system responsible for the welfare of children.”

The authors of the report, Policy Exchange Director of Research Iain Mansfield and Spectator Commissioning Editor Lara Brown, called on the Government to publish the equality watchdog’s finalised Code of Practice on single-sex spaces.

Its absence, they argued, “has prolonged uncertainty in how schools interpret their legal obligations. Its publication is essential to restoring coherence”.

They also recommended that ‘Keeping children safe in education’ draft guidance should be amended, reinstating an explicit “watchful waiting approach” to social transition in school and requiring “explicit parental consent for any substantive intervention”.