Parents must be informed if their child identifies as transgender at school, the Education Secretary has said.
Nadhim Zahawi told the Education Select Committee that “parents have to be front and centre” when children are making drastic decisions about their futures.
He was responding to Miriam Cates MP after she raised safeguarding concerns over parents being cut out by schools.
According to a recent YouGov poll, only five per cent of teachers would proactively inform parents if their child is presenting as transgender.
Cates said this had serious implications for safeguarding and introduces “adult ideologies and ideas” to children at too young an age.
She went on to warn that impressionable young children “are being told by adults they trust that if they do not conform to certain gender norms then they may be the opposite sex”.
The Education Secretary told the Committee that teachers “have a duty to safeguard those children” and that “parents are very much part of that”.
Parents have to be front and centre
Committee member Dr Caroline Johnson MP had raised parents’ concern over biological male students being able to gain access to areas where “teenage girls are in a state of undress”.
Zahawi said his Department was looking at providing ‘clear guidance’ to address such issues in conjunction with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
In 2018, the EHRC was set to publish ‘Trans pupils: guidance for schools’, but postponed it before scrapping it completely in 2021.
At the time, the EHRC spokesman said it “would not be in the best interests of young people” and “may not provide schools with the clarity we hoped”.
There are good things that can be taught under the new arrangements but unfortunately the changes also provide an opportunity for campaign groups opposed to Christian teaching to push forward their controversial agendas in schools.
In September 2020, the Government released further guidance for schools
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