The Government has issued updated guidance to headteachers on how to deal with gender-questioning pupils.
The updated guidance had been due in 2018 (Image: Getty)
Labour have relaxed rules governing gender in schools, meaning that in very rare cases, children will be able to socially transition. The new advice around children questioning their gender has been included in an update to existing statutory guidance for schools on how to keep children safe.
The guidance had been expected to be delivered in 2018, with the gap in between leaving headteachers to navigate a complex and emotive subject independently. The update advises that schools should consider avoiding “rigid rules based on gender stereotypes”. Schools and colleges should take time to understand the feelings of children questioning their gender, and be aware of “potential vulnerabilities” such as them facing bullying or needing mental health support.
The guidance stresses that parents and carers have the leading role in the lives of their children, and this area should be no exception.
Phillipson said the guidance would give ‘pragmatic support for teachers’ (Image: Getty)
If a child or their parent makes a request for them to socially transition, schools should take a “careful approach”, the guidance says, discussing it with families and taking account of any clinical advice that may have been received.
The move comes following the Cass Review and last year’s Supreme Court ruling on biological sex.
The DfE said the new guidance was informed by the recommendations of the Cass Review and responses to a consultation on draft guidance for gender-questioning children held under the former Conservative government.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the new guidance would deliver “pragmatic support for teachers, reassurance for parents, and above all, the safety and wellbeing of children and young people”.
However the move has been criticised by opposition parties, with Tory education spokesman Laura Trott claiming the new guidance “opens the door” to young children transitioning.
Tory education spokesman Laura Trott told the Daily Mail: “Primary school children should not be navigating changes in pronouns at all. But shockingly Labour’s guidance opens the door to children as young as four being referred to in a way that does not reflect their biological sex.”
Dr Hilary Cass said: “The updated guidance is practical and reflects the recommendations of my review, giving schools much-needed clarity on their legal duties so they can support children with confidence.”
The draft guidance published under the Conservatives said primary school children should not be using different pronouns to their biological sex, and schools could decline requests from older children to change their pronouns.
The new draft guidance does not include this.
The guidance maintains instruction on the use of bathrooms and changing rooms (Image: Getty)
However schools must not let pupils into facilities designated for the opposite biological sex even if they are gender questioning, the Department for Education (DfE) has said.
They added that if a child does not want to use toilets or changing rooms for their designated biological sex, schools should consider whether they can provide an alternative.
Schools must maintain single-sex spaces and some sports, the Government has said, including separate toilet facilities for boys and girls over the age of eight.
“In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in the number of children who are questioning the way they feel about being a boy or a girl, including the physical attributes of their sex and the related ways in which they fit into society,” the draft Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance reads.
“It is not for schools and colleges to initiate any action in this area; this guidance is focused on circumstances where a child or their parent has raised a request relating to social transition to which a school or college is responding.”
A Labour source told PA News Agency: “Opposition parties who praised Dr Cass’s initial research to the hilt cannot now oppose schools guidance which she supports. They cannot pick and choose. They either back the evidence or they don’t.
“We will never use gender-questioning children as a political football as the Tories did so despicably.”
