Safeguarding should protect vulnerable children – new guidance on Trans children does the opposite, writes Natasha Devon

Within the document, there are extensive details mandating what schools’ policies should be on the treatment of trans and gender questioning pupils.

One LGBT charity leader I spoke to described the guidance as ‘incredibly trans exclusionary’, telling me they believed it would lead to higher numbers of trans children self-excluding (currently 34% skip school because they are being bullied or the environment is otherwise hostile, according to the charity Brook). More broadly, campaigners have compared it to Thatcher’s ‘Section 28’, calling it an attempt to erase trans young people from school environments.

The guidance says trans children must not be allowed to use toilets and changing rooms which align with their chosen gender without exception. Single lockable toilet cubicles in schools must open onto a corridor or ‘other circulation space’, presumably so staff can monitor who is using which toilet. It also says that where sports are split by gender, pupils must participate based on their assigned sex at birth.

It states that primary children should be supported to transition socially very rarely. At secondary level, it assumes there would be a negative impact on the rest of the student body if a pupil socially transitions and says this should be taken into account. It states that ‘gender critical’ beliefs in both students and teachers must be respected.

There is one small concession to the safety and privacy of trans and gender questioning children - teachers don’t necessarily have to tell parents if a pupil wants to have a conversation about their gender but does not want to socially transition. Where the child wishes to change their pronouns, name or the way they dress, it is strongly recommended that parents be informed, unless there is a substantial concern that the child would endure violence at home as a result.

Officially, around 1% of 16-24 year olds identify as trans. However, according to Ipsos polling, around 9% will question their gender. This would suggest that the majority of conversations teachers will have with pupils on this topic won’t lead to a process of social transitioning and it is only in this instance that the guidance states there is no need to inform parents.

Predictably, much of the response from the newspapers zoned in on this and became pearl-clutchingly hysterical about it. The Telegraph published the headline ‘teachers won’t have to tell parents if child wants to change gender’, which was wildly misleading for the reasons above.

Furthermore, there are very good reasons why a teacher might take the view that involving parents might do more harm than good. Transphobia is rife within the general population. 85% of trans women report facing street harassment from strangers. Research published in the National Institutes for Health shows trans youth are around twice as likely to experience physical abuse at home (39%) and almost three-quarters say they experience emotional or psychological abuse.

These statistics illustrate why we need to be very careful to provide safe and confidential spaces for young people to explore their feelings around gender. Tragically, not every child comes from a loving, accepting environment where this could be done at home.

Every day in schools across the country, teachers are trusted to take a view on the best course of action for a child’s safety. That is what safeguarding means. This guidance gives school staff a small bit of wiggle room when it comes to the incredibly fraught issue of gender identity. Frankly, it’s the very least the DfE could do.

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