Transgender issues in schools have been excluded from the Department for Education’s revised safeguarding guidance for the autumn term.
MPs and campaigners have raised concerns that updated guidance published this week contains no reference to the dangers of schools allowing pupils to switch gender without informing parents, nor of the risks of teaching contested gender ideology.
Tracy Shaw, of Safe Schools Alliance, said: “It is deeply disappointing that the new safeguarding framework, which schools and other educators rely on to keep children safe, has not been updated to include advice on how to deal with children experiencing gender incongruence.”
Research by Policy Exchange published in March found that schools are neglecting to safeguard by affirming pupils’ preferred pronouns without informing parents.
Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, and Women and Kemi Badenoch, the Equalities Minister, are jointly overseeing a draft of detailed guidance on how schools should respond to pupils questioning their gender. The Government has pledged to publish a draft for consultation before the end of the summer term.
Miriam Cates, a Conservative MP on the Commons Education Select Committee, said: “The Department for Education keeps assuring us that [trans] guidance is coming, but given that this is one of the most significant safeguarding issues right now, it does seem remiss of them not to even mention it in the [safeguarding] document.”
