Schools will receive guidance on transgender pupils by Christmas, but it could be spring before the rules come into force.
Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, pledged to release the guidance before the end of the year after schools said they were crying out for help on how to deal with a growing number of children questioning their gender.
But even if it reaches teachers before December 25, Ms Keegan has said it will be subject to a “long consultation” before it is finalised.
During a visit to an artificial intelligence consultancy firm in London on Tuesday, she said: “We will get it out before Christmas. And then we’ll have a long consultation because I don’t want teachers to spend their Christmas worrying about it as much as I’ve spent most of the year worried about it.”
The standard timeframe for a Government consultation is 12 weeks. This would mean the guidance - which is expected to tell schools that they can stop children entering opposite-sex toilets and prevent them from joining opposite-sex sports teams - would not reach classrooms until early March.
The Government has been promising guidance on trans pupils since 2018.
MPs have warned that without official guidance, schools have been forced to seek advice from third-party providers, which have arguably promoted radical gender ideology in classrooms.
