Guidance from the Scottish Care Inspectorate advising that boys in care who identify as girls should be allowed to sleep in the same bedroom as children of the opposite sex has been branded “dangerous”.
Following a Scottish Mail On Sunday exposé of the Inspectorate’s guidance on ‘trans’ inclusion for young people’s care services, women’s groups have publicly criticised the watchdog.
The guidance has emerged as Sandie Peggie pursues legal redress from NHS Fife, after the trust disciplined her for objecting to the presence of a man who purports to be a woman in a staff changing room.
Trans ideology
Scotland’s care watchdog recommends that “a transgender young person should not be made to use the toilet or bedroom of their sex assigned at birth”.
Instead, it states that if gender-confused boys or girls want “to share a room with other young people who share their gender identity, they should be able to do so as long as the rights of, and risks to, all those involved are considered and respected”.
In the document, the Inspectorate claims the “provision of gendered facilities such as toilets is social convention. There is no law in Scotland about this”.
Women’s groups are united in branding the guidance a ‘dangerous and terrifying failure’.
‘Wilful negligence’
Cathy Larkman, national policing lead for the Women’s Rights Network, said those involved “aren’t fit for their role”. She posted on X: “It’s wilful and dangerous negligence towards vulnerable girls.”
Helen Joyce, Director of Advocacy for women’s group Sex Matters, called the guidance “a terrifying failure of the state’s duty to protect some of Scotland’s most vulnerable young people”.
Susan Smith of For Women Scotland contested the Inspectorate’s claim that there is no law on the provision of ‘gendered facilities’ and urged the regulator to “stop deliberately putting children at risk”.
A Care Inspectorate spokesman stated: “It is for care services to decide on the appropriate provision of facilities to meet the individual needs, rights and wishes of those experiencing care.”
Tribunal
Mrs Peggie, a nurse with 30 years’ experience, was reprimanded, investigated, and suspended for objecting to sharing NHS Fife’s female changing rooms with Dr Upton, a man who identifies as a woman.
NHS Fife’s HR department – in the name of ‘inclusivity’ and respecting someone’s self-declared gender identity – defended the right of the male-bodied doctor to be present while Mrs Peggie and other female members of staff changed for work.
In May 2024, she brought an action before an employment tribunal against NHS Fife and Dr Upton for sexual harassment and for discrimination over her recognition of biological reality.
The first phase of the hearing in the case concluded in February and is set to resume in July.
Legal obligations
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) wrote to the Scottish Government following media coverage of policies and practices relating to single-sex changing facilities at NHS Fife and pending NHS Scotland guidance on ‘transitioning’.
The EHRC reminded Health Secretary Neil Gray of its role in enforcing Equality Act compliance across Britain in relation to the provision of single-sex services and spaces.
It also told the Minister that it had written to NHS Fife to highlight its obligations under the 2010 Act “specifically in relation to the protection of individuals from discrimination and harassment on the basis of protected characteristics, including sex, religion or belief and gender reassignment”.
The letter has been seen as a rebuke to the Trust for failing to provide single-sex changing rooms.
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