Teachers ‘abandoned’ by DfE on trans issues

Teachers who want their schools to uphold the reality of biological sex are being put under pressure to keep quiet, a senior Minister has said.

Teaching staff have complained that schools prevent them from following the Government’s legal advice in the absence of clear guidance from the Department for Education (DfE).

The senior Minister told The Mail on Sunday that teachers who “want to do more to push the stop button when they see children questioning their gender”, feel that they are “being abandoned”.

Negligent

Last year, the then Attorney General, Suella Braverman said that schools which affirm gender-confused children in their transgender identity may be breaking the law and could face sanctions.

Braverman made it clear at the time that teachers were not obligated to affirm children who questioned their gender.

She added that: “Teachers who socially transition a child without the knowledge or consent of parents or without medical advice increase their exposure to a negligence claim for breach of their duty of care to that child.”

A spokesman for Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has said new guidance will be issued later this year.

Fearful

Campaign group Safe Schools Alliance said the Department’s delay meant that many schools were damaging children by affirming their gender confusion.

A spokesperson said: “We get many emails from teachers who are also struggling and are fearful for their jobs if they complain.”

Parent group Transgender Trend added: “We needed this guidance years ago. Without clear guidance, you’ve got trans activists dictating policy in schools.”

Scotland

In Scotland, guidance which backs children as young as four ‘changing sex’ in school and allows parents to be kept in the dark, has been available to teachers since 2021.

It advises schools to encourage teachers to affirm a child who wishes to ‘change gender’, not to inform parents if their child began identifying as transgender, and to inform local authorities of parents who ‘struggle’ with their child’s transgender identity.