Our spokeswoman, Tanya Carter, was invited on to GB News today to talk about the ‘trans toolkit’ which was the subject of legal action by parents in Rhondda Cynon Taff.
You can watch the full interview here:
Carter was asked whether she thought that children at primary and secondary school should be able to change their gender without their parents’ permission.
“We don’t think that anything should be done without involving the parents” she said. “It needs to be fully explored why the child is feeling like this.” There are questions that should be asked: “What have they been looking at online? Have they been the subject of bullying? Have they been subject to homophobia, have they internalised homophobic viewpoints?”
She made the point that it is important to involve parents, because a key premise of safeguarding is that no one person will have a full picture of everything that is going on in a child’s life.
Carter also pointed out that guidance such as that in use by Rhondda Cynon Taff was based on a misinterpretation of the Equality Act. There are nine protected characteristics, and to prioritise the characteristic of ‘gender reassignment’ over others was simplistic and unhelpful. “Putting a boy in a girls’ PE class – the girls weren’t consulted.” She pointed out that girls have the protected characteristic of sex. “Consulting with one political lobby group is causing a lot of problems” she said.
Carter explained that these lobby groups have no expertise in child development, and yet have undue influence on the creation of school policies in this area, leading to alarming omissions in safeguarding practices.
Safe Schools Alliance have recently released an Advice Note on schools socially transitioning children without parents’ knowledge or consent, due to the large number of parents who contact us to ask about this issue.
For more information about the safeguarding problems with Rhondda Cynon Taff’s ‘trans toolkit’ you can read Tanya Carter’s guest post on the Merched Cymru website.
Thank goodness for this organisation, stepping in and challenging schools when they are failing in their safeguarding. School’s have no right to keep issues a secret from parents. Even a GP will break confidentiality if there are child safeguarding issues!