Survey asks children as young as 13 when they first had sex | The Telegraph

The Telegraph quotes Safe Schools Alliance in its report on a Welsh government-backed survey into children’s experiences with sex.

This is an excellent article exposing the Welsh Government’s misuse of £1,137,584 of public money on a poorly designed survey. When dealing with children a safeguarding-first approach must be used. This did not happen here.

There were so many things wrong with this survey that the Telegraph article was unable to cover them all. They ranged from the merely incompetent or ridiculous to questions that are damaging and triggering for vulnerable children. This box-ticking approach to inclusion is simply unacceptable.

Primary school children are asked how they identify but not for their biological sex. This renders the data worthless, is evidence of the extent of ideological capture and is dangerous and confusing for young children

Despite the survey starting with some virtue-signalling statements about how children identify, there is no acknowledgement of the reality of some children’s families. The children of lesbian parents in our supporter’s network would not know how to answer this question. This is not inclusive.

The worst part of this survey is serious child protection issues being presented as neutral or even desirable scenarios. This is a failure of safeguarding, a failure of quality control, a failure of ethics and a complete dereliction of duty.

The entire thing is appallingly written and bizarre, conflates different issues and will result in no usable data or in any benefit to disadvantaged children.

We have previously written about ideological capture within the Welsh government which undermines safeguarding. We noted that the proposed RSE guidance for the Welsh curriculum did not cover the age of consent, safeguarding or disclosure, and promoted the contested concept of gender identity.

It appears that issues which affect girls and boys because of their sex are no longer properly understood by the Welsh government. The publication of this new schools survey does little to alleviate our concerns.

If you would like to read the full article it is available on the Safe Schools Alliance Facebook page.