We have responded to the Department for Education’s consultation on the Draft Guidance for Schools and Colleges: Gender Questioning Children. However, we think this draft guidance and consultation is too little, too late, and is an example of the government’s failure to understand the extent of the medical, safeguarding, and lobbying scandal we currently face.
We believe both the government and opposition have failed in their duty of care to the most vulnerable – children.
We strongly believe a public inquiry is needed to restore effective safeguarding for all children. We need to understand how so many adults in positions of trust have neither understood nor discharged their safeguarding responsibilities.
The DfE consultation and draft guidance is a complete abdication of responsibility; it is a sticking plaster on a severed limb.
We are dealing with the widespread infiltration and failure of our safeguarding frameworks.
A public inquiry must look at the infiltration of the civil service, the Department for Education, Keeping Children Safe In Education, teaching unions, and the NSPCC. It also needs to address the outsourcing of RSHE resources to activists with no understanding of child development and safeguarding, and the abject failure to protect children in the online world.
This is a watershed moment. Before we can begin to move forward we need to understand how and why we have failed children so badly and to expose the harm that has been caused to children and their families.
We need to honestly examine how various ‘rights’ legislation such as the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, 2010 Equality Act, 2012 Protection of Freedoms Act and 2018 Data Protection Act intersect with, and in some cases undermine, the effective safeguarding of children. Honest conversations need to be had about whether chilling effects on effective safeguarding, particularly safer recruitment, are unintended consequences or were deliberate.
Until the results of such an inquiry, there must be a moratorium on the social transition of children, the teaching of ‘gender identity’ in schools, and the use of any RSE/PSHE materials that are not publicly available for parents to have full access to.
Safer recruitment must be properly understood and embedded, not only amongst those working directly with children in any capacity but also amongst those working on policy, materials, or legislation that affects children.
Following the conclusion of the inquiry there must be widespread training on the findings and legislation to ensure that safeguarding is always the primary legislation and is never again undermined.
In the meantime, all politicians must remember that there will be a General Election this year. All political parties have a shameful record on child safeguarding, particularly around the current scandal of schools being infiltrated to indoctrinate children with harmful gender identity ideology. All campaign candidates must expect to be asked about their own record on safeguarding, what they plan to do about RSE, indoctrination in schools, the medical scandal of puberty blockers, and the ongoing attacks on childhood via a ‘rights’ agenda.
We are ready and willing to be consulted by any political party who wants to engage with us on the important topic of protecting children. Members of the public are increasingly aware of the current failures to safeguard children and candidates should expect to be asked about this on the campaign trail, including by those undecided who to vote for.
Notes for Editors:
Well spoken, but who among our useless politicians will do anything about it? I note that even Reform UK have remained silent about this scandal.