This week, the DfE published new statutory guidance for schools on safeguarding which will come into force on 1 September.

Listen to this article

Within the document, there are extensive details mandating what schools’ policies should be on the treatment of trans and gender questioning pupils.

One LGBT charity leader I spoke to described the guidance as ‘incredibly trans exclusionary’, telling me they believed it would lead to higher numbers of trans children self-excluding (currently 34% skip school because they are being bullied or the environment is otherwise hostile, according to the charity Brook). More broadly, campaigners have compared it to Thatcher’s ‘Section 28’, calling it an attempt to erase trans young people from school environments.

The guidance says trans children must not be allowed to use toilets and changing rooms which align with their chosen gender without exception. Single lockable toilet cubicles in schools must open onto a corridor or ‘other circulation........

© LBC