Education Secretary told trans guidance delay puts children 'at risk'

Bridget Phillipson was last night warned her failure to publish long-delayed trans guidance for schools is putting children and teachers 'at risk'.

In a letter to the schools' watchdog Ofsted, shadow education secretary Laura Trott said there was no excuse for further delay in releasing guidance which has been sat on Ms Phillipson's desk for 17 months.

Ms Trott said the continuing delays were leaving schools in limbo, resulting in children, teachers and parents facing a 'patchwork' of different rules across the country.

'Such inconsistency places children at risk and leaves staff exposed to legal and professional uncertainty,' she said.

Guidance for schools on dealing with gender questioning children was drawn up under the last Conservative government but did not come into force before the election.

The Education Secretary has been under growing pressure to publish it since April when the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) released new guidance on the protection of single sex spaces in April.

At the time, Ms Phillipson told MPs that guidance for schools would be published this year, but government sources acknowledged the deadline would now be missed.

Ms Trott said that schools, colleges and children's homes were facing 'immense pressure… to socially transition children, irrespective of parental wishes, with obvious risks of long-term psychological harm to the children involved, many of whom might otherwise desist in due course'.

She added: 'Some schools have already made changes, including adapting facilities or recording new gender identities and names without parental knowledge or consistent, transparent risk assessment. Others have taken opposing approaches, leading to a patchwork of practice across the country.'

Downing Street has defended the delay, saying Ms Phillipson is dealing with a 'complex area' and is determined to 'take the time to get it right'.

But critics have accused her of deliberately dragging her heels.

Ms Trott has now asked Ofsted to acknowledge the 'safeguarding implications' of the continued lack of clear guidance and 'underline that single sex spaces are paramount to the safety of young people at school, as they are in wider society.'

Ms Phillipson, who is the designated Cabinet minister in charge of equalities issues, is also facing renewed calls to approve the EHRC's wider guidance on single sex spaces, which followed a Supreme Court ruling in April that a woman is defined in law by her biological sex.

The guidance will be used by businesses and public sector bodies to inform their provision of single and separate-sex services such as toilets and changing rooms. Failure to bring in the guidance means that many organisations have yet to implement the court's ruling, which would bar biological males from using women-only facilities.

The EHRC's new chief Mary-Ann Stephenson hinted at frustration with the continuing delay yesterday, saying that the guidance was already 'legally sound'.

She told the Press Association: 'We've made the draft, and we think that it's legally sound on the basis of extensive legal advice, and we provided it to Government.

'Government obviously has to assure themselves that they're confident that it's legally sound, and they're doing that, and we're really happy to provide them with any evidence that they need in order to do that.

'We're waiting to hear back from them about their views on the guidance.'

Ministers have publicly welcomed the Supreme Court ruling for bringing 'clarity' to an area which has previously left Keir Starmer and others struggling to define what a woman is.

But Ms Phillipson has been accused of blocking its release. Reports last month claimed she had described the proposed guidance as 'trans-exclusive' in a submission to the High Court.

The Conservatives accused her of a 'betrayal of women and girls'.

But government sources denied she was blocking the guidance, saying she needed more time to ensure the 'incredibly complicated' issues were legally watertight.