Where sex matters | Schools and safeguarding
Schools and safeguarding
Replacing “sex” with “gender identity” undermines safeguarding.

Being able to talk clearly and honestly about sex, in policies and procedures, and between individuals and agencies, is critical to informed consent, to identifying risk and to preventing harm.
Basic rules to reduce risk take sex into account. For example, single-sex spaces for changing and washing in schools and sports venues, and legislation on overcrowding which states that children over the age of 10 should not have to share a bedroom with members of the opposite sex.
Safeguarding is the responsibility of all agencies working with children, young people and their families, or with vulnerable adults, to:
take all reasonable measures to ensure that the risks of harm to their welfare are minimised, and where there are concerns, take appropriate actions to address those concerns.
There are six core principles of safeguarding:
- Empowerment: ensuring people are supported and confident in making their own decisions and giving informed consent.
- Protection: providing support and representation for those in greatest need – this requires identifying risk.
- Prevention: working to stop abuse before it happens by raising awareness, training staff and encouraging individuals to ask for help.
- Proportionality: ensuring that services take each person into account, respecting each individual and assessing risks.
- Partnerships: giving organisations the opportunity to work together, as well as with the local community.
- Accountability: safeguarding is everyone’s business and accountability makes sure that everyone plays their part. Everyone is accountable for their actions as individuals, services and organisations.
A person’s sex can be a risk factor in abuse, particularly sexual abuse, both for perpetrators and people at risk of harm. Put bluntly, statistically female pupils are most at risk of being subjected to sexual abuse and males – whether pupils or staff – present a larger risk as perpetrators.
At the most basic level, the risk of becoming pregnant depends on sex not gender identity. Research evidence in the UK on the prevalence of child sexual abuse finds higher levels among girls than boys. However, boys may face particular challenges when reporting abuse. Perpetrators of sexual abuse and child abuse are predominantly men.
What is the problem?
Many institutions with safeguarding responsibilities are adopting policies that replace “sex” with “gender”, and set rules which require staff and young people to ignore, or make it taboo to talk about, a person’s actual sex if they prefer to be referred to as the opposite sex. This conflicts with safeguarding legislation and principles.
Some schools are adopting policies which allow children to use opposite-sex changing and toilet facilities based on the idea of gender identity. If a child has gender dysphoria or identifies as transgender, schools are told by lobby groups to treat this with absolute confidentiality — including not informing parents. This directly contradicts basic information-sharing safeguarding principles.
Staff and parents raising safeguarding concerns are dismissed as transphobic or pressured to use language that erases risk. Safeguarding systems cannot work where people are not able to speak clearly about risks.
Updates
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What can parents do about gender ideology in schools?
At Sex Matters, we often hear from parents concerned about what their child is being told at school about gender identity. They may hear about lessons in which sex is described as fluid, changeable or a spectrum, or in which gender stereotypes are presented as defining whether someone is...
10th March 2023
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Sex Matters at the Education for Women’s Liberation conference
UCL Women’s Liberation SIG and WPUK Saturday 4th February 9am to 10pm Institute of Education UCL, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL Come and see us at the Women’s Liberation 2023 conference! Visit the Sex Matters stall Pick up petition cards and postcards for Sex Matters campaigns. Meet Maya, Helen and...
2nd February 2023
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What guidance from the Department for Education needs to say
As a survey commissioned by Sex Matters and carried out by YouGov last year showed, there has been a huge increase in the number of school pupils identifying as trans or non-binary, alongside huge disagreement about how best to manage this. The one thing that schools agree about is...
13th January 2023
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Clarify the Equality Act: sign the petition
The Equality Act 2010 protects everyone’s rights and covers everything from schools to hospitals, pubs to sports, and everybody’s workplace. It includes protection against sex-discrimination, and allows single-sex services. But on 13th December a judge in Scotland pronounced that Equality Act does not recognise biological sex as a protected...
16th December 2022
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Our response to the NHS interim service specification consultation
The NHS’s public consultation regarding the interim service specification for youth gender services ends on 4th December. We would encourage people to respond, including parents, teachers, school leaders and clinicians. We have published our full response. Sex Matters joins Transgender Trend and the Gay Men’s Network in welcoming the broad direction...
29th November 2022
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Trans rights are human rights!
Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation. We believe that universal human rights form a powerful framework for thinking about how a diversity of freedoms can be respected, while protecting against harm and maintaining an open and prosperous society. It is sometimes argued that those who call for clarity on...
9th November 2022
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Sex Matters welcomes headteachers’ guidance
Sex Matters offers a qualified welcome to the new Guidance for maintained schools and academies in England on provision for transgender pupils published by the Association of School and College Leaders, Chartered College of Teaching, Confederation of School Trusts (CST), Institute of School Business Leadership, National Association of Head...
7th November 2022
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We call for a “Cass Review for Education”
Sex Matters together with Bayswater Support Group, Fair Play For Women, LGB Alliance, Safe Schools Alliance and Transgender Trend have written to the new Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, to draw her attention to the problem of gender ideology being promoted in schools. We ask her to:...
1st November 2022
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Don’t water down the schools guidance – a plea from a 14-year-old girl
“Cynthia”, 14, writes… I recently read in The Times that Ministers were seeking a “compromise” concerning the Department for Education’s long-awaited transgender schools’ guidance and, as a 14-year-old-girl in secondary school, to say I am furious is an understatement. It is absolutely vital that we – teenage girls who...
19th October 2022
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Teenagers and gender identity
A trickle of teenagers, and especially girls, identifying out of their sex has become a torrent in recent years. Our new publication, part one of a series of three, is aimed at the parents of those teenagers. The authors, Matilda Gosling and Stella O’Malley, combine research expertise with practical professional...
10th October 2022
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The Attorney General clarifies the law on single-sex services
On 10th August 2022 the Attorney General Suella Braverman gave a speech at the think-tank Policy Exchange. She noted that both public and private bodies are struggling to understand their obligations in relation to single-sex services and the protected characteristics of sex and gender reassignment. Her speech aimed to...
26th August 2022
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What Hilary Cass needs to tell schools: social transition is incompatible with safeguarding
On 28th July Dr Hilary Cass, the eminent paediatrician commissioned by the government to review paediatric gender-identity provision in the NHS, made an announcement that vindicated everyone who has criticised that provision, often at considerable personal cost. The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), England’s sole NHS clinic for under-18s...
29th July 2022
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Why do single-sex services matter?
In February 2022 Sex Matters undertook a survey to find out why single-sex services matter to people. The response was astonishing. In a little over a week we received over 7,000 replies, nine out of ten of them from women. Many included details about how the loss of everyday...
19th July 2022
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Sex Matters response to “More in Common”
More in Common is an organisation that seeks to “build societies and communities that are “stronger, more united, and more resilient to the increasing threats of polarisation and social division”. Perhaps as a response to this challenge from Maya Forstater, it has applied its approach to the gender wars....
16th June 2022
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Sex self-ID in Scotland and transgender unemployment
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 was an extraordinary piece of legislation intended for an extraordinary group of people. It was passed to allow people who had transitioned under medical supervision to change the legal sex recorded on their birth certificate “for all purposes”. Now the Scottish Government is...
14th June 2022
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Is the Attorney General wrong about the law, or is Stonewall?
The Department for Education is developing new guidance for schools on how to accommodate children who identify as transgender. Attorney General Suella Braverman gave an interview which suggests that the guidance will be based on the principle that children who identify as transgender have not changed sex, and therefore...
29th May 2022
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Attorney General clarifies the law for schools
In an interview with the Times, Suella Braverman said schools should treat children according to their sex, not their self-identified gender. Sex Matters welcomes Braverman’s comments, which align with Sex Matters’ guidance. The Department for Education is currently drawing up new guidance for schools. Braverman said: “Under-18s cannot get a...
27th May 2022
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Is Scotland going to turn the UK into an identity-laundering haven?
As part of Sex Matters’ response to the Scottish Parliament consultation on GRA reform we raised security concerns. This has been reported in the Telegraph and the Times, and Maya Forstater had a Thunderer piece in the Times. Identity matters The involvement of the state with an individual’s identity...
18th May 2022
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What is behind the campaign to ban conversion therapy?
The campaign to ban “conversion therapy” has come out of nowhere, to suddenly dominate the priorities of organisations such as Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence, Mermaids, GIRES and the LGBT Foundation. There have been protests and petitions, and these groups pulled out of a planned international conference on human rights when...
4th May 2022
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Send our new guidance to a school you know
Schools are calling out for clear guidance on sex and gender to answer questions such as what should they do when they face demands to socially transition children or to keep the secrets of a child who identifies as trans.
25th April 2022
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Girlguiding settles gender-critical case
Girlguiding UK has released a statement saying it has settled its legal case with Katie Alcock. Katie Alcock and fellow guide leader Helen Watts were expelled from Girlguiding after an investigation into their social-media activity when they raised safeguarding concerns about Girlguiding’s policy of admitting male children and adults...
19th April 2022
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Most secondary schools now have trans-identified pupils: Sex Matters’ new survey
Anyone who interacts with young people will surely have noticed that trans identities are becoming more common – and varied. To get a measure of scale of this social shift, Sex Matters commissioned YouGov to poll secondary-school teachers about their experience of trans-identifying pupils. The findings provide the first...
11th April 2022
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Independent counsel agrees with our guidance for schools
Last year Sex Matters, together with Transgender Trend, produced guidance for schools. The Good Law Project recently published legal advice by Dan Squires QC. His conclusions support much of our guidance, although he disagrees with us on one important point – how simple and straightforward it should be to...
1st March 2022
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It’s not too late to talk to your MP!
Sex Matters supporters have been speaking to their MPs about the proposed legislation on conversion therapy. Their reports from face-to-face and telephone meetings highlight the need for a proper review of the proposals. Supporters who have managed to speak to their MPs tell us that some have been surprised...
2nd February 2022
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Clear rules and girls’ schools
Why the Girls' Day School Trust's single-sex policy is lawful and important.
11th January 2022
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Whose schools guidance is in line with the Equality Act?
Joint post with Transgender Trend (it’s long; make yourself a cup of tea). You can also download it as a pdf. Boys and Girls and the Equality Act In May 2021 Sex Matters and Transgender Trend published the first edition of our Schools Guidance: Boys and Girls and the...
18th December 2021
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Press pause on conversion therapy law
The Government is consulting on its proposal to introduce a new law banning “conversion therapy”. They are aiming to introduce a Bill to parliament in time to celebrate this as an achievement at their “Safe To Be Me: Global Equality Conference” in June 2022. They are therefore undertaking a...
14th November 2021
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Government launches conversion therapy consultation: Sex Matters’ response
A rushed six-week consultation has been launched, with the claim that this will stop under 18 year olds making irreversible decisions. But will the threat of criminal penalties be used to pressurise parents and therapists who don't take an affirmation approach to gender identity?
28th October 2021
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Pronouns at work
You often ask us what you should do when a workplace asks you to ‘state your pronouns’, in your email signature or during introductions in meetings. We explain the laws surrounding the issue and what to do if this new ritual makes you uncomfortable.
19th October 2021
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Truth and reconciliation
How should the public sector leave the Stonewall Champions Scheme?
6th June 2021
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Time to #LeaveStonewall
This is the letter we have sent to the CEOs of the 850 organisations that are members of the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme. Re: Leaving the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme We are writing to call on you to withdraw from the scheme, both for the sake of your own...
29th May 2021
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Guidance for Schools
Sex Matters and Transgender Trend have developed new guidance for schools.
8th May 2021
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Toilets – a place where sex matters
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is undertaking a technical review on increasing accessibility and provision of toilets for men and women. We submitted a 60 page briefing . The submission is long, because the issue of who can use which toilets has become overly complicated and...
19th February 2021
Other resources
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Gender critical author HELEN JOYCE accuses her son’s prestigious sixth form of risking safety by allowing trans pupils to use girls’ toilets and play for female teams
Helen Joyce for Mail Online
Government regulations say that schools must avoid indoctrination. Helen Joyce claims how her son's sixth form college in Cambridge fell short. -
DBS checks and identity verification: safeguarding loopholes created by changes of identity
An analysis by Keep Prisons Single Sex of the exceptional privacy rights given to those who change their gender as well as their identity.
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Schools left to write own transgender rules “behind parents’ backs”
Louisa Clarence-Smith for The Telegraph Sex Matters board member Rebecca Bull is quoted in this article. Headteachers will continue to decide whether to tell guardians about a child changing their identity.
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Evidence-Based Social Work Alliance (EBSWA)
Coalition of practitioners, academics and students in the field of social work. Formed as a response to concerns about the impact of gender-identity theory in their field. Argues that social workers’ legal responsibilities to safeguard children are being put at risk by the lack of an evidence base for...
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Thoughtful Therapists
Founded in 2021, a group of psychotherapists and counsellors who campaign to raise awareness of the negative impact of gender ideology on mental-health services, in particular for children with gender dysphoria. Work has focused on government proposals to ban “gender-identity conversion therapy” and on the “Memorandum of Understanding on...
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Women’s Rights Network
Combined grassroots groups of women who oppose sex self-ID. Supports local, in-person networking. Has topic-related groups (such as sports, prisons, schools) that create resources, including videos and podcasts and social-media posts, and coordinate national campaigns. Was a core member of the “Respect My Sex” campaign before the local elections...
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Separate and single-sex service providers: a guide on the Equality Act sex and gender reassignment exceptions
Advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, released on 4th April 2022. Read our statement about it.
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Banning conversion therapy: a response from the Bayswater Support Group
The UK’s largest support group run by and for parents of children, adolescents and young adults who identify as transgender responds to the government consultation.
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Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges
The Department of Education’s advice for governing bodies, proprietors, headteachers, principals, senior leadership teams and designated safeguarding leads.
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Genspect
International alliance founded in 2021 by parents and clinicians seeking a rational approach to gender issues. Has expanded to include detransitioners, desisters and people unhappy with their own transition, as well as other professionals such as educators and journalists. Creates resources on gender issues and seeks a better approach...
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Safe Schools Alliance
Focuses on children, specifically on safeguarding and the correct interpretation of the Equality Act. A group made up of parents and professionals that produces resources to support parents who seek to challenge harmful school materials and policies that prioritise sex self-ID over the privacy, safety and dignity of all...
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Stonewall schools guidance: a critical review
Transgender Trend reviews all ten Stonewall schools guides from 2015 to 2020.
Publications
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Sex and gender identity: keep your pupils safe and comply with the law – guidance for schools in Wales
Our schools guidance, produced together with Transgender Trend, has been revised for schools in Wales. It draws on guidance from the Welsh Government, relevant legislation from the UK government, the interim report of the Cass Review, EHRC guidance, and others. The model policy is now available...
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Sex and gender in schools: what government guidance needs to say
Sex Matters analyses what the Department for Education’s guidance should say, and sets out ten principles against which it should be judged.
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Sex and gender: model policy for schools
First published as part of our guidance for schools, this model policy is now in an unbranded Word document to make it easier to adapt for your school.
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Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill and the UK
This paper, prepared by Sex Matters, considers whether the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (GRR Bill) is within the competence of the Scottish Parliament, examines the bill’s potential adverse effects and sets out considerations for a challenge under Section 33 or Section 35 of the Scotland Act.
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The need for a joined-up approach to children with gender dysphoria
Sex Matters’ response to NHS England’s interim service specification. We call on the NHS, the DfE, Ofsted and the EHRC to develop a shared conception of what are reasonable requests for social accommodation, based on a common understanding of the Equality Act and on safeguarding.
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Why Sex Matters is calling for clarification of the Equality Act 2010
Sex Matters has launched a petition calling on the government to clarify that in the Equality Act 2010, “sex” means biological sex, and is not modified by the Gender Recognition Act 2004. This would protect the rights of people of both sexes, as well as people who identify as...
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Why sex matters for human rights – our organisational framework
Sex Matters’ mission is to promote clarity on sex in law and policy in order to protect everybody’s human rights. This document sets out the key human rights that are relevant, and why and how our work is guided by the promotion of human rights. (Also see our short guide...
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Letter to Gillian Keegan
We wrote to Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education, calling for a “Cass Review” for schools.
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Why single-sex services matter: privacy, dignity, safety and choice (full report)
Full report (133 pages): see also 30-minute read and key findings. Over the past few years many single-sex services and spaces have been changed to mixed sex, but few of the people who use them have been asked how they feel about this. Our report amplifies those voices.
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Why single-sex services matter: privacy, dignity, safety and choice (key findings)
Key findings: see also full report (133 pages) and 30-minute read. Over the past few years many single-sex services and spaces have been changed to mixed sex, but few of the people who use them have been asked how they feel about this. Our report amplifies those voices.
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Why single-sex services matter: privacy, dignity, safety and choice (30-minute read)
30-minute read: see also full report (133 pages) and key findings. Over the past few years many single-sex services and spaces have been changed to mixed sex, but few of the people who use them have been asked how they feel about this. Our report amplifies those voices.
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Groups defending sex-based rights
Overview of groups opposing sex self-ID in the UK, set up by individuals and collectives concerned by the failure of established third-sector organisations to defend women’s sex-based rights, child safeguarding and evidence-based policymaking. Also listed on our website.
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Why ban talking therapy?
How a campaign to criminalise the most effective treatment for gender-distressed children made it from the margins to the mainstream: we look at the history of conversion therapy.
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Sex and gender identity: keep your pupils safe and comply with the law – guidance for schools in England
This revision of our May 2021 guidance, produced together with Transgender Trend, draws on the interim report of the Cass Review, recent legal cases on freedom of belief, the EHRC’s new guidance on single-sex services, and a YouGov survey of teachers. Republished with links updated, 23rd February 2023 The
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Clear rules and girls’ schools
Why is the Girls’ Day School Trust’s new policy important and what are the implications for other charities and regulators in protecting human rights?
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Conversion therapy position paper
A new law seeks to remove medical gatekeeping by making doctors afraid of disagreeing with a patient’s self-declared gender identity. We ask the government instead to press Pause.
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Summary of the Sex Matters guide to pronouns at work
A two-page summary of our guide to what you can and can’t be asked to do.
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The Sex Matters guide to: Pronouns at work
Our briefing for employers and employees thinking about workplace rules and policies – and what is and isn’t legal.
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Leadership starts with the law – briefing for universities on the Reindorf Report
For universities, student unions and service providers reviewing their policies and considering issues of academic freedom.
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Boys and Girls and the Equality Act – guidance for schools (England and Wales)
This guidance has now been updated – see our new guidance published in April 2022.
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Boys and Girls and the Equality Act – guidance for schools (Scotland)
With Transgender Trend – advice on avoiding unlawful discrimination on issues around sex and gender reassignment. We will be updating the guidance for Scotland soon: until then you may want to refer to our new guidance for schools in England, published in April 2022.
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Gender Recognition Act reform – evidence submission
We answer the Women and Equalities Select Committee‘s questions and make six recommendations.