The government is aiming to publish draft transgender guidance for schools “later in the spring”, the education secretary has said.
In a letter to the chair of the cross-party Commons Education Select Committee, Gillian Keegan said the Department for Education was “currently finalising” a draft set of guidelines for consultation.
This will then be followed by final guidance later this year, she added.
In the letter to Robin Walker, published yesterday, Ms Keegan wrote: “I appreciate the demand for this guidance is significant. However, this is such a complex and sensitive area. I am sure you will understand that it is incredibly important that we take the time to get the guidance right.
“As the permanent secretary, Susan Acland-Hood, said before the committee last December, the department intends to publish a draft of the guidance as part of a full public consultation, to which any member of the public can respond, prior to publication of the final guidance later this year.”
‘Urgent’ need for transgender guidance
She added that the DfE is “currently finalising” the draft and its “aim is to publish the consultation document alongside the draft guidance later in the spring.”
The government has previously denied “foot-dragging” over publication of the guidance, after the equalities watchdog warned this guidance must not “stay out in the ether” for years on end.
And Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman warned last November that schools needed the guidance “urgently”.
A group of education and school leader organisations previously produced their own advice for maintained schools and academies in England on the provision for transgender pupils.
This guidance was jointly produced to help schools deal with sensitive issues such as gender-neutral toilets and changing provision, in the absence of official government advice, by the Association of School and College Leaders, the NAHT school leaders’ union, the National Governance Association, the Institute of School Business Leadership, the Chartered College of Teaching and the Confederation of School Trusts.
