Letter to Rt Hon Gillian Keegan

This letter was sent by Lizzie Harewood, ACT’s Executive Officer, on behalf of ACT to the newly appointed Secretary of State for Education

Dear Secretary of State

RE: Gender identity in schools

I write to you on behalf of the Association of Christian Teachers, a membership organisation for Christian teachers, leaders, support staff, governors and others who want the very best for children and young people.

Firstly, may I congratulate you on your new position. ACT looks forward to supporting you as you work to ensure that children and young people can achieve their true potential, both at school and in life.

The reason for writing is that our members are deeply concerned by the lack of clarity and the resulting danger to children and themselves with regard to how schools and staff are expected to act on matters of gender identity.

ACT represents many educational professionals who hold to orthodox Biblical teaching on matters of sex and gender. Our members firmly believe that schools should be places where children are safe and can trust in their teachers to be clear, compassionate and focussed on their best interests.  However, the various and often conflicting ways in which schools are directing them to respond to the increasing number of children who are identifying as transgender, or who suffer with gender dysphoria, is destabilising both the protection we are able to give to such children and the professional integrity of teachers.

In August, the then Attorney General Suella Braverman told think tank Policy Exchange that schools which affirm gender-confused children in their transgender identity without the knowledge or consent of parents or without medical advice may increase their exposure to a negligence claim for breach of their duty of care to that child.

Contrary to that warning, however, many schools are now instructing staff to affirm children, without medical evidence or parental knowledge, in whichever gender they choose.

Where there is either conflicting guidance or no clear guidance at all from the relevant authorities, these episodes expose the confusion and disorder present within schools, and in turn run the very real risk of escalating young people’s anxieties in greater and greater numbers towards a public health crisis.

The Department for Education’s statutory guidance on Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022, explicitly states that “[all] staff have responsibility to provide a safe environment in which children can learn.”  As an association, along with other educators who may not share our Christian faith, we feel that the current lack of clarity and confusion is having a detrimental impact on our ability to safeguard children. Our members are often afraid to say anything to children on the matter, thereby effectively being forced to withhold support, or are being coerced into compromising their conscience by providing affirmation which they believe could cause children serious long-term harm.  

For this reason, we are calling for immediate clarification and guidance on the law on Equality in schools. As a matter of urgency, we also ask for more specific guidance about how to discuss gender identity within schools, and how to respond to students suffering with gender confusion. We respectfully ask the DfE for clarification on whether schools must require teachers to refer to a child by their preferred pronoun or alternate name, irrespective of their biological sex, and how staff are protected if in conscience they believe they would be lying by referring to a child by an alternate name or pronouns.

It is the DfE’s duty to ensure the education system is not acting at variance with medical advice. For this reason, we ask that guidance for schools is provided which is consistent with the NHS’s new proposed evidence-based approach,[1] (October ’22), which recognises the Interim Cass Report recommendations, which

i)     recommends “a watchful approach” rather than adopting a child’s preferred pronouns or allowing them to socially transition

ii)   warns that the use of new names and pronouns may have “significant effects on the child or young person in terms of psychological functioning” and

iii) observes that “in most cases gender incongruence does not persist into adolescence”.

The absence of authoritative guidance from government leaves the field open for highly questionable guidance from organisations with very particular perspectives, acting to further their own viewpoint. If schools really are to be places of safety, trust, and clarity for young impressionable minds, and free from bias and discrimination for all, we believe that urgent action is required to make the position on the above points clear, and to correct the current confusion.

For all of these reasons, not least the urgency of the situation, we look forward to your response and action on these matters as soon as possible.

[1] B1937iiSpecialistserviceforchildrenandyoungpeoplewithgenderdysphoria.pdf (england.nhs.uk)