Will the government's draft guidance on gender questioning children help schools and colleges navigate this contentious issue?

The government says it has been ‘informed’ by the response to the public consultation on the draft non-statutory Gender questioning children: guidance for schools and colleges which ran from December 2023 until March 2024. That response has not been published although the policy paper does provide an overview of answers to some of the questions.

Social transition is a safeguarding issue

The government has decided to treat this as a safeguarding issue and will add this guidance to the statutory guidance: Keeping Children Safe in Education. 

KCSIE applies to all schools and colleges and explains the legal duties they must follow to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18 years old. 

Relevance of the Cass Review

The guidance references the Cass Review which said that socially transitioning children is not a neutral act and that school/college policies dealing with this should be in line with the evidence set out in that report (you can read our overview here). The draft guidance suggests this means that schools and colleges should: 

• exercise caution and take clinical advice before supporting pre-pubertal children to socially transition; and
• involve parents in the decision making.

In terms of adolescents, Cass noted that they often go through a period of gender non-conformity in terms of their hairstyles, make-up, clothing and behaviours and exploring these concepts is normal.

Policies relating to social transition

The draft guidance says that schools and colleges should consider whether to put in place policies explaining how they will approach requests to socially transition a child. The government doesn't explain what it means by social transition (unlike the previous draft guidance which did), although it clearly has in mind requests to change pronouns, names or uniform - as those are specifically mentioned. 

It's advice is to “consider what is in the best interests of the child” and balance this against your safeguarding duties and obligations under the Equality Act and Human Rights Act.

This is not particularly helpful and schools and colleges will need to obtain specialist legal advice to ensure their policies are legally correct. 

Single sex facilities

The guidance is, however, clear that schools must not allow: 

• children over the age of 8 to access toilets designated for the opposite biological sex
• children over the age of 11 to access changing rooms designated for the opposite biological sex, or
• allow children to share boarding or overnight accommodation with those of the opposite sex.

Colleges should follow the same principles.

It advises schools and colleges to “look to provide suitable alternatives for children who do not want to use the facilities designated for their biological sex” without compromising the provision of single-sex facilities. But, again it doesn't explain what schools and colleges should do if it can't do this. That's particularly disappointing given that 51% of respondents to the first consultation asked for more information about the options open to them if they couldn't provide alternatives. 

Participating in sport and RE

The guidance says that where sports need to played in single-sex groups from a “certain age” (which it doesn't elaborate on) to ensure children's safety, there should be no exceptions. Gender questionning children must play in the groups aligned to their biological sex. This is likely to apply to rugby, football, cricket and other contact sports.

The guidance is much less clear when the issue is one of fairness rather than safety. It suggests that “schools and colleges should untake a balanced consideration of the request taking into account the full range of factors including fairness”. 

It's clear that fairness is one factor, but there's no clarity about what other factors you have to consider. It's disappointing that the government hasn't elaborated on this given that only 11% of respondents to the original consultation felt that teachers were well placed to take decisions about inclusion in opposite sex sports on a case by case basis. 

Schools and colleges should look to the Equality Act 2010 to understand what this means. It includes an exception to the general non-discrimination principle for  “gender-affected activities” which are defined as a sport, game or other activity of a competitive nature "in circumstances in which the physical strength, stamina or physique of average persons of one sex would put them at a disadvantage compared to average persons of the other sex as competitors in events involving the activity”. 

It goes on to say that “in considering whether a sport, game or other activity is gender-affected in relation to children, it is appropriate to take account of the age and stage of development of children who are likely to be competitors”.

Under these provisions, schools and colleges should look at the “average” physical strength etc of children of each sex to determine whether to strictly segregate them by sex to ensure fair competition and the safety of competitors.  

Single sex schools

The School admissions code is clear that single-sex schools are lawfully permitted to discriminate on the grounds of sex in their admission arrangements.

Is the government consulting on this guidance?

Yes. The consultation will last 10 weeks and closes on 22 April 2026. It forms part of a wider consultation on KCSIE.

You can respond here.

Comment

Many schools and colleges will be disappointed that the draft guidance doesn't provide any helpful guidance to help them navigate contentious issues such as social transitioning, pronouns, or fairness in sport. It advocates a cautious approach for primary aged children, but doesn't say very much about adolescents who may be experimenting with their identity. 

These remain very difficult questions that schools and colleges are ill equipped to deal with, particularly where children wishing to socially transition have wider vulnerabilities, including complex mental health and psychosocial needs, and in some cases additional diagnoses of autism or ADHD.

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