Trans toilet crackdown in schools

Schools will be told to ban children who change their gender from using toilets and changing rooms of the opposite sex following a new Government crackdown.

The guidance which emphasises current legislation stating that separate lavatories must be provided for boys and girls aged eight years and over.

New rules, which are due next month, are expected to highlight exemptions in the Equality Act which allow schools to provide “same-sex services” if they are “objectively justifiable”.

According to a report by Policy Exchange, a conservative think tank, at least 28 per cent of schools were not maintaining single-sex lavatories and 19 per cent did not have single-sex changing rooms.

The advice is expected to say that children who wish to change their gender can be provided with alternative facilities where appropriate.

Laws already permits unisex bathrooms as long as they can be “secured from the inside” and used by only one pupil at a time.

Schools are also likely to be told to inform parents if their child wants to change gender, unless there are serious safeguarding issues.

In addition, teachers are to be warned that allowing children to change their names and pronouns can have a marked psychological impact.

Some schools have been calling for guidance on trans issues, however new rules to provide single-sex facilities and separate provisions for those changing their gender identity could add extra pressure on those struggling with budgets.

Schools across Britain have introduced unisex toilets with cubicles featuring a sink and a floor-to-ceiling door that opens onto a corridor, rather than communal areas without supervision.

However, some pupils launched protests over toilet rules earlier this year and one mother said her daughter, at a school in Coventry, was left with a gashed forehead after a schoolboy kicked open the cubicle door in unisex lavatories while she was inside.