Report: Children Allowed to Self-Declare Gender Without Parental Consent in Nearly Half of Secondary Schools

A report has found nearly half of the secondary schools in England permit children to self-identify as their preferred gender without parental consent.

Research conducted by the Policy Exchange think tank has revealed children as young as 11-years-old are being allowed to self-declare their own gender in government-run secondary schools in England.

The report, which is based on Freedom of Information requests to over 300 secondary schools, also found just 28 percent of schools always inform parents if their child is confused about their gender. In addition, over 30 percent of schools surveyed do not inform the Designated Safeguarding Lead — who is tasked with the protection of students — when a child is seeking to change their gender.

Policy Exchange said schools are more frequently adopting an affirmational approach in such situations “meaning secondary schools are effectively facilitating medical interventions on site.”

The report went on to note 28 percent of schools do not provide their students with single-sex toilets and 19 percent do not even offer single-sex changing rooms.

Schools are also inserting radical gender theories into course curriculum, with 72 percent of schools surveyed currently teaching that people can identify with a different gender than their biological sex. One quarter of schools are also teaching that children “may be born in the wrong body”.

Responding to the report, former Tory Education Secretary Nadhim Zawahi said: “Safeguarding principles are foundational to the functioning of a responsible society, and there is absolutely no reason why schools should ever compromise these principles.

“Children deserve to explore the ways they feel about themselves and the world in ways which do not harm them. Every issue concerning children should be viewed through a safeguarding lens, and there is no reason why gender distress should be any different.”

Even former Labour Party Education Secretary under former PM Tony Blair, Baroness Morris raised the dangers posed the far-left ideology gripping the nation’s education system, saying that the report “demonstrates the incompatibility between current practice for gender distressed children and well-established and universally accepted safeguarding principles,” adding: “We cannot compromise child wellbeing in favour of gender identity beliefs.”

The Department of Education had promised last year — under then-Secretary Zawahi — to release guidance to schools on issues surrounding gender. However, in light of the political turmoil that ensued, seeing both Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss kicked out of office in the meantime, the government has yet to complete such guidance.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said this week following the publication of the Policy Exchange report he is “very concerned” about schools not informing parents about their children questioning their gender. Sunak said it is crucial that parents “know what’s going on” and that therefore his government will release updated guidance by “the summer term”.

In a foreword to the report, Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who has received widespread backlash from the left for breaking with her party to defend women’s rights, said: “This Government has failed children by allowing partisan beliefs to become entrenched within the education system. Meanwhile, the Opposition has failed to pull them up on it.”

Duffield said “thousands of children are being harmed” as a result of the failure of leadership, which has left room for “the radical beliefs being pushed by campaigners” to take over.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka