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Official guidance on single-sex spaces does not meet basic tests to assure “legal certainty” for schools, a teachers’ union has warned.

The government’s guidance on single-sex spaces comes into force today for a range of organisations and services, including schools.

From September, schools must provide separate toilets for girls and boys aged 8 and over, and separate changing rooms for those aged 11 and over.

However, the NASUWT teaching union has voiced concerns about a lack of “meaningful practical help” for schools in addressing issues raised by , which is published by Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Few schools have mixed-gender toilets

Matt Wrack, NASUWT general secretary, said: “The guidance for schools does not meet our basic tests of assuring legal certainty for schools and supporting teachers and schools with meaningful practical help in addressing issues where they continue to ask for clear advice.”

The guidance - which applies in England, Scotland and Wales - states that if a child does not want to use the toilet designated for their biological sex, schools should consider whether they can “provide an alternative toilet facility without compromising the provision of single-sex facilities”.

In Teacher Tapp polling from 2023, 63 per cent of primary teachers and 55 per cent of secondary teachers with a door between the corridor and cubicles.

Completely mixed-gender toilets are fairly uncommon, with just one in four schools having at least one set, according to the findings.

Guidance ‘undermines’ ethical and professional duties

Mr Wrack said he is also worried about the ability of school staff to meet their ethical and professional duties if they follow the guidance.

The government has embedded statutory gender-questioning guidance within the document Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), which sets out that single-sex spaces must be protected.

In KCSIE, the Department for Education says that teachers should respond to social transition requests with “caution”, and engage with parents or carers as a “priority” if a child who is questioning their gender asks for support.

Mr Wrack warned today: “We are further concerned that the guidance in its current form undermines the ability of staff in schools to meet their fundamental ethical and professional duty to act in the best interests of every child, including trans, intersex and gender-questioning children.”

Late KCSIE release ‘not good enough’

The NASUWT leader added that “the short notice given to schools to implement this guidance only compounds these difficulties, as does the lack of training for school staff and access to external sources of support and expertise”.

This year’s annual update to KCSIE was not published until July, leaving schools in what was described by one headteacher as “impossible situation” because they have to apply the crucial safeguarding guidance from September.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, told ����Vlog today that schools had needed the KCSIE update in “sufficient time to prepare properly, and it is extremely disappointing that the final version arrived so late”.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, echoed that view.

“It really is not good enough that school leaders have been given so little time to digest this information and prepare staff for the new academic year,” he said.

“For an area as vitally important as child safety, we have got to do better.”

Meanwhile, Mr Wrack said that KCSIE “creates an apparent tension between what it appears to advise schools to do in respect of their treatment of trans, intersex and gender-questioning children and their other legal obligations around safeguarding, the Equality Act, the Public Sector Equality Duty, the Teachers’ Standards and UK General Data Protection Regulation”.

He added: “If schools follow the KCSIE guidance on trans, intersex and gender-questioning children, we are concerned they may be in breach of these other obligations and vice versa.

“Schools want to act in legally compliant ways and it has not been made clear to them how they can do this.”

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