‘Not long to wait’ for transgender guidance for schools, Hinds says
The guidance for consultation had originally been promised by the summer.
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Your support makes all the difference.Schools will not have “long now to wait” for draft guidance on transgender issues but a minister refused to say whether it would be out before the Christmas break.
The long-awaited guidance for schools in England had previously been planned for the summer but schools minister Damian Hinds said it was important to take time on the issue.
“It is a complicated subject. It’s a delicate subject, a sensitive subject,” he said.
“It’s really, really important to get it right.”
He told Times Radio: “What we’re going to be doing, just to manage expectations, this is consulting on a draft of the guidance because a lot of people will want to comment on that and feed into it.”
Pressed on whether the draft guidance would be produced before schools break up for Christmas he said: “You are not going to have long now to wait.”
On LBC Radio Mr Hinds said “very many thousands of people” were expected to respond to the consultation before a final version of the guidance is produced.
We will listen to teachers, to parents, to children, to everybody to make sure that the guidance that's there is the most practical and most helpful
He added: “Even when this guidance is out there won’t be a single answer that fits every single case. These are complicated circumstances, there’s a lot of different aspects.
“That is why it’s taking some time. Of course, we would all have liked for things to have been able to move as quickly as possible but it is important we get this right.
“We will listen to teachers, to parents, to children, to everybody to make sure that the guidance that’s there is the most practical and most helpful.”
Last week Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said the document would “hopefully” be out before Christmas.
But there would then be a long consultation on the “gender-questioning” guidance to ensure all views are heard.