Dear Secretary of State,

I listened to your recent appearance on LBC’s Call The Cabinet with Nick Ferrari, and I want to write to you in the spirit of genuine support rather than criticism. Gender in schools is a topic that deserves more clarity than it tends to get in a live radio interview, and I believe I can help you with that.

I am Dr Helen Webberley, a gender specialist and medical educator with more than thirty years of experience in medicine. Much of that time has been spent working with transgender children, young people, and their families. I know this territory well, and I know how much it matters to get it right.

Start with what we know

Transgender adults exist. That is not in dispute. Every transgender adult was once a child. That means transgender children exist too, and they are sitting in classrooms right now, in primary schools and secondary schools across this country.

Once we accept that, the path forward becomes much clearer. We do not need two different approaches, one for children who are exploring their gender and another for children who are transgender. We need one approach: see the child in front of you, hear what they are telling you, and support them as an individual. That is what good teaching already looks like, and it is also what the law already requires.

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The law is already clear

The Equality Act 2010 says that we cannot treat a child less favourably because of a protected characteristic. Gender reassignment is one of those characteristics, and it applies to children in schools.

Think of it this way. No school would call a child by the wrong name. No teacher would deliberately use the wrong pronouns. No policy would send a child to facilities that do not match who they are. We would recognise all of that as unkind and wrong. The Equality Act means that standard applies equally to transgender children. Not as a special rule for a special group, but as the same basic dignity that every child in every school has a right to expect.

The draft school guidance needs to say this clearly. Teachers deserve to know that supporting a transgender child is not only the right thing to do but also the legally correct one.

On boys and dresses

During the interview, Nick Ferrari asked whether a five-year-old boy could decide to wear a dress. I want to gently suggest that this question has a simpler answer than the debate around it implies.

For most of human history, it would not have been a question at all. Boys wore skirted garments as standard childhood dress for centuries. Shakespeare wrote tenderly about his own memory of being a small boy dressed before the age of breeching. The idea that distinctly gendered clothing for young children is somehow natural or traditional is, in fact, a product of the nineteenth century, shaped by things like the rise of Muscular Christianity and anxieties about national military strength after wars in Prussia and South Africa. It was ideology that changed what children wore, not nature.

A child who wants to wear a dress is exploring the world, which is what children do. There is no safeguarding concern in that. There is no policy problem in that. The anxiety that surrounds the question belongs to adults, and it should not be the thing that shapes guidance affecting children’s lives.

One approach, not two

Some children will be exploring their gender and working out who they are. Some will already know clearly and have known for some time. Rather than trying to work out which category a child belongs to before deciding how to treat them, schools simply need to listen to the individual child in front of them and respond with care.

The child who is exploring needs space, warmth, and freedom from pressure in any direction. The child who is transgender needs to be seen and supported as they are. Both of these things can be offered within a single, child-centred framework, and good guidance will give teachers the confidence to provide that support without fear.

Hearing parents, protecting children

When other parents have concerns or anxieties, those should be heard. They are often genuine, even when they come from unfamiliarity rather than evidence of harm, and schools can usually find practical ways to accommodate them.

There is one limit, though, and it is an important one. Another parent’s concerns cannot come at the cost of a transgender child’s dignity or safety. If a parent objects to their child being in school with a transgender child, that parent can be heard and offered alternatives where those are feasible. What cannot happen is that the transgender child is the one who is asked to hide, or to be treated differently, or to feel unwelcome. They are someone’s child too.

The Cass Review was about NHS services, not schools

You cited the Cass Review during the interview as supporting the current approach in schools. I want to offer some important context here, because it matters for how it is used.

The Cass Review was commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement to make recommendations about NHS healthcare services for children experiencing gender incongruence. That was its specific brief. It was never about schools. It was never about education. It was not commissioned to advise teachers or to provide a framework for school guidance. Its terms of reference confirm this clearly.

Dr Cass herself has said she does not hold specialist expertise in gender medicine, and the review has attracted serious criticism from major international medical associations. Using it as the primary basis for school guidance means building policy on something that was never designed for that purpose. There are better sources to draw on, and they point in a clearer direction.

What the evidence says

The NSPCC, whose expertise in safeguarding is beyond question, is clear that understanding identity, including gender identity, is a normal and important part of growing up, and that young people need support and empowerment through that process, not restriction or surveillance.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health states in its Standards of Care that social support, sometimes called social transition, can help children understand and explore their gender as they grow up, and that this is endorsed by major medical associations. Social transition is not a medical intervention. It does not require a referral, a prescription, or any clinical involvement. It simply means being called by a name that fits, being addressed with the right pronouns, and being seen as who you are. The evidence for its benefit to children’s mental health is clear and consistent.

A note on parental involvement and safety

You spoke during the interview about the importance of involving parents, and in most cases I agree with you completely. Families are usually the greatest advocates a child has, and working with parents is almost always the right approach.

There is one important exception that the guidance must acknowledge. For some transgender children, telling their parents is not safe. There are families where that information is met with rejection or harm. A policy that requires schools to notify parents without any consideration of the individual child’s safety is not a safeguarding policy in those situations. It is a risk. Real safeguarding means listening to the child and understanding what is safe for this particular person, not applying a blanket rule that could put the most vulnerable children in greater danger.

What teachers need from you

The teachers I know are not asking for political guidance on gender. They are asking for something much simpler: clarity and confidence. They want to know that when they listen to a child, use the name that child has asked for, and treat them with respect, they are doing the right thing. They want to know the law is on their side and that they will not be penalised for treating every child with equal dignity.

Guidance that creates doubt leaves the most vulnerable children depending on the goodwill of individuals rather than the protection of clear, consistent policy. Teachers deserve better than that. The children they care for deserve better than that.

An offer

I am writing this letter because I believe you want to do right by children, and because I think I can help. The legal framework is already there. The evidence is already there. The guidance that schools need is within reach.

I would very much welcome the opportunity to speak with you or your team, and I make that offer openly and genuinely. The children in our schools need to feel safe and to know that the adults around them are on their side. With the right guidance, every teacher in every school can offer them that.

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Yours sincerely,

Dr Helen Webberley

Gender Specialist and Medical Educator

www.helenwebberley.com

References

Equality Act 2010, Section 7: Gender Reassignment

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 (statutory guidance)

Cass Review Terms of Reference

NSPCC: Young people, challenges around sexuality and gender identity (March 2024)

WPATH Standards of Care v8 FAQs

Why Boys Stopped Wearing Dresses: Historical Clothing

A mother wrote to me recently, heartbroken. Her ten-year-old transgender daughter had been told, just two weeks before departure, that she could not go on her school trip. The reason given was that she could not share a room with her friends because of new legislation. Her daughter was inconsolable. And her mother wanted to know: how can this happen? What can I do?

I want to answer that question as clearly and as helpfully as I can, because this family is not alone. Schools across the country are making decisions like this one right now, often in good faith but on the basis of a misunderstanding of what the law actually requires. So let me set out what the law says, what the current guidance actually is, and what any parent in this situation can do.

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The Law Has Not Changed

The Equality Act 2010 is the piece of legislation that governs this. Under Section 7 of that Act, gender reassignment is a protected characteristic. That means a child who is transgender, or who is in the process of transitioning, is protected by law from discrimination at school.

Section 85 of the same Act makes it explicitly unlawful for schools to discriminate against a pupil on the basis of a protected characteristic in the way they provide education and related activities. School trips are school activities. Excluding a child from a trip, or placing conditions on their participation that prevent them from going, on the basis of their transgender identity, is direct discrimination. It is unlawful. That has not changed.

The UK Supreme Court ruling in April 2025 has been widely misreported and misunderstood. What that ruling did was address the meaning of the word ‘sex’ in certain specific provisions of the Equality Act. What it did not do is remove or reduce the protection afforded by gender reassignment as a separate protected characteristic. Trans children still have full legal protection from discrimination. That protection remains in place today.

The Guidance in Circulation Right Now Is Draft Guidance Only

Schools have been receiving communications about transgender pupils, and some are acting on them as though they are law. They are not. The government guidance currently in circulation in early 2026 has not been finalised. It has not gone through full statutory consultation. It is draft guidance, and draft guidance does not override primary legislation.

No school is legally required to follow draft guidance. More importantly, if a school follows draft guidance in a way that causes discrimination against a child with a protected characteristic, the school, not the government, carries the legal risk for that decision. This is something governing bodies and headteachers need to understand clearly, because they are the ones who are liable if a complaint is made.

The Question Nobody Is Asking: Was There a Consultation?

When a school decides that a transgender child cannot share a room on a trip, the question I always want to ask is: was there a consultation? Were all families told, before any individual decision was made, that children on this trip would be sharing accommodation across a wide range of backgrounds, abilities, religions, races, sexualities, stages of gender reassignment and other characteristics, and invited to raise any concerns?

Because that is the equitable way to handle this. A general communication to all parents, noting that shared accommodation will involve children from across the school community, and offering families with specific concerns the opportunity to discuss alternative arrangements, would be transparent, fair, and legally sound. It would also mean that any adjustment made was about the child or family who raised the concern, rather than about the transgender child being singled out and removed.

The principle here is simple. If any child feels uncomfortable sharing a room with another child, it is that child who should be offered an alternative. The transgender child should not be the one excluded from the trip. Inclusion is the default. Exclusion requires a much higher threshold, and it requires individual justification, not a blanket policy applied to one group.

What You Can Do Right Now

If your child is in this situation, or if you know a family whose child is, there is something practical and immediate you can do. I have written a template letter that any parent can use, addressed to the headteacher, setting out the legal position clearly, asking the school to identify the specific document it is relying on, and requesting an urgent review of the decision.

Letter To School The Equality Act

105KB ∙ PDF file

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Download

Template Letter Requesting Reasoning In Writing

73.7KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

The letter is available to download. Fill in your child’s details, the name of the school, and the relevant dates, and send it as soon as possible. Ask for a written response within 48 hours given any imminent departure date. Keep copies of everything.

If the school does not respond constructively, the next steps are the Local Authority Inclusion Team, the school’s governing body, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who have a free advice line. Organisations such as Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence also offer support to families navigating exactly this kind of situation.

A Note to Schools

If you are a teacher, a pastoral lead, a SENCO, or a headteacher reading this, I want to say something directly to you. I know that many of you are doing your best in a confusing landscape. Guidance is changing, communications are arriving from multiple directions, and you are trying to balance competing pressures while keeping children safe.

Please take legal advice before acting on any guidance that would result in a child being excluded from a school activity. Please consider whether the decision you are making is proportionate. Please ask whether you have consulted with the child’s family before reaching that decision. A transgender child in your school is a child in your care, and they deserve the same opportunities as every other child you teach.

Download the letter template and share this article with anyone who needs it.

If this has been helpful, please share it. Other families are facing this right now, and the more people who understand what the law actually says, the better placed we all are to protect these children.

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Dr Helen Webberley | Gender Specialist and Medical Educator

The conversation everyone is getting wrong

If you are reading this, you probably hold some form of responsibility for the delivery of healthcare services, and you are almost certainly aware that the question of single-sex spaces has become one of the most heated topics in your world right now. Wards, toilets, changing facilities, waiting areas. The debate is everywhere, and I suspect you are feeling the pressure from multiple directions.

I want to talk to you about this because I think the conversation is being framed in entirely the wrong way, and I think that framing is leading to decisions that harm trans people without actually making anyone else safer.

The false choice

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You care. I know you do.

If you are reading this, you probably consider yourself a good person. You believe in fairness and equality. You think trans people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. You might even have trans friends, or family members, or colleagues. You care. I know you do.

So this letter is not going to be comfortable, because I need to ask you something. Where are you? When the conversation turns to trans rights at a dinner party, do you speak up or do you change the subject? When someone shares something hateful on social media, do you challenge it or scroll past? When a policy is being debated that will directly affect the lives of trans people, do you make your voice heard?

The cost of your silence

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You think nobody notices

This letter is different from the others in this series. The others were written with warmth, with an outstretched hand, with the hope that understanding might lead to change. This one is different because I do not think you are interested in understanding. I think you know exactly what you are doing.

You are the person in the pub who nudges your mate when a trans person walks in. You are the one who smirks, who whispers, who makes sure everyone at the table sees you looking. You think you are being subtle. You think nobody notices. You are wrong. They notice. They always notice.

The damage you do

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The document they are searching for

If you are reading this, you are probably someone who manages people, runs a team, leads an organisation, or works in HR. I want to tell you something that might surprise you. If you have a trans employee, or a trans applicant, or someone in your organisation who is thinking about coming out, the first thing they will do is look at your policies. They will search your intranet, your handbook, your website, looking for the words that tell them whether they are safe.

What they find, or do not find, will shape their entire experience of working for you. That is why getting your policies right is not just an HR exercise. It is an act of care.

Say it clearly

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They chose you

If you are reading this, someone you care about has recently come out as trans, and you want to support them. Maybe they told you over coffee, or in a text message, or maybe you found out through someone else. However it happened, you are here because you care and you want to get this right.

That instinct, the wanting to get it right, is everything. Hold on to it. Because the truth is, most of what your friend needs from you is not complicated. It does not require you to read a textbook or become an expert. It just requires you to keep showing up.

Nothing has changed (and everything has)

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Correcting a mistake

If you are reading this, you sit on the panel that decides whether a trans person is granted legal recognition of their gender. You read through bundles of paperwork, medical reports, statutory declarations, and evidence of living in their acquired gender, and you make a decision. Approved or denied.

I want to ask you to think about what you are actually doing when you make that decision, because I think the framing of this process has gone badly wrong. You are not granting someone an identity. You are not giving them permission to be who they are. You are correcting an administrative error. When a baby is born, their sex is recorded based on a visual assessment of their body. For most people, that record is accurate. For trans people, it is not. That is all a Gender Recognition Certificate does. It corrects a mistake.

It is not their fault

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Your decisions travel further than you think

If you are reading this, you are someone with the power to shape lives through the decisions you make. Whether you sit in a family court, an employment tribunal, a criminal court, or any other setting where justice is meant to be served, the judgments you hand down affect real people in real and lasting ways. They also set precedents. They create the case law that other judges will look to when making their own decisions. What you decide today will ripple through courtrooms for years to come.

I want to talk to you specifically about decisions involving trans people, because I am concerned that some of the evidence and argumentation reaching you is not what it appears to be.

The evidence landscape has been contaminated

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The conversation you did not expect

If you are reading this, you are probably the parent of a trans child or young person who is at school, and you are trying to work out how to make that experience as safe and positive as it can possibly be. Maybe your child has already come out at school and things are going well. Maybe they have not come out yet and you are trying to figure out the right time and the right way. Maybe things have gone badly and you are picking up the pieces.

I have worked with hundreds of families navigating exactly this situation, and I want to share what I have learned about helping your child thrive at school, because it is possible, even when the system makes it harder than it should be.

Start with the school, not the system

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I know you quite well

If you are reading this, you work for or sit on the board of one of the professional regulators that oversee healthcare in this country. The General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Health and Care Professions Council. You hold enormous power over how healthcare is delivered, and I need to talk to you about how you are using that power when it comes to trans people.

I know you quite well. I spent six years as the subject of a GMC investigation that ultimately found in my favour on almost every count, and in that time I learned a great deal about how regulators operate. I also learned a great deal about what happens when regulators fail to lead.

I know you are scared

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They are watching you

If you are reading this, there is probably a child in your class, or in your school, who is trans or who is questioning their gender. Maybe they have told you directly. Maybe their parents have been in touch. Maybe you have just noticed something, a quietness, a withdrawal, a child who does not seem quite at ease in their own skin.

I want to talk to you because I think teachers are some of the most important people in a trans young person’s life, and I do not think you always realise how much power you hold. Not power in a scary way, but power in the most beautiful way. The power to be their champion.

What they will remember

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I know how busy you are. I know that your morning surgery is already overbooked, that your inbox is full of blood results and discharge letters, and that the last thing you need is another unfamiliar request landing on your desk. I’ve been there. I spent years as a GP myself, and I remember that feeling of a letter arriving from a specialist asking me to do something I wasn’t entirely sure about.

So when a letter arrives asking you to prescribe hormones for a trans patient as part of a shared care arrangement, I completely understand why your first instinct might be to hesitate. You might feel that this is outside your area of expertise. You might worry about the risks. You might have heard things in the media that have made you nervous about getting involved in this area of medicine at all.

I want you to know that those feelings are valid, and I’m not writing this letter to make you feel bad about any of them. I’m writing because I think if you understood a few things differently, you’d feel a lot more confident about saying yes.

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What you might have been told…

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