The UK Government's final 2026 Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance came into force in England on 1 September 2026. A coalition of organisations, including ILGA-Europe, TGEU, IGLYO, OII Europe, The Kite Trust, Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, TransActual, and equalities advocate Saba Ali, has published a joint statement expressing serious concern. I share that concern, and I want to be plain about why.

What the guidance actually says

The guidance was released in its final form on 7 July 2026. The coalition had already flagged serious problems with the draft earlier in the year, raising concerns about equality law, data protection, confidentiality, and human rights. The final version retains most of those problems. On the key provisions that affect trans, non-binary, and intersex children, almost nothing changed.

The guidance frames gender identity and social transition primarily as safeguarding concerns. Schools are told they must not allow pupils into toilets, changing rooms, or boarding and residential accommodation designated for the "opposite sex", with no exceptions. The same restrictive language applies to sports. Schools are strongly encouraged to involve parents when a child asks for support with social transition, including around pronouns, presentation, and access to facilities. The guidance does not provide adequate safeguards to ensure that disclosure is lawful, necessary, proportionate, or in the child's best interests.

Those are not cautious, careful provisions, but blanket rules that treat a child's identity as the problem to be managed rather than a dimension of who the child is.

What it omits, and what that costs

Good safeguarding guidance is built around a simple principle: protect children from harm. The harms facing trans, non-binary, and intersex children at school are well documented. They include bullying, humiliation, social exclusion, and the kind of low-level daily indignity that accumulates into serious damage. Children who do not feel safe using school toilets avoid them. That is not a metaphor for discomfort; it is a physical health risk, and it is already happening.

What the guidance omits is any acknowledgment that these children are rights holders rather than safeguarding risks. Being trans is not, in itself, a safeguarding concern. The guidance fails to say that clearly, and the failure matters because it shapes how every provision that follows is read by schools. When educators are told to treat social transition with caution, involve parents by default, and enforce binary facility rules without exception, the message they receive is that the child's identity is the source of risk. It is not. The risk comes from exclusion, hostility, and isolation, and this guidance risks adding to all three.

The confidentiality provisions are where I feel the concern most acutely. Some trans, non-binary, and intersex children face rejection, abuse, or homelessness if their identity is disclosed without their consent, including to their own families. A decision to share that information must be made carefully, case by case, with the child's safety, wishes, age, and home circumstances at the centre. The guidance does not build that process in with anything like the rigour it requires. Instead it leans toward disclosure, and in doing so it removes the foundation that safeguarding actually depends on: trust.

Children will not ask for help if they believe asking will cost them more than staying silent. When a young person knows that speaking to a trusted adult may lead to forced outing, loss of the accommodations they rely on, or a conversation with a parent they are not safe with, they stop speaking. That is not an abstract risk. That is what happens. And guidance that produces that outcome has not made children safer. It has made them more alone.

What this means for schools right now

If you are a teacher, a pastoral lead, or a designated safeguarding lead, the guidance is now in force and you have to work within it. But statutory guidance sets a floor, not a ceiling, and there is still meaningful work you can do.

You can make your school a place where trans, non-binary, and intersex young people know there is someone who will listen without rushing to act. You can be explicit with pupils that you take confidentiality seriously. You can push for case-by-case decision-making on facilities rather than blanket policy. You can ensure that any decision about parental disclosure runs through a proper consideration of the child's safety, and that it is never automatic. None of that contradicts the guidance. All of it helps.

The organisations behind this statement have called on the government to urgently review the provisions, engage meaningfully with trans young people and civil society, publish a full equality impact assessment, and remove blanket facility bans in favour of rights-based, child-centred guidance. Those are the right asks. I hope the government listens. The coalition has also noted that the UK is hosting the 2027 IDAHOT+ Forum, and that hosting a human rights event while enacting guidance that erodes children's rights is a contradiction the government cannot indefinitely ignore.

To the trans, non-binary, and intersex young people reading this

I want to speak to you directly for a moment. This guidance should have protected you. The fact that it did not is a failure by the adults who wrote it, not a reflection of anything about you. You are not a safeguarding risk. You are a child who deserves to be safe, listened to, and treated with dignity at school.

If your school is not doing that, you deserve support in finding the people who will. If there is a teacher you trust, lean on that relationship. If your school has a pastoral team or a counsellor, they may still be able to help in ways the guidance does not foreclose. And if things at home are difficult, please know there are people you can reach, without your parents being involved, who can help you think through your options.

The adults who signed this statement are fighting for you. So am I.

If there is a news story you would like me to cover then just let Sammy know.

Dr Helen Webberley is a Gender Specialist, Medical Educator, writer, and advocate, and the founder of GenderGP. She writes about gender diversity, trans healthcare, and the lives of trans people and their families.