Stop gender ideology being smuggled into safeguarding

On 12 February, the Department for Education published a 200-page update to Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), the statutory guidance governing safeguarding in every school and college in England. The full consultation document is at here. Bundled alongside measures on grooming gangs, knife crime, and online exploitation are provisions that strike directly at parental authority and the place of marriage in family life.

Here is what the guidance actually does.

It hides children’s distress from parents. Paragraph 263 creates a ‘confiding loophole’: if a child tells a teacher they feel they might be the opposite sex, but does not make a formal request for a name or pronoun change, the school is not required to inform the parents. A thirteen-year-old girl could disclose profound gender distress, and her mother and father need never know.

It pressures schools to comply. Footnote 62 instructs schools to treat every gender-questioning child as if they hold the protected characteristic of “gender reassignment” under the Equality Act, because it is “very difficult” to determine which children actually have it. The practical effect: refusing to accommodate a child’s request for social transition becomes legally perilous.

It silences teachers’ consciences. The 2023 draft guidance on gender questioning children explicitly stated that no teacher should be required to use preferred pronouns. This has been removed. A teacher who cannot in conscience call a girl “he” now has no practical protection under this guidance.

It downgrades parents to consultees. Paragraph 251 states that social transition decisions are made “by a school or college in consultation with parents”. Not with their consent. The school decides; the parents are informed.

It normalises unlawful toilet arrangements. Paragraph 106 correctly states that the School Premises Regulations 2012 require separate facilities for boys and girls. Paragraph 110 then gives advice on managing “mixed-sex toilets”: a category that, beyond self-contained lockable rooms, should not lawfully exist.

It ignores the Supreme Court. The ruling in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers confirmed that “sex” in the Equality Act means biological sex. This 200-page document, which addresses sex, gender, and the Equality Act at extraordinary length, does not mention the ruling once.

And it sidelines marriage. The revised RSHE guidance, coming into force on the very same date (September 2026), “strongly encourage” schools to teach primary children that same-sex households are equivalent to a family with a mother and a father. Marriage, the lifelong union of one man and one woman, the institution through which children are connected to the mother and father who made them, is reduced to one “arrangement” among many. That is not education. It is ideology.

The consultation closes on 22 April 2026. The government is counting on complexity and volume to exhaust opposition: 200 pages, ten weeks, and a title designed to make criticism politically toxic. C4M has published a comprehensive consultation response guide, covering all the key issues with paragraph references and suggested talking points that can be adapted in the reader’s own words. It is available here. The consultation itself is at here.

The institution of marriage, and the family life it creates, is being systematically sidelined in the very guidance that claims to keep children safe. But the strength of feeling on this issue remains formidable. Over 669,000 people signed the C4M petition in defence of real marriage. That constituency has not disappeared. It simply needs to speak up again.

Respond to the consultation. Share the guide. The deadline is 22 April, and the voices of those who believe in marriage have never been more needed.

And as ever, if you are not yet supporting C4M financially, please help us defend marriage and the family by clicking the donate button below.