Recent developments, including the Cass Review, the Supreme Court’s judgment in For Women Scotland, updated Equality and Human Rights Commission draft explanatory guidance and changes to national safeguarding expectations, mean many schools are reviewing policies relating to sex, privacy, safeguarding and parental involvement.
This campaign does not ask schools to adopt new legal obligations. It asks parents to understand how existing legal and safeguarding duties are being implemented in practice.
What This Means for Parents
Parents are entitled to ask whether a school’s policies comply with the Equality Act 2010, the School Premises (England) Regulations 2012, safeguarding duties under the Education Act 2002, and statutory guidance such as Keeping Children Safe in Education. These obligations sit alongside the Supreme Court’s clarification of the meaning of sex and the EHRC’s draft explanatory Code of Practice.
These are not matters of opinion or ideology. They are questions of law, safeguarding, governance, and accountability.
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The Key Laws and Guidance Parents Should Know
1. Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 is the principal anti-discrimination legislation in England, Scotland, and Wales. It protects a number of characteristics, including sex and gender reassignment, and provides the legal framework governing single-sex services and discrimination claims.¹
2. Supreme Court Clarification on the Meaning of Sex
In 2025, the Supreme Court clarified that references to “sex” within the Equality Act refer to biological sex for the purposes of the Act. This judgment forms the legal background to the EHRC draft Code and its interpretation of single-sex provision.²
3. EHRC Draft Code of Practice (2026)
The explanatory draft guidance explains how the Equality Act should be applied by service providers, public authorities, schools, and other organisations. While it is not primary legislation, courts may take it into account when determining whether organisations have complied with equality law.³
4. School Premises (England) Regulations 2012
Separate legislation requires schools to provide single-sex facilities. The School Premises (England) Regulations 2012 mandate separate toilet facilities for boys and girls from the age of eight and suitable separate changing facilities for pupils aged eleven and over.⁴
5. Department for Education: Advice on Standards for School Premises
This statutory guidance supports the Regulations and explains how schools should meet those requirements in practice, reinforcing the expectation that single-sex provision must be effective, not merely nominal.⁵
6. Education Act 2002 – Section 175
Section 175 places a statutory duty on governing bodies of maintained schools to make arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of pupils. This duty is non-delegable and sits at the heart of governance responsibility.⁶
7. Keeping Children Safe in Education
This is statutory guidance issued under the Education Act. Governing bodies and school leaders must have regard to it when discharging safeguarding responsibilities, including risk assessment, oversight, and policy implementation.⁷
8. Woodland v Essex County Council
The Supreme Court confirmed that schools owe pupils a non-delegable duty of care. A school cannot avoid responsibility by relying on third parties, contractors, or external guidance where harm arises.⁸
9. School Standards and Framework Act 1998
Governors are generally protected from personal liability where they act honestly and in good faith, but this protection does not remove their statutory responsibilities or the need to exercise reasonable care, skill, and diligence.⁹
- United Kingdom, Equality Act 2010, c.15 (London: The Stationery Office, 2010).
- For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers, UK Supreme Court, 2025.
- Equality and Human Rights Commission, Equality Act 2010 Draft Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations (London: EHRC, 2026).
- United Kingdom, The School Premises (England) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1943), Regulation 4.
- Department for Education, Advice on Standards for School Premises (London: DfE).
- United Kingdom, Education Act 2002, c.32, §175.
- Department for Education, Keeping Children Safe in Education (current edition).
- Woodland v Essex County Council [2013] UKSC 66.
- United Kingdom, School Standards and Framework Act 1998, c.31, §50(7).
Nota bene
In a significant judgment delivered on 4 June 2026, the Scottish Court of Session held that West Lothian Council acted unlawfully by providing primary-school toilet facilities in which boys and girls shared communal toilet and wash-basin areas, even though individual cubicles were labelled male or female. Lady Poole ruled that the School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967 require separate-sex sanitary accommodation, meaning the entire toilet space—including wash basins—not merely individual cubicles, and that the arrangements also amounted to indirect discrimination against girls under the Equality Act 2010 because they placed female pupils at a particular disadvantage in relation to privacy, dignity, hygiene, and safety.
The court rejected the Council’s reliance on government and EHRC guidance, stating plainly that “guidance is not law” and that public authorities must comply with statutory requirements as enacted. While the harassment claim failed, the court granted declarators that the toilet arrangements were unlawful, reinforcing the principle that the issue is fundamentally one of applying existing law rather than creating new legal obligations.¹ ² ³⁴
The significance of the judgment is simple: schools cannot assume that labelling individual cubicles satisfies legal requirements for single-sex provision if the wider facilities remain shared.”
¹ DE and FG v West Lothian Council [2026] CSOH 52, Opinion of Lady Poole, 4 June 2026, paras. 1, 25–34.
² Ibid., para. 21. “Guidance is not law. The Council is obliged to obey the law, not guidance if that deviates from the requirements of the law.”
³ Ibid., paras. 47–56.
⁴ Ibid., paras. 71–76.
Why Ask Questions?
Schools have different policies and physical arrangements. Many parents assume they know how facilities and safeguarding policies operate, but recent legal developments have prompted schools across the country to review existing practice. Asking respectful questions helps parents understand how their child’s school is implementing its legal and safeguarding responsibilities.
Questions Parents May Wish to Ask Their School
You may wish to ask:
Toilets and Changing Facilities
Are toilets designated and used on a genuinely single-sex basis?
Are changing rooms and sports changing facilities separated by sex in practice?
Are any opposite-sex pupils permitted access to these facilities?
What arrangements exist for pupils who require additional privacy?
Has the governing body reviewed these arrangements following recent legal developments?
Safeguarding and Parental Involvement
Does the school have a policy on social transition?
Under what circumstances would parents be informed if a child requested a different name or pronouns at school?
What safeguarding assessment is undertaken before any social transition is supported?
Is the governing body involved in oversight of these matters?
Have these issues been considered within the school’s safeguarding framework and risk assessment processes?
Parents are encouraged to engage respectfully and constructively with their child’s school.
Template Email to Headteacher
Subject: Request for clarification regarding safeguarding and single-sex provision
Dear Headteacher,
I am the parent/carer of a pupil at your school.
I would be grateful if you could clarify the school’s current arrangements regarding toilets, changing facilities and safeguarding policies relating to sex and gender.
In particular, I would appreciate confirmation of:
• whether toilets are provided and used on a genuinely single-sex basis;
• whether changing facilities are provided and used on a genuinely single-sex basis;
• what arrangements exist for pupils requiring additional privacy;
• whether the governing body has reviewed these arrangements in light of recent legal and safeguarding developments.
I would also be grateful if you could direct me to any relevant policies.
Thank you for your assistance.
Yours sincerely,
[Name]
Template Email to Governors
Subject: Safeguarding oversight and single-sex provision
Dear Chair of Governors,
I am writing as a parent/carer with a safeguarding query.
I would be grateful to know whether the governing body has reviewed the school’s arrangements concerning:
• single-sex toilets;
• single-sex changing facilities;
• social transition practices;
• parental involvement in gender-related matters;
• safeguarding risk assessment and oversight.
Given recent legal and safeguarding developments, including the Cass Review and subsequent guidance, I would appreciate confirmation that these matters have been considered by the governing body and that appropriate oversight arrangements are in place.
I am not seeking information about any individual pupil.
My concern is simply to understand the school’s safeguarding and governance arrangements.
Thank you for your time.
Yours sincerely,
[Name]