Child safeguarding experts are calling for the Care Inspectorate to update its advice on transitioning in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on gender.
The Care Inspectorate’s latest guidance, issued after the ruling on the legal definition of sex, continues to promote donation pages for a trans charity that had Children In Need funding withdrawn over its links to two convicted paedophiles.
The guidance – intended to set out best practice for social workers and care givers – does, however, say people should use public toilets compatible with their biological sex.
Published on Thursday, the document contains dozens of references extolling LGBT Youth Scotland, including links to its donation pages, despite the charity coming under fire over former volunteer and convicted paedophile Andrew Easton helping to write its “coming out guide”, which was made available to hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren.
The charity’s former CEO, James Rennie, was also jailed for years for a sickening sex attack on a baby and for heading up one of Scotland’s biggest paedophile rings.
The Care Inspectorate’s guidance urges care providers to “enhance LGBT visibility” by displaying posters by LGBT Youth Scotland and celebrating events including one the regulatory body describes as “an annual fundraising day for LGBT Youth Scotland”.
Educational psychologist Carolyn Brown, a former Scottish Government adviser, said: “The Care Inspectorate is a regulatory body, so it is deeply concerning that they have contained funding-raising links to any charity, never mind one that has had links to not just one but two convicted paedophiles.
“Social care staff have been waiting to see the regulator’s response following the Supreme Court ruling and subsequent Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance but, apart from making clear people must use the toilets provided for their biological sex, very little else has been changed.”
Mary Howden, the former head of education at the Scottish Social Services Council, said: “This new guidance, which will be hugely influential, is supposed to inform social workers and care givers on evidence-based practice. But it completely fails to do that, continuing instead to support and parrot organisations that promote the deceitful lie that children are born in the wrong body.”
The new guidance follows the Supreme Court case brought against the Scottish Government by campaign group For Women Scotland aided by Scottish Lesbians and Sex Matters. The ruling sparked major changes for public bodies and sports authorities.
The Care Inspectorate said: “We have considered the Supreme Court ruling and updated our guidance. We have also taken into account interim guidance published by the EHRC and look forward to their full guidance in due course. We will update our guidance again as necessary.”
LGBT Youth Scotland has said its links to Rennie and Easton were in the past.
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