Northern Ireland's Education Authority has removed guidance on supporting transgender pupils from its website after the Education Minister said a recent Supreme Court ruling required a legal review.
The guidance, first published in 2019 and aimed mainly at post-primary schools, had advised that reasonable efforts should be made to allow transgender pupils to use changing rooms and toilets that match their gender identity unless there was a good reason not to do so. Minister Paul Givan told the BBC he wrote to the authority requesting the guidance's withdrawal and asked officials to consider the implications of the Supreme Court decision and to seek legal advice.
Givan said he concluded, after receiving legal advice, that the existing Education Authority (EA) guidance did not reflect departmental policy and was inconsistent with the law in Northern Ireland. He told BBC Radio Ulster's The Nolan Show that the guidance had been produced in response to "the kind of activist campaigns that were being pursued by a minority" and that he did not believe it to be lawful. He said the department had a responsibility to set "clear, lawful, guiding principles."
The EA's now-removed online hub had instructed staff to be "sensitive to the needs of transgender pupils, as well as to the needs of other pupils" when deciding access to toilets and changing rooms. It also advised that teachers and school staff did not have an "unlimited right to freedom of expression" regarding their views on transgender people and that staff should respect a transgender pupil's choice of name.
Opposition politicians criticised the withdrawal, saying it created uncertainty for schools and risked harming pupils' welfare. SDLP leader Claire Hanna said the minister was showing "no empathy" for young people grappling with their identities at school and that welfare and mental wellbeing must be central to policy. Alliance party education spokesperson Michelle Guy described the decision as creating a "vacuum that is not helpful for anyone" and said the timing appeared to divert attention from other pressing education issues, including provision for pupils with special educational needs.
Givan said many issues are best managed at school level, consistent with a school's ethos, but that departmental guidance must be lawful and clear. The removal of the guidance follows a Supreme Court judgment that, under equalities law, defined "woman" by biological sex, a ruling the minister said has implications for the provision of single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and toilets.
The announcement comes days after Health Minister Mike Nesbitt confirmed he had asked Dr Hilary Cass, who led the landmark review of gender identity services in England, to review Northern Ireland's gender services. Nesbitt said Dr Cass and a team were expected to visit Northern Ireland in November to assess services and make recommendations.
Schools, parents and advocacy groups will now await further departmental guidance or legal clarification on how to balance the rights and welfare of transgender pupils with legal obligations on single-sex provision. The Education Authority said the guidance had been removed to allow "further consideration" following the minister's request and subsequent legal advice.