By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-03-16 22:10:59 | Updated at 2025-03-17 22:34:33
1 day ago
Scotland's care watchdog has issued guidance stating that transgender children in care homes should be allowed to share bedrooms with others of their chosen gender identity.
The Care Inspectorate's advice indicates that "if a transgender young person wants to share a room with other young people who share their gender identity, they should be able to do so".
The guidance was published in May 2024 following last year's Cass Review, which examined services for gender-questioning children.
The guidance specifically states that transgender children "should not be made to use the toilet or bedroom of their sex assigned at birth".
Scotland's care watchdog has issued guidance stating that transgender children in care homes should be allowed to share bedrooms with others of their chosen gender identity
Getty
Women's rights activists have strongly criticised the policy, calling it dangerous for vulnerable young people.
Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at human rights charity Sex Matters, called it "a terrifying failure of the state's duty to protect some of Scotland's most vulnerable young people".
"This policy is grossly negligent, putting young people who deserve so much better at significant risk," she told The Scottish Mail on Sunday.
Susan Smith, of campaign group For Women Scotland, warned: "Care Inspectorate officials must be naive to the point of abject idiocy if they think gender identity will preclude children indulging in dangerous sexual behaviour."
She added: "Children's human rights and physical safety matter: unless the Care Inspectorate want another child abuse inquiry on their hands, they will stop deliberately putting children at risk."
The guidance was published in May 2024 following last year's Cass Review, which examined services for gender-questioning children
PA
The Cass Review highlighted a high presentation of children with adverse childhood experiences and those in care among the transgender population.
The Care Inspectorate published its updated guidance in response to these findings.
Scottish Conservative equalities spokesman Tess White criticised the approach, saying: "It's frankly ludicrous that Scotland's care watchdog doesn't recognise there are legal obligations to provide single-sex spaces."
The controversy comes amid an ongoing tribunal case involving nurse Sandie Peggie, who claims NHS Fife subjected her to bullying after she complained about a transgender woman doctor in female changing rooms.
A Care Inspectorate spokesman responded: "It is for care services to decide on the appropriate provision of facilities to meet the individual needs, rights and wishes of those experiencing care."
