Conversion Therapy: Children

(asked on 31st January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will include safeguarding from sexual orientation and gender identity conversion therapy in his Department's guidance entitled Keeping children safe in education.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 31st January 2022

The department’s statutory safeguarding guidance 'keeping children safe in education' (KCSIE) contains extensive safeguarding advice which all schools and colleges must have regard to when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

It contains extensive advice about all forms of abuse and neglect including the indicators of these harms. KCSIE is clear that all staff should have an awareness of safeguarding issues that can put children at risk of harm. So-called conversion therapy, whilst not explicitly referenced, may well in many instances fall into this category.

Currently so-called conversion therapy is not illegal, though some of the practices will be as they are already considered to be abusive and/or illegal.

KCSIE currently contains guidance on matters such as female genital mutilation and other specific harms that are underpinned by legislation. Once similar legislation is in place for so-called conversion therapy we will consider whether it is necessary and/or appropriate to reflect any changes in KCSIE as we do on a routine and annual basis.

The department has undertaken extensive communications with the sector and continues to consider what more it can do on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) matters such as this.

We are currently consulting on revisions to KCSIE for 2022, in which we have incorporated departmental advice, such as on the issue of sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges. In particular we have reminded schools and colleges of their legal duties with regard to the Human Rights Act 1998, the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty. We have also included a new section on how children who are LGBT can be targeted by other children. In some cases, a child who is perceived by other children to be LGBT (whether they are or not) can be just as vulnerable as children who identify as LGBT.

We expect to publish revised guidance for information in May 2022, with it coming into force in September 2022.

The consultation can be found here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/safeguarding-in-schools-team/kcsie-proposed-revisions-2022/.

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