New care home guidelines 'incentivise young people to identify as transgender'
Experts have raised concerns about the contents of new advice for care homes supporting transgender children and young people
Scotland’s care watchdog has been accused of ‘incentivising' vulnerable young people to identify as transgender.
Updated advice for care homes sets out that children who identify as transgender or non-binary should be given single rooms and allowed to keep pets.
While the Care Inspectorate document now reflects the Supreme Court ruling on sex and gender, critics raised concerns about the guidance.
Susan Smith of For Women Scotland said: “It’s hard to see why they have produced something that is so unbelievably inconsistent.
“This is supposed to be the Care Inspectorate but it reads like a red flag.”
Describing the document as “naive”, she said the advice to give distinct treatment to children questioning their gender is “just extraordinary”.
“No adult has considered that maybe they are creating the environment where children might want to identify as transgender,” Ms Smith added.
“There's real incentives for children to do that.”
Previous Care Inspectorate guidance for children living in care homes and secure care allowed for male and female young people to be placed in shared bedrooms.
The Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland vs the Scottish Ministers set out that “sex” in law means biological sex.
Updated guidance sets out that children must be accommodated in single sex bedrooms.
It now reads: “If bedrooms are communal, suitable alternative provisions should be made for transgender children and young people to be accommodated in single rooms.
“This is so that they do not share a room with other children and young people who share their sex assigned at birth, or with other children and young people who share their gender identity.”
Ms Smith added: “There might be all kinds of reasons why children don't want to share bedrooms or washing facilities, and all of those should be equally important.”
Experts said the guidance relies too heavily on advice from pro-transition charities LGBT Youth Scotland and Stonewall.
Maggie Mellon, a senior social worker, said more weight should have been given to the Cass Review, the landmark 2024 report led by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass that evaluated NHS gender identity services for children and young people.
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She added: “The Care Inspectorate advice is that leadership involves the complete adoption of trans ideology as a major principle of any care establishment.
“They haven't reflected on the Supreme Court or the Cass Review or any other research in terms of what's good practice.”
The guidance gives best practice case studies that recommend care homes hang trans pride flags and posters.
It also details a case study of a female teenager in care who was supported to have a double mastectomy as part of her transition to living as a boy.
“Children in care are especially vulnerable and have been through experiences that may increase the temptation for a child to want to be special and to be loved and to have extra attention.
“So care homes actually risk grooming children by putting all this material out, but there’s no recognition of that at all.”
Ms Mellon added: “The guidance is completely founded on a false ideology without any evidence to support it.
“The Care Inspectorate is not relying on evidence as it promotes the transition of children in care in Scotland.”
The Care Inspectorate did not respond to a request for comment.
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