LGBT inclusive education: guidance

Appendix 1: Statutory duties and associated guidance and sources of advice and information for parents and carers

Statutory Duties

The Equality Act 2010: The Equality Act 2010 (‘the Act’) protects people from discrimination based on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation – known in the Act as ‘protected characteristics’.

Discrimination can be direct or indirect and can arise both without any intention to discriminate and when people are all treated the same. Protection against direct discrimination also extends to people who are perceived to have a protected characteristic, for example: where someone who isn’t gay is discriminated against by another person because that person thought that they were gay. In addition, protection against direct discrimination extends to people who are discriminated against because of their association with someone who does have a protected characteristic – for example: a parent, family member, or carer.

The Act introduced The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) which applies to public bodies, including schools in Scotland managed by education authorities or grant-aided schools.

The PSED require bodies responsible for schools are to have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other prohibited conduct,
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not,
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Appropriate consideration of protected characteristics - including sexual orientation and gender reassignment in curriculum development and delivery, and more widely in policies and practices that take account of the needs of LGBT pupils and staff - can help schools to address the PSED. For example, in anti-bullying policies that recognise and deal effectively with prejudice-based bullying.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published Technical Guidance for Schools in Scotland – an authoritative, comprehensive and technical guide to the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 in relation to the provision of education and access to benefits, facilities or services, both educational and non-educational.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024

The Act incorporates into Scots law the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (“the Convention”), an international human rights treaty covering all aspects of children’s lives including civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

The Act provides for rights and obligations derived from the Convention, and its first 2 optional protocols, to be given effect in Scots law in the following ways:

• it places public authorities under a duty not to act incompatibly with the UNCRC requirements as defined in section 1, and provides legal remedies should they fail to do so (Part 2);
• it places public authorities, when exercising certain functions, under duties to publicly account for their compliance with, and efforts to go beyond, the UNCRC requirements – in particular it places the Scottish Ministers under a duty to produce, and periodically report against, a scheme setting out what they are doing to comply with their duty in relation to the UNCRC requirements and places a duty on certain other public authorities to produce periodic reports on their compliance with those requirements (Part 3);
• it requires statements to be made, when certain types of legislation are brought forward, about the legislation’s compatibility with the UNCRC requirements (Part 4, section 23);
• it requires that legislative words (whenever enacted) originating from the Scottish Parliament be read wherever possible in a way that is compatible with the UNCRC requirements and, where a compatible reading is not possible, it allows the courts to either (depending on when the incompatible words were enacted) strike the words down or make a declaration of their incompatibility (Part 4, sections 24 to 26);
• it sets up procedures for the courts to address questions about the compatibility of legislative words or public bodies’ actions with the UNCRC requirements (Part 5);
• it enables the Scottish Ministers to change the law, by regulations, to cure incompatibilities (or potential incompatibilities) with the UNCRC requirements (Part 6).

Relevant guidance

General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) Standards for Registration: The Professional Standards 2021 include a section called “Being A Teacher in Scotland” which places an emphasis on the professional values of social justice, trust and respect, and integrity as being at the heart of what it means to be a teacher in Scotland. These values are integral to, and demonstrated through, your professional relationships and practice. Your practice should also create a safe, caring and purposeful learning environment which is welcoming and inclusive, well managed and well organised.

Respect for All is the national approach to anti-bullying for Scotland ’s children and young people. Updated in 2024, It includes an explicit commitment to addressing prejudice‑based bullying, which includes homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic bullying behaviours.

How Good Is Our School?: Meeting the needs of all learners, and ensuring that all learners are reflected in their education, sits across all of the Quality Indicators in How Good Is Our School? 4 from Leadership and Management, through Learning Provisions, to Successes and Achievements. Specifically, Quality Indicator 3.1 ‘Ensuring Wellbeing, Equality, and Inclusion’ asks schools “To what extent does our school celebrate diversity? “ And “How well does our school ensure that the curriculum is designed to develop and promote equality and diversity, eliminate discrimination? “

As such, embedding LGBT inclusive education within the school setting from leadership and senior management level to the classroom, with a representative curriculum designed to develop and promote equality and diversity, will in turn strengthen inclusion and equality outcomes within the school community.

Information for parents and carers

Lgbteducation.scot: The national platform provides links to guidance from trade unions, LGBT organisations, and national parent and carer groups

Parentclub provides a range of information for parents and carers about LGBT and Gender Identity, including sources of support, advice and information.