Professionals unite to voice support for Supreme Court ruling 16 April 2025
- Administrator
- Apr 20
- 6 min read
ScotPAG is a multi-agency group of professionals who believe it is not advantageous to work in silos, but rather to follow what Cass articulated in terms of 'holistic assessment and care'. We think this means developing rich assessment information and interventions from education, social work, and health, thereby creating greater safeguarding for all. With this in mind, we asked our members to respond to the judgment of the Supreme Court, 16 April 2025. Here are some of our comments:
Carolyn Brown, retired Depute Principal Educational Psychologist, Convener of ScotPAG
" I wrote 'Scottish Educational Psychologists and Gender Ideology in Scotland’s Schools' in May 2024, in response to the Cass Report. By writing the article, I was trying to draw attention to various safeguarding issues in schools caused by the embedded nature of gender ideology in the education system. Given the Supreme Court’s ruling I’m hoping that professionals pay attention to it now."
Maggie Mellon, Independent Social Worker, and founding member of Evidence-Based Social Work Alliance (EBSWA)
" EBSWA was founded by concerned social workers and academics to provide a voice for professional challenge and protest about the widespread adoption of “gender identity” and denial of the material reality of sex in social work. Social work regulators and employers and related organisations must now recognise that there has never been any legal authority for the widespread adoption of belief that ‘gender identity’ and not sex should be accepted by social workers and care services even for very young children or for adults with learning disabilities. We welcome new members" (link here)
Retired NHS psychoanalytic psychotherapist
" The judgment represents a welcome retreat from the risk of greater mental instability in society, brought about by the denial of fundamental truths about corporeality, and the promotion of wish-fulfilling fantasy in our major institutions. It will enable recognition of the need for ethical and principled exploratory psychotherapy for susceptible patients, over superficial, unprofessional affirmations in the consulting room. Having acted with authority, in the manner of benevolent parents who protect children in situations of naivety and vulnerability, the Supreme Court has reinstated boundaries and structures that will encourage resilience towards the realities of life, and thereby promote healthy development that is not hindered by an inability to say ‘no’ when it is most needed."
Clinical Psychologist with 30 years experience working with children and adolescents
" In 2022, I was reported to the HCPC, my professional regulator, by a teacher in my children’s school who targeted my private social media, claiming I was “damaging” young people by believing transwomen are not women and using hashtags such as #womenwontwheesht and #sexnotgender. Three years later the Fitness to Practice process is still headed towards a final hearing for gross misconduct. The HCPC has been committed to ‘Stonewall Law’ for some years, and not only have they silenced me professionally, but they have also silenced my colleagues who fear they might be next. The HCPC, and their morally righteous bedfellows, the BPS, have made it clear that as a profession we must not enter this debate, we must not state facts, we must not share evidence, and we must not prioritise safeguarding. If the Supreme Court judgment does one thing, may it be that Practitioner Psychologists feel confident to act again with honesty, professionalism and integrity."
Retired Nurse Specialist Practitioner
" Two days on from the Supreme Court ruling, we know that things must change. Policies and a mindset of compromising women’s rights to accommodate dysfunctional men must stop. The cult’s spell is being broken. Nursing cases currently going through tribunals will need to be looked at through the lens of biological realities being re-established once more. But how far will the changes need to go? Baroness Kishwer Falkner, head of the EHRC, reports she has been engaging with NHS bodies for some time with little headway being made. The silence of the nursing and NHS bureaucracies is concerning since the handing down of the Supreme Court judgment "
Registered MH Nurse and Academic
" Universities providing education for nursing and midwifery students will need to ensure that course materials and policies reflect the law. They will also need to be satisfied that placement providers are compliant. The Nursing and Midwifery Council should ask for evidence of this at annual monitoring and programme approval."
Senior Educational Psychologist with over 30 years experience of working with developmental trauma, and supporting children/young people and their families
" I have a sense of relief and confidence at the clarification of law, and in my professional capacity. I have regained a voice to question really dangerous and frightening practices across our children’s lives. Of prime importance is the restoration of the safety needs of our children and my ability to advocate confidently for girls and young women in my work. I now today feel more able to be confident in applying the very strongly researched framework of my own practice again without fear of being on the wrong side of our legislative process and common sense."
General Practitioner
" NHS leaders and regulators must now stop enabling an ideology that denies basic biology. Accurate recording of sex is required for patient safety, e.g. heart attack could be missed due to differing reference ranges for male and females, and access to screening programmes depends on accurate sex-based information. Yet NHS records are still being altered, based on self-identified gender, and it has allowed itself to be influenced by lobby groups and internal activists, at the cost of patient safety and evidence based medicine. The GMC must be held accountable for its role in undermining patient safety as it currently instructs GPs to change sex markers and names in medical records. The GMC must now give clear advice that it is an ethical duty for a trans identifying doctor to respect a patient’s request to be examined by a Doctor of the same sex. Hospital policies must change so that women can no longer be denied same-sex spaces such as wards and changing rooms."
Midwife
" The Supreme Court’s ruling that a woman is defined by biological reality is not only a victory for common sense and biological fact but can assure women in maternity services that they are protected from an ideology that threatened the very essence of what it is to be a woman. They are mothers and always will be. No longer are women ‘cervix havers’ or 'people who menstruate'. We can with certainty and confidence state reality, return to evidence based practice, and use language that should never have been erased from our profession. I look forward to the support of both the NMC and the RCM in upholding the court’s decision."
Manager of single-sex service
" On a professional level, I have been deeply concerned about the stress caused to single sex service staff due to gaslighting and bullying from gender ideologues. Staff working in single sex organisations have had to battle this alongside their difficult job of supporting women who have been traumatised. Moving forward, we've all been told to accept the judgement gracefully, but women across the UK will acknowledge their relief at this return to sanity! "
Mental Health Occupational Therapist
" Sex matters in healthcare for so many different and complex reasons. The confirmation that it matters, that not only does common sense tell us it does, but the law also does, is such a relief. I can now openly talk about it as a professional no matter how captured my professional body is. I can advocate properly for my dementia patients and my students. The judgment means that I can teach students that many vulnerable patients won't care or be able to understand issues of 'gender identity', that they may bring to the workplace, and that the work is about putting patients first. Students will learn that the protected characteristics that our patients have are those of age, disability, and sex, that these all matter above the therapist's feelings or identity, and that realising that as a starting place is the beginning phase of becoming a great OT "
Headteacher
" As a primary headteacher, I welcome the decision made by the Supreme Court clarifying that sex in the Equality Act means biological sex. This should require the Scottish Government to review their RSHP guidance which promotes gender ideology. Many schools, including primaries, have ‘gender neutral’ toilets. This puts boys’ and girls’ privacy and dignity at risk. LGBTYS and TIE have been actively encouraged by the Scottish Government to ‘train’ school staff. The ideological capture of young teachers; the assumption that the curriculum and training is accurate and appropriate; the capture of councils and unions, means that a huge cultural shift will need to be made by many schools. Schools also face pressures from parent/carer demands based on ‘advice’ given to them by pro trans groups. Young people have been directed, in and out of school, to believe that trans identities are real and that humans can change sex. A cultural shift away from gender identity indoctrination may be the biggest challenge facing schools in ensuring that the law is applied correctly, especially where education leaders have been instrumental in promoting this ideology."
Elaine Miller, Physiotherapist
“Claire Sullivan, director of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy reassured members that 'we will continue to support your right to …live your life free of prejudice and discrimination.' (read full letter)
I am encouraged to see that my trade union and governing body will abide by the Supreme Court judgement which altered none of the rights provided to people with a gender difference in the U.K.“
Comentários