26 February 2026: Many thanks to those who submitted responses to the Parent Council survey about toilet provision at JGHS.
This survey was carried out to provide feedback to the City of Edinburgh Council about the changes in toilet and changing provision made in August 2025. This followed the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on the Equality Act 2010 that for the purposes of the Act, the term ‘sex’ refers to a persons’ sex assigned at birth only.
The School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967 stipulate minimum numbers of toilet facilities that must be provided in schools and that those toilet facilities must be split between boys and girls. The effect of the Equality Act and the School Premises Regulations is that all schools must have separate male and female toilets and should also have gender neutral toilet provision.
To ensure the Council is acting lawfully, it was necessary to make changes to the school estate from August 2025. In all schools, transgender young people who previously used the toilet or changing facilities of the gender they identify with are no longer able to do so.
Although the Council did not have a choice about whether to make these changes, they want to understand the impact of the changes (positive or negative) and mitigate any negative impact, considering all protected characteristics* under the Equality Act 2010.
The JGHS Parent Council surveyed the views of parents in the School at the start of February 2026 and fed this back to the Council as part of the Council’s wider consultation about the impact of the changes. A summary of responses we received is presented below.
*Protected characteristics: age; gender reassignment; being married or in a civil partnership; being pregnant or on maternity leave; disability; race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation.
Question 1: Considering all the protected characteristics, note any positive impact of the changes in your school.
Parental feedback suggests a perception of positive impacts in relation to increased clarity and designation of male and female facilities.
In particular, some parents consider that clearly defined single-sex spaces may favourite privacy and dignity for girls and female pupils.
A smaller number of responses indicate that structured and clearly signposted provision, including gender-neutral and accessible options where available, may offer clarity within the school environment.
However, positive impacts were not consistently identified across protected characteristics.
Question 2: Considering all the protected characteristics, note any negative impact of the changes in your school.
Parental responses indicate that the most significant perceived negative impacts relate to pupils with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.
Concerns were raised regarding safety, dignity, wellbeing, mental health, and the risk of stigma or exclusion.
Potential impacts were also identified for disabled pupils, particularly in relation to access to accessible facilities.
Overall, feedback suggests that certain protected groups may experience disproportionate impact and that these effects require careful monitoring.
Question 3: Do you have suggestions to mitigate any negative impacts noted above?
Parents suggested a range of mitigation measures.
These include:
- maintaining and, where possible, expanding a mix of male, female, gender-neutral (including clearly defined single-occupancy where appropriate) and accessible facilities
- improvements to privacy in existing facilities through appropriate design features
- strengthened student support, ensuring pupils who feel anxious or distressed are supported sensitively
- anti-bullying measures, staff training, clear communication, and continued engagement with affected pupils and families.
Ongoing monitoring of wellbeing and review of provision were identified as important to ensure that mitigation measures remain effective.
Survey re-opened
Although the survey was set up to collect feedbackfor the Council’s consultation, there was also considerable information submitted about broader issues of toilet provision at JGHS. The Parent Council is planning to share this with the JGHS leadership team to help inform action in the school.
As the timeframe for the previous survey was rather short, the feedback form has now been reopened. If you have any (further) comments you would like to share please submit via the link below:
If you have any comments about the survey or other issues more generally, please contact us by email:
JGHS Parent Council 