Schools are routinely allowing pupils to change genders and not telling their parents in a mass breach of safeguarding, according to a new report from the Policy Exchange.

It suggests that there are some schools who risk breaching important laws by not offering single-sex toilets to pupils.

The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Geoff Barton, said in response that schools were doing their best but there was a lack of guidance from the government.

In total, 40 per cent of the 150 secondary schools in England who responded to the FOI from the Policy Exchange admitted they let pupils change gender without parental consent.

Former education secretaries Nadhim Zahawi and Baroness Morris of Yardley and Robin Walker the chairman of the Commons’ education select committee have backed the report.

Labour MP Rosie Duffield said there was a ‘systematic failure’ caused by people embracing gender ideology.

According to the report, Asleep at the Wheel, only 28 per cent of schools were reliably informing parents as soon as a pupil said the were experiencing gender distress.

Some schools were even mistakenly using the Equality Act or data protection rules to justify not telling families.