When NHS England’s national youth gender identity clinic closed earlier this year, it had a caseload of around 650 children and young people. Amid controversy over how the clinic was run, the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) – part of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, and the only such centre for those under 18 in England and Wales – was shut down on 28 March, to be replaced by a number of regional healthcare centres. Some of the young people on its books were sent to two new NHS England gender identity hubs, based in London and Liverpool. The majority – around 400 – however, had their care moved elsewhere.
Of those, some 190 were already 17 and therefore could be transferred to adult gender clinics. The remainder – around 210 young patients – were on the “endocrine pathway” and receiving either puberty blocking drugs or hormones to help them medically transition. When pressed by the New Statesman in March, NHS England confirmed that this latter group would be cared for by a “wraparound service” provided by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. This service, NHSE said, would work to the same interim service specification as the new gender services, while “recognising that not all of it will apply to this patient cohort”. NHSE insisted that these children would receive psycho-social support, including mental health care.
Listen to the New Statesman podcast
Content from our partners
