Revealed: 15 under-4s referred to Tavistock for gender care

Revealed: At least 15 under-FOURS were referred to NHS Tavistock clinic to undergo gender care services

  • Half of children referred to Tavistock’s gender ID clinic were under the age of 15
  • Shockingly, this figure included over a dozen children aged 4-years-old or less  
  • The NHS is proposing a crackdown on how children are referred to gender care 
  • Current system means teachers and volunteers can refer even young children
  • But the new guidelines would restrict referrals to just GPs and other health staff

At least 15 children under the age of four were directed to the NHS’s transgender health service in England in the past two years.

A similar number of five-year-olds were referred between 2021-2022 to the highly-controversial Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock clinic, the country’s only gender identity service for children.

NHS documents state that, in total, over 5,000 children were referred to Tavistock’s service in the past two years, over concerns they were suffering from their gender identity not matching their biological sex. 

Only half of referrals were for children aged 15-plus.

The NHS data, unveiled among some new guidelines for how to treat children with gender dysphoria, only concerns referrals to the GIDS at Tavistock.

Not all of the patients would have been taken on for actual treatment, which can include puberty blockers and hormones that help change their bodies to align more with their gender identity. 

It is not known how many of the children aged five or under referred to GIDS went on to become patients. Any that did are unlikely to have been prescribed medication. 

But the figure is likely to cast even more questions over how children questioning their gender are directed to NHS care in England.

NHS England is cracking down on how children are referred to gender identity care in the future, in the wake of the Tavistock chaos which saw its GIDS service ruled unsafe following a review.

At least 15 pre-primary school children were referred to the NHS England’s gender identify service in 2021 and 2022

The figures were detailed in NHS England’s draft guidelines for how gender care will operate in two new centres due to open in the spring to replace the Gender Identity Development Service at Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust

Tavistock’s handling of children suffering a gender identity crisis has come under increasing focus in recent years. In 2020 former patient Keira Bell took the clinic to the High Court in claiming that she had not been challenged enough before being prescribed the drugs at 16

Other mental health issues were ‘overshadowed’ in favour of gender identity treatment, prompting accusations that staff rushed children onto powerful drugs. 

Under current guidelines, health and social service staff, teachers, and charities can refer a child they think is suffering from gender dysphoria to specialist NHS care. 

But under draft rules published yesterday, which could be enforced from the spring, referrals to NHS gender identity care would be restricted to just GPs and health service staff. 

Stella O’Malley, psychotherapist and director of campaign group Genspect said the fact children under the age of four were being referred for gender identity care, ‘shocking and concerning’.

‘Children up until the age of roughly seven or eight engage in magical thinking, for example they can believe that thinking about something can make it real,’ she said. 

‘Very young kids who are gender non conforming should be free to live as they please- nobody should be responding to gender non conformity as a problem to be treated.’

The NHS estimates this change would slash referrals to gender identify care by 5 per cent, or about 250 children based on the latest data. 

Other sections of the NHS draft outline that doctors must weigh up the risks of social transitioning for young children, which can include changing their pronouns and dressing as the opposite sex.

They also detail that puberty blockers should only be provided via an NHS research programme, and medics should consider safeguarding processes if children obtain such drugs online. 

Health authorities published draft guidelines for its new specialist gender dysphoria services children and young people yesterday for public feedback.

These services, one in London and one in the North West, would replace the GIDS at Tavistock when it eventually shuts it doors in the spring. 

The new clinics would, in theory, operate under the new draft guidelines.   

Current rules have been criticised by some experts who say they rush young people onto medication. 

They have also been attacked by patients who have complained that the service is not meeting fast-growing demand, with some having been on the waiting list for over four years.

The new London service will be run by a partnership between Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

In the North West, the service will be a partnership between Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

After these initial two, a further six or seven similar services could be opened in other parts of the country.  

Patients currently being treated at Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) will have their care transferred to the new operators early next year.  

NHS England’s draft guidelines are in response to an ongoing review of GIDS by senior paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, who warned the gender clinic was ‘not a safe or viable long-term option’.

She found other mental health issues were ‘overshadowed’ in favour of gender identity issues when children were referred to Tavistock.

The clinic had been accused of rushing children onto puberty blocking drugs by former patients who feel they weren’t challenged enough.

Dr Cass has called for ‘rapid’ research on the use of the drugs after she found ‘insufficient evidence’ on their benefits.

GIDS has found itself facing increasing scrutiny in recent years, with campaigners accusing it of rushing children onto puberty blocking drugs.   

Former patient Keira Bell took the clinic to the High Court in 2020, claiming that she had not been challenged enough when she was prescribed the drugs at age 16.

Feedback on the NHS’s draft guidelines closes on 4 December. 

HOW THE TAVISTOCK SCANDAL UNFOLDED 

2005: Sue Evans, a nurse at Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), warned that youngsters were being assessed too quickly and their treatment was influenced by transgender rights groups.

2009: GIDS became a national service responsible for treating all children in England with gender and identity issues. Demand skyrocketed, with fewer than 100 patients referred to the clinic in 2010, jumping more than 2,500 by 2018.

2018: A senior member of staff told the trust’s board that children were wrongly fast-tracked into changing their gender — with the mental health and social reasons behind their wishes being overlooked 

February 2019: An internal report by Dr David Bell, who was on Tavistock’s board, set out how patients were suffering ‘long term damage’ because GIDS could not ‘stand up to the pressure’ from ‘highly politicised’ campaigners and families.

February 2019: Consultant psychotherapist Dr Marcus Evans — who had worked at the trust for decades and whose wife Sue first raised concerns about its practices in 2005 — resigned in protest at the Tavistock’s response to doctors who raised the alarm.

July 2019: Dr Kirsty Entwhisle, a psychologist at GIDS Leeds hub, went public with accusations that staff misled patients and made decisions about young people’s ‘bodies and lives’ without ‘robust evidence’.

October 2019: Former GIDS nurse Sue Evans and an anonymous mother of a 15-year-old GIDS patient launched the first legal action against Tavistock. They claimed the trust should not prescribe puberty blockers to children who could not give informed consent. 

January 2020: Keira Bell, who was prescribed the drugs when she was 16-years-old, replaced Mrs Evans as lead claimant. She underwent breast-removal surgery but regretted transitioning, claiming she was given puberty blockers after ‘superficial conversations’ with social workers’ and was receiving testosterone shots a year later’.

December 2020: In response to the claim, the High Court decided that under-16s could not give informed consent to the treatment.

2020: NHS England asks paediatrician Dr Hillary Cass to conduct a review into Tavistock.

September 2021: Tavistock appealed the decision and it was overturned by the Court of Appeal, which claimed the previous ruling was ‘inappropriate’ and placed patients, parents and medics in a ‘very difficult position’. 

September 2021: Sonia Appleby, the trust’s safeguarding lead, awarded £20,000 by tribunal after claiming trust managers tried to stop her from carrying out her role when staff raised concerns.

January 2021: The UK’s health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, gave GIDS the lowest rating it can, ‘inadequate’, after finding ‘significant concerns’ about how it operates. It demanded improvement.

March 2022: In an interim report, Dr Cass hit out at the lack of ‘open discussion’ at the trust about its treatment, which was not subject to quality controls. She found other mental health issues were ‘overshadowed’ in favour of gender identity issues when children were referred to GIDS. She called for a ‘fundamentally different service model’ and ‘rapid’ research on the use of the drugs after she found ‘insufficient evidence’ on their benefits.

July 2022: In a letter to the NHS, Dr Cass called for regional centres to be commissioned for gender identity treatment, with ‘strong links’ to mental health services and academic hubs that conduct ongoing research. 

July 2022: The NHS confirmed that GIDS will be replaced by regional centres at existing children’s hospitals, which will provide more holistic care with ‘strong links to mental health services’.  

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