The UK National Health Service is set to launch a specialised service for transgender identifying people who wish to readjust to living in tune with their biological sex.
On foot of the findings and recommendations of a comprehensive review of gender services for adolescents and minors in the UK by Dr. Hilary Cass, the first specialised clinic for de-transitioners is to be established by October this year.
The Cass Review was an independent review of NHS gender identity services for children and young people, commissioned by NHS England in 2020. The final report from this review was published in April 2024.
While the recommendations made in the Cass review stress that there is currently “no defined clinical pathway in the NHS for individuals who are considering detransition,” the new clinic will seek to develop an appropriate model of care.
This “exploration” will include “an examination of the incidence of detransition and the reasons for detransition; a consideration of the support needs and the interventions that may form the elements of a clinical pathway; and workforce considerations including the extent to which, if any, there is a role for specialists in gender dysphoria,”.
It was also recommended that the NHS establish working links to other agencies to ensure that those wishing to de-transition but to not wish to re-engage with agencies they previously attended are also provided with support from separate entities.
The NHS will open eight facilities specialising in the treatment of children and adolescents who are gender questioning by 2026 in order to increase the availability of services for young people “questioning their gender”.
Dr. Cass said the new services “will take a holistic approach to care which addresses the needs of each individual and will put in place a full package of care which can be delivered as close to home as possible.”
She said that clinicians “don’t know enough” about which patients might “benefit” from “medical interventions as part of their package of care”, but that in circumstances where a clinical team “think that this may be the right pathway for an individual”, access to those treatments will be provided “as part of a carefully constructed research programme”.
Cass says that this approach “will give a better evidence base for future generations of young people.”
Dr. Cass previously recommended that Children/ young people referred to NHS gender services “must receive a holistic assessment of their needs to inform an individualised care plan. This should include screening for neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism spectrum disorder, and a mental health assessment.”
NHS England says it agrees with the Cass Review’s conclusions that “the evidence base underpinning medical and non-medical interventions” in the area of care of those experiencing gender confusion “must be improved”.
Dr. Cass’s recommendations came after she was commissioned to perform an independent expert review into the operations of the now disgraced Tavistok clinic’s services which were found to be operating outside the confines of evidence based care and pursuing an “unquestioning” approach towards children and adolescents presenting with gender confusion.
As Gript previously reported, the NHS, has ordered that the Tavistock transgender clinic for children be shut down after the Cass review found that it was “not safe’.
In 2020, the clinic was rated “inadequate” – with the UK’s health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, giving it the lowest rating possible.
Read the full report from July 2022 here.