If your child is very distressed or troubled about their gender identity there is help available. In the first instance contact your GP.

There are a number of significant changes underway to NHS services, implementing advice from the CASS review – please read the information below for further details:

GIDS closure

The NHS Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) based at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is no longer accepting referrals. During 2023/24 the GIDS at Tavistock will focus on providing continuity of care for their open caseload of around 1,000 patients. Continuing workforce capacity constraints within the GIDS, combined with the need to provide ongoing care for the large open caseload means that the Tavistock is currently not offering any new first assessment appointments. This will be kept under review but may remain the position until the Hubs begin seeing new patients.

The NHS is building new services for children and young people with gender incongruence, alongside a managed closure of GIDS by March 2024.

NHS Arden & GEM National Referral Support Service

The information below is taken from the Arden and Gem NHS website :

Arden and GEM now holds the referral details of all children and young people who had previously been referred to the GIDS  service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, and Arden and GEM is receiving new referrals directly from referrers.

We will send your referral to one of the new providers once they are up and running and when you have reached the top of the waiting list; about 3 months before you are planned to be seen.

Throughout August and September 2023, letters are being sent to the parents of children 15 and under, and to young people 16 and over, and who are on the waiting list. These letters will provide confirmation that their referral is now being held by Arden and GEM on behalf of NHS England, as well as information on next steps, the referral details held and how to access support while on the waiting list.

If you believe you are on the waiting list and have not received a letter by Friday 30 September 2023, please contact us via [email protected]

Gender Experience Summary Form (under the Patients and Parents tab on their site)

If you are still waiting for your first appointment, over the next few months we will be asking you to complete the Gender Experience Summary (GES). The purpose of this form is to help prevent unnecessary delays in offering a first appointment.

What if I turn 17 while I am on your waiting list? (under the FAQs tab on their site)
If you reach the age of 17 years while on this waiting list, we will send you and your referrer a letter confirming that your referral to the Children and Young People Service will be closed, and advising you to discuss with your GP whether a referral to an Adult Gender Dysphoria Clinic is appropriate for you. If you decide to seek a referral to an adult clinic, your GP should make the referral to the clinic of your choice, and the Adult Gender Dysphoria Clinic will honour your original referral date, and take into account the time that you have waited within Children and Young People’s Gender Incongruence Services.

Risk and safety – Please access the referral section of the Arden & Gem site for full details – summary statement from the site below: 
Children, young people and their families are strongly discouraged from sourcing puberty suppressing or gender affirming hormones from unregulated sources or from on-line providers that are not regulated by UK regulatory bodies. In such cases, GPs and local health professionals are advised to consider what safeguarding protocols may be appropriate for the individual child or young person’s wider circumstances including the extent to which the parents / carers are able to protect or safeguard the child or young person. Safeguarding procedures may be necessary regardless of the endeavours and best intentions of the parents / carers in reducing risk of harm. Safeguarding protocols should be initiated immediately where the child or young person is at risk of immediate, serious harm. It would also be important for the GP or local health professional to explore what regulatory bodies may need to be informed if healthcare professionals registered with a UK professional body are prescribing medication contrary to NHS protocols.