Spectator article-wandsworth councils troubling trans case

Good to see. At some point the BBC and Guardian will have to concede that this kind of stuff is actually news.

Pleased to see that the Times as ell are now covering this and clearly highlighting the appalling conduct of the Tavistock. Share token:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/50a6889a-41a0-11ee-bbc9-3b59a60ab59b?shareToken=65b95fe7a86a6ce662999bd4628e783a

And because the BBC & ITV have been so captured by the trans lobby, they won't be covering a case like this - that people should know about.
The failure of the Tavistock to address severe levels of trauma in a child & the exploitation of an exceptionally vulnerable young person by adults using them for their political agenda should be headlines.

As a young male will they deprioritised for housing over a young female?

I can't help wondering which professionals / charity workers have such skewed values that spending many thousands of £££ on gaslighting this vulnerable young person to enter into a pointless court case was deemed preferable to funding support for & tackling the major personal / housing and addiction problems that AI has?
Why does nobody ever say to these people - "no ,children are not to be used to fight your ideological battles"

I suspect you're right.

I think the figure from the Tavistock data (they don't have much data, as was heard and then commented upon by the judge in Keira Bell's judicial review) is that 10% of all GIDS referrals are looked after children. When you then layer on the autism referrals (35% with diagnosis, 48% if you also include the undiagnosed that have been recognised as autistic by GIDS clinicians), that's a very skewed picture. Also layer on the fact that the autism charities all seem to think that gender identity is innate, rather than the consequence of an autistic person struggling to understand their body/feelings... Poor Al. Al stood no chance.

And yes, totally @LyingontheGrassonSundaymorningofLastWeek if that's the case re the accommodation. Al is and remains vulnerable. A. vulnerable, disabled female in a male accommodation setting. What could go wrong.

Poor Al has had no real advocacy or care at any stage and was, by the sounds of things, gaslit in to fighting in the courts for the protection in law of one of the very problems that was causing Al harm.

And BonfireLady I just wanted to say how fabulous you've been in getting protection written into your daughter's EHCP.

Would you consider looking into working with Transgender Trend or similar to provide a template/toolkit for other parents going through this?

Looked-after children should have a LAC healthcare team involved which should provide fast-track access to healthcare provision as needed. It's been a long time since I was involved in this area so I can't say how captured the teams will be, but given the state of the rest of the NHS I wouldn't be surprised if they are cheerleaders for getting these vulnerable children into the affirm-everything system.

So if AI cannot live independently - are they living in a single sex male placement? Despite being so vulnerable, and er, female?

Wow. What a sad and awful situation for Al.
But also yes, @MrsOvertonsWindow this could easily have set a precedent for EHCPs had the judge not reached a sensible conclusion that care under the EHCP had been appropriate.

When I read the link from RegisterRex, para 9 also leapt out at me. The health section of our daughter's EHCP now includes the safeguarding on gender identity exploration (we have a table of needs and provisions, with the provisions then reflected again in the relevant section). I had to fight really hard for this, including lots of pre-work to make sure it was admissible. It has to come from a professional, otherwise it's just a parental opinion, which carries no weight whatsoever when it comes to what the needs and provisions should be. The parental opinion comes in to review whether a school which says it can meet the needs (i.e. provide the provisions) is the right school for the child. That's way down the line as by this point the document is already written. You're allowed a small window to review the document before it becomes finalised but otherwise it's only professional opinion that counts.

Being a looked after child, it's highly unlikely that Al would have anyone advocating and doing all the research first to understand how this could be done. I even had conversations with Transgender Trend to see if there was any precedent. I dug around in other places too but drew a blank every time.

So without that safeguarding there, Al was left to understand their "gender identity" from whatever perspective made sense to Al. It's worth noting that the EHCP only applies in school settings, even though it's a health need. I also use my own version of the safeguarding document (a standalone version, not the whole EHCP) in health settings. Every single time. My daughter doesn't go to any appointment with a new health professional until they've seen and agreed to the safeguarding document. It's not always formal agreement (e.g. CAMHS won't do this - I've got a whole story about that .. it's been a while since I posted that link. If anyone is interested, I can post again) but it's a conversation between the health professional and me. So far, many of the people I've spoken to in the health profession seem very glad to have the conversation.

And lastly... Poor Al. Al is a sad example of the impact of this on looked after children.

It is indeed! Thank you for the tag @ColinTheGenderMinotaur
I'll take a read through it all.

I've been mostly consumed in the fascinating Stephanie Hayden threads so haven't read this one yet.

They will repeat the cycle their mother was in won't they? With such a chaotic life, you can't help but think they will eventually end up homeless. Then what? Will they still be able to access getting hormones? Or will they turn to a black market on that too? If they can't read or write where will they get money?

There is a question at the back of my mind here about state sponsored sterilisation of a child likely to live a chaotic life.

Yes.

That’s @bonfirelady who will probably find this thread interesting.

Considering AI is unable to read and write, how would AI know how to make formal complaints re: misgendering anyway?

Makes you wonder if there are are activist social workers in AI’s support team.

Interesting that one of the ‘misgenderers’ is another young person with learning difficulties (who no doubt has an EHCP of their own and is also entitled to access education & learning).

Shame the judge (magistrate?) who convicted that Welsh autistic lad didn’t have the same level of understanding as the judge in this case.

For some people it’s nigh on impossible to see a female person and use he/him pronouns, even if they want to, the brain-to-mouth process just won’t comply.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12434955/Tavistock-Clinic-sex-change-person-read-write.html

Mail article

The judgment in the case revealed that AI cannot read or write following a 'chaotic' childhood with a mother who was a 'recovering drug addict' whom he saw 'subjected to domestic violence'.

AI was looked after by his disabled grandmother, went into the care system as a teenager and had a 'long history of disrupted schooling'.

The judgment continued: 'He has a total of 14 diagnoses and continues to have complex needs. His difficulties have been medically described as Mild Mental Retardation, Attachment Disorder, Emotion Dysregulation, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder, dyslexia, severe anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and low self-esteem.

'In 2021, he was diagnosed with disturbance of activity and attention, minimal impairment of behaviour and reactive attachment disorder of childhood.' AI was referred to the Tavistock – whose gender clinic for young people was rated 'inadequate' by inspectors and earmarked for closure last year – aged 14 and has now been approved for body-changing surgery.

The judgment added he would need ongoing support.

Fears have been raised in recent years that vulnerable teenagers have been rushed into taking puberty-blocking drugs and undergoing irreversible surgery at the Tavistock. Lord Goldsmith wrote on social media: 'This young person has been diagnosed with 14 mental health disorders.

'The response from these ghouls is to chop up her body and fill her with hormones. How is this different to lobotomies? These professionals are utterly barbaric and need locking up.'

@MrsOvertonsWindow of course, there’s silly me thinking the focus should be on providing support to give AI the skills and security for a happy adult life.

The cynic in me wonders whether it was an attempt to get the Brighton toolkit established as the benchmark for dealing with children with an EHCP? The allegations of "misgendering " were so flimsy that the judge completely dismissed them.

Yes - she's has posted on here and I think shares her expertise with other parents.

Part of the background for this case is that vulnerable groups of children have been specifically targeted by adult queer theory groups selling them the concept of flawed bodies that can be fixed by drugs and body modifying surgery.

This young person evidently has profound challenges & is massively vulnerable. Having read the judgement it's possible to argue that they were cynically used in order to try to get the dire Brighton toolkit established in law as a bench mark for dealing with this group of children. Thank heavens the judge so comprehensively dismissed the whole thing - and well done to Wandsworth who were able to evidence so clearly in court that they had appropriately supported this young person.

Had a read of the judgement and the question it raised for me was, what was the actual purpose of this case? How was ‘winning’ going to improve the outcomes of AI? The EHCP will be in place for a few more years, but there is a YP with complex needs who doesn’t appear to be in any position to be independent despite not wanting parents/ carers to be involved. All the placement breakdowns, loss of a stable living environment, these should have been addressed in the appropriate place, not court. My concern is what will happen in next five or so years once AI moves into adult social care? They need to be supported somehow and not to jump to the simplistic conclusion that everything going wrong is down to others.

Wouldn’t it be great if Local Authorities were actually monitoring whether trans identifying children and young people were able to effectively participate in education or not?

instead, transactivists have fought against attempts to collate this sort of data to the point where no one knows how many children and young people are claiming to be trans, let alone if said trans identification interferes with their education.

sometimes the information is even kept from an individual child’s own parents!

Years of being surrounded by echoes that being called she is literal violence.
Did find it sad that the misgendering/correct sexing was a problem because this young person, as yet happily unharmed by testosterone or the butcher's knife "didn't want anyone to know" their sex. As though it wouldn't be immediately obvious to anyone with eyes.

I've had a read of the judgement. It seems to be that this exceptionally vulnerable young person has been supported by "Just Like Us" - an LGBT+ young people's charity, to take a case against Wandsworth arguing that their EHCP did not protect them from serious misgendering (2 alleged incidents including one by a student with a learning disability) leading to repeated placement failures. They also criticise the council's "systemic and/or operational failure to protect children and young people with EHCPs from gender reassignment discrimination". The Brighton & Hove Trans Inclusion Toolkit seems to be promoted as a model with Wandsworth criticised for failing to have a formal policy for trans inclusion in schools.

Of course, because young people with EHCPs are so intensively monitored Wandsworth were able to evidence to the Judge's satisfaction that all the allegations were all unfounded. The breakdown in placements were not because of misgendering, they were due to"

1. a. Multiple changes of address.
2. b. Homelessness.
3. c. Suspension and exclusion for fighting.
4. d. Exclusion for drug use.
5. e. The inability to join certain placements due to continuing cannabis use.
6. f. He has not always accepted the assistance offered him by social or health care.

The evidence from the chief executive of the charity was embarrassingly dismissed with the judge openly agreeing with Wandsworth who argued that: "His statement is not specific to trans children or young people, much less to the impact of misgendering on them. Nor does any of the material exhibited to Mr Arnall's Witness Statement indicate the extent of misgendering in educational settings".

The judge comprehensively dismisses every single aspect of the claim in her final summary.

This raises questions about how such a vulnerable young person got caught up in such a high profile case which appears to not only seek to address their individual issues but, had the claim not been thrown out for a complete lack of evidence, could have embedded the dubious Brighton toolkit as a "gold standard" for children confused about their sex with EHCPs.