Trans rights orgs outraged at NHS review of children's 'gender services' care

[ArabellaScott]

Things seem to be happening post-Cass, and various organisations are not happy.

The Good Law Project and various trans rights orgs have launched a new appeal/action, prompted by children/young people apparently receiving letters asking them to attend a review/assessment and seeking info on hormone treatment.

Copied and pasted excerpts from GLP's crowdfunder page (I can't link to it, obvs) below :

'The document, which does not bear the name of any NHS professional, asks providers of mental health support to children and young people (CYP) to invite those on the national waiting list for gender services for a face-to-face appointment. Providers are told: “We request all CYP who have been allocated to your service for mental health review are assessed as soon as possible.” One group is asked to be “reviewed and or assessed by… 30 June 2024.”'

'As part of this process, children and young people on the waiting list for trans healthcare have been sent a “Gender Experience Summary Form”, asking them or their families whether they are receiving support from “the private sector or from abroad… such as… hormone treatment.”'

'.... the document recognises that many trans youth will have sourced hormone treatment from “unregulated providers or unregulated sources.” It states that the largest “unregulated provider” is a service called GenderGP, which it says is “registered overseas and is therefore outside the reach of the UK health regulators.”'

'We are concerned about what appears to be a misleading exercise in gathering data on which trans youth are obtaining private treatment from abroad, for the purposes of seeking to cause or compel them to stop treatment.'

Other 'trans rights' organisations have been posting about it, too.

https://www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/1cknfxz/callout_to_trans_teenagers_and_their_families_in/

'QueerAF, What the Trans and Trans Safety Network are looking to speak to families affected by the plans leaked by the Good Law Project this week that could see some young trans people left with no choice but to medically detransition.

Parents, families and young trans peopleWe understand letters are going out to transgender young people and their families inviting them to have a mental health assessment. This will be framed as "enhanced support", but the assessment process will also gather information about what gender-affirming care, hormones or puberty blockers trans youth are taking, and where they are being prescribed for.

This information may be used against families who will be "advised" to stop care from sources without "appropriate care" (for example: private healthcare) - or face safeguarding referrals to local services.

We're seeking to gather information about the letters being sent to families, and the process because we're concerned this activity is designed to leave families and young transgender people with no choice but to medically detransition.'

threatened with social services and child removal.

Child removal?

Children are only removed from their families in most extreme circumstances.

Thank you.

The letter to parents and the portion of the guidance that is in the article both seem perfectly reasonable.

Arguably "we know that gender incongruence is not a mental health issue" from the letter is an odd statement to make (do we?) but even then, if a bias is being introduced it's not one that would be expected to cause concern to children/YP on the waiting list or their parents.

I think the problem with this is until Cass, the NHS recommended treatments were those harmful unevidenced ones.

As I said upthread, the ship is turning, but it's going to be a shock for those who have been until relatively recently carried along on a tide of misinformation. When did the NHS remove the glib 'puberty blockers are reversible' from their website?

-I checked. 2020.

https://www.transgendertrend.com/nhs-no-longer-puberty-blockers-reversible/

The guidance for considering safeguarding states that where a child has not been properly assessed… so it is about safeguarding children from parents DIY healthcare.

If a parent is (for whatever reason) accessing drugs and treatments on line for a child, without a medical diagnosis, that can never be right.

It goes for anything not just MH or gender questioning, for anything.

That is why health care provision is regulated.

Or mostly is….

I don't know how the parents who have really been carried along will ever come to terms with it.

The only way that seems plausible to me, for all but the most psychologically robust, is to turn being duped by ideologists into a kind of victim identity, and lean hard into that.

But frankly I don't think that is the most healthy either.

@TempestTost Joyce has spoken about this, the guilt and/or denial they are going to have to face is to my mind horrific.

No wish to offend religious people here but it got right up my nose when my children’s school spouted religions as fact rather than belief. Back in the 90’s.

I had to do battle all the time it was exhausting, until they were teens, and based on my interventions could stand their own ground on it all.

Not quite the same i agree, and if you chuck in, the internet and ND, ASD then thats a whole extra boatload for a parent to try and help a child navigate.

It has happened elsewhere:

US: Indiana
thepostmillennial.com/indiana-parents-lose-custody-after-court-rules-not-affirming-childs-gender-identity-is-abuse

US: Virginia
reduxx.info/girl-gone-a-trans-teen-was-removed-from-her-parents-care-then-she-was-sexually-abused/

Australia - Supreme Court case from Sept 2021

www.nationalreview.com/2021/10/is-it-emotional-abuse-for-parents-to-deny-a-childs-transgender-claims/

Scotland was making such plans in Jan 2024: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/parents-refuse-child-gender-change-jail-snp-conversion-ban/

My worry as well is that as young people will be more resourceful as they get older so it may well get much harder for parents to monitor what they're getting online. It may be unfair to assume that parents have the control and the ability to constantly monitor their child enough to rule out them getting replacement medications online. Making that a safeguarding issue and reporting to SS rather than an education and information issue places unfair blame on parents in w situation they may not actually be able to manage if a young person in distress is really determined.

I think the safeguarding ‘threat’ is completely proportional.

If a parent goes against medical advice and sources drugs over the internet or from other unregulated sources to give to their child (or allows the child to do this themselves) then that is very much a safeguarding issue.

EDIT: ie what @Karensalright said

I’d call trying to change your female child into a boy via unregulated drugs extreme.

the mention of safeguarding is not in the letter sent to families.

Lol, Americans always thinking everyone centers them and thinks about them.

Social Workers are not uncaptured!

I'd just be wary of which way they will go in any safeguarding situation.

@Leafstamp it's hard enough to stop a determined child accessing cigarettes or vapes in secret never mind a very determined older child. Parents may not have the ability to stop a say 17 year old from accessing non prescribed hormone medication as many many other diligent parents have trouble stopping teenagers accessing non prescribed medicine. And this will unfortunately create a market for it. Education is the way to go here but its likely things will move too quickly in terms of ending scripts and too slowly in terms of referrals actually being seen and in reality, when some of the concerns are based on lack of evidence and than clear cause - effect information it can be much harder to accept if you're feeling desperate. So it sounds like there's a knee jerk reaction here that hasn't been fully thought out or resourced properly. There's far too many holes in the recommend process.

Hence the TRA's feel there is a hidden agenda for wanting to see these children,

"We are concerned about what appears to be a misleading exercise in gathering data on which trans youth are obtaining private treatment from abroad, for the purposes of seeking to cause or compel them to stop treatment"

How irresponsible is this that Jolyon Maugham tweeted this a couple of days ago and how many vulnerable children and their families will be influenced by what he writes?

"This, I am afraid, is difficult to square with the reality which is the NHS is providing extra funding for super urgent 'assessments' - at which evidence is gathered about whether trans young people are accessing private medical - but is not providing any extra funding for care. There is a history of 'undesirables' being asked to register, notionally for their own good, and that registration being used for ugly purposes. If this is being done by NHS England - and there is some reason to think it is being done by Ministers in the NHS's name - it is truly ugly."

And also this^ unless there is a clear guidance for practice then families could be left at the mercy of whatever social worker and senior they're attached to. In my work I've seen real variances in interpretation of certain policies and laws depending on the team, their senior and the experience of the social worker and that's ended very badly for young people to the point of serious case review. It's not something that can be pointed to social services and left to them.

It is extreme, but referral to social services does not = removal of child from family.

Every effort would be made to keep the child with the family. But harmful, irreversible drugs and surgery which sterilise, disfigure and cause life-long health problems is obviously as serious as FGM.

But if the parent is caught between a rock and a hard place with a child who is likely to abscond into the arms of their ‘rainbow family’ and go no contact with them if they are anything but affirmative, then the parents should be supported to help deprogramme the child, not have the child removed where they will be further alienated from those who love them and want what’s best for them.

"This information may be used against families who will be "advised" to stop care from sources without "appropriate care" (for example: private healthcare) - or face safeguarding referrals to local services."

Good.

This 100%

For a very long time these parents were told their child would likely commit suicide. Those that didn’t affirm were threatened by social services. The parents absolutely need support as this has run rampant. I think the reach these organisations have is staggering and very much stealth like. Schools, youth clubs ect.. is not a safe place for questioning kids

I was on a Instagram feed the other day. The author had posted something about a review on her book where a reviewer complained about her using pronouns at the start of the book. Cue a discussion on it. Along came a ‘biology masters’ holder who currently worked with adult and children transitioners who was full on hard core in her beliefs that these kids were about to kill themselves, it was all reversible and it was ok for men to breastfeed babies because women take drugs in IVF 🥴

This was an actual women - with kids.

She was referring people to stonewall if they disagreed 🤯

These are the people ‘helping’ these poor kids

I agree @Lavender14 aboutbthr difficulties in ‘controlling’ an older child accessing drugs etc. And I also agree with @FlakyPoet about the dangers of ‘rainbow families’

My comments were made whilst thinking about a particular parent who has transed their younger child, including medically. I am probably blinkered by this particular example in my mind.

I genuine feel for the parents who have been let down by professionals and have acted in what they thought was their child’s best interest according to what professionals have advised. Conversely there are also a few parents who I have little sympathy for in terms of what they have done or allowed to have been done to their children.

Yes. The parents who are leading/pushing it and trapping their child into this awful future - the true believers and attention-seekers - they are perpetrating child abuse, and if it comes to harmful drugs or surgery, should be tried for GBH.

When you watch Jazz Jennings, for example, it is so awful the way the whole family are abusing and exploiting JJ then berating and blaming JJ for not being happy, finding it hard to cope, experiencing poor mental and physical health, struggling to make clear decisions, etc.

Well as someone with numerous complex health needs myself I wish the NHS would offer me a "holistic assessment".
All I get is various departments not communicating with each other and expecting me to be the go between.
Of course many parents who have felt forced to buy into gender ideology will find it extremely hard to realise they have inadvertently harmed their much loved child so I expect a lot of push back, egged on by the organisations which misled them in the first place so this reaction doesn't surprise me.

The GLP letter conflating buying drugs off the internet with ‘private healthcare’ is outrageous.

How irresponsible is this that Jolyon Maugham tweeted this a couple of days ago and how many vulnerable children and their families will be influenced by what he writes?

Jolyon obviously thinks there are few more bucks to made yet.

Presumably this “leak” of which the GLP speaks is an actual letter sent to Mr and Mrs Maugham in relation to their eldest child and they are now deploying all the forces of a GLP crowdfunder to avoid having to turn up to this assessment. JM also tweeted in the wake of the Bell judgment that he was seeking urgent advice from a QC on whether parents could take their child to Europe to obtain gender identity drugs. These two things might be linked, perhaps?