Improving Gender Identity Healthcare

A multi-disciplinary team established to consider how the recommendations in the Cass Review might apply to NHS services in Scotland has submitted its findings to the Scottish Parliament.

A senior clinical team, commissioned by the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, considered all 32 recommendations of the Cass Review into Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People in NHS England. The team assessed to what extent they were applicable in the Scottish context, and whether they could be implemented in Scotland’s health service.

Recommendations of the multi-disciplinary team included:

• A lead senior clinician, preferably a consultant, should take overall responsibility for each young person’s care.
• Each care plan should include a full assessment of the child’s needs, both psychological and physical.
• As elsewhere in the UK, the use of puberty-supressing hormones – commonly referred to as puberty blockers – should be paused until further clinical trials can be undertaken. NHS Scotland will continue to engage in the forthcoming UK study.
• Work to design a regional service for children and young people should begin immediately, and services should ultimately be provided as locally as possible, based in children’s health services, with strong links between secondary and specialist services.

The conclusions of the report will now be considered by the Scottish Government – both in relation to how current services should be delivered to ensure service continuity, as well as on how these services should be commissioned in the future to ensure sustainable person-centred care.