There has been much confusion regarding what the Cass Review has said on the issue of gender care. At policy institute, Curia, we seek to provide evidenced based assessments on provisions provided to the LGBT+ community. This article gives insight into what ways the Cass Review children have been let down by a failure to base gender care on evidence-based research.
Concerns raised about care at the Gender Identity and Development Service (Gids) – the only specialist clinic for children and young people in England and Wales – brought about an investigation, known as the Cass Review, which thoroughly analysed the state of care provided to children who require gender services.
As Gids was closed last week, four years after it was rated ‘inadequate’ by inspectors, debate regarding the adequacy of services provided to trans people continue.
Today marks the release of the 388-page Cass Review report. It looks at gender identity services for under-18s, commissioned by NHS England in 2020, after a sharp rise in the number of patients referred to the NHS who were questioning their gender. This document has made 32 recommendations on how gender services for children and young people should operate. They include considerations around medical interventions, further research, and safeguarding measures.
What Does the Cass Review Say:
Hilary Cass, British medical doctor and consultant has called for gender services for young people to match the standards of NHS care. She calls for better research into the characteristics of children seeking treatment and to look at outcomes for every young person.
She claims the ‘toxicity’ of the debate around gender meant professionals were unfortunately ‘afraid’ to openly scrutinise this healthcare policy – “young people have been caught in the middle of a stormy social discourse.”
“The reality is we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”
Hilary Cass, Chair of the Cass Review
The report recommended that young people referred to the new clinics should have a ‘holistic assessment’ – which should include screenings for neurodevelopment conditions such as autism, and mental health assessment as often, gender dysphoria comes with complex additional problems.
Furthermore, the report highlights the need to take age differentiation into account. What should be allowed for children should be remarkably different from what should be allowed for adults.
Party Politics:
Whilst Labour has pledged to simplify the way you can conduct changing your sex, whether this is in the form of speeding up the process or reducing the checks and balances on undergoing sex-changing procedures, it has become a key battleground and a highly politicised issue between the left and the right.
The Cass Report has highlighted that rather than this being an issue of party politics, it should in fact be an issue of medical research – enabling thoroughly scrutinised investigation.
Final thoughts:
Our previous article, featuring Chamber’s interview with Jay Stewart, Co-founder and CEO of Gendered Intelligence, highlights the current state of being transgender or non-binary in 2022 and expressed hopes for the future of the trans community. However, it is discouraging to note that Stewart’s aspirations, along with those of many others within and outside the trans community, remain distant from realisation.
In an interview conducted today with Katy Jon Went, a social justice campaigner, who has spoken at length about the issues concerning gender identity, sexuality, diversity and inclusion, Chamber received insight regarding how the review will affect healthcare professionals’ ability to support local citizens and what this means for party politics and community cohesion going forward.
Both the Cass Review and our conversation with Katy Jon Went have shown that the debate about social care provision provided to trans people should involve healthcare professionals rather than party-political politicians who are seeking to turn this into a wedge issue.
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