Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the letter from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to all members of the House of Lords on 8 August, what other forms of care will be included within the clinical study around the use of puberty blockers for young people experiencing gender dysphoria or gender incongruence.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Young people experiencing gender dysphoria or gender incongruence will be provided with care within a different clinical model, embedding multi-disciplinary teams in specialist children’s hospitals. Individuals within these National Health Service specialist gender services will be offered multidisciplinary assessment, within the context of a tailored package of care and support that responds to their individual health and social care needs. A study into the potential benefits and harms of puberty suppressing hormones as one of the treatment options for children and young people with gender incongruence is being developed through a joint programme between NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the research arm of the Department.

It is planned that recruitment into the study will be through these NHS specialist gender services, ensuring that individuals accessing hormone suppression through the study do so following a holistic multidisciplinary assessment within the services above. The study team has submitted their research application, and this is currently undergoing scientific review. Subject to the study achieving the necessary approvals, including ethics approval, the NIHR will publish details of the award, including trial design and methodology, on its website. The study forms part of a wider joint programme of research and evaluation underpinning the delivery of new services for children and young people with gender incongruence. Further research will be needed to continue to build the evidence base and our understanding of best practice in this important clinical area, including for psychosocial interventions. Work will continue with a broad range of stakeholders to inform further study priorities.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many young people are on the waiting list to access support at the specialist gender services at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Alder Hey Children's Hospital; and what is the current average length of time spent by young people on the waiting list before attending their first appointment.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

As of July 2024, there were 6,033 individuals on the national waiting list for NHS Children and Young Peoples Gender Services, which includes the services in London and the North West, with a median waiting time of 95 weeks.

NHS England has published an ambitious two-year action plan, which sets out how it will continue to transform and improve services. Investment in children and young people’s gender services in 2024/25 has more than doubled compared to 2023/24, and will increase further as new services are established.

In April 2024, NHS England opened two new services in the North West and London that offer a fundamentally different clinical model, embedding multi-disciplinary teams in specialist children’s hospitals. A third new service will open in the South West in the autumn, and a fourth in the East of England in spring of next year. NHS England is advancing towards meeting its commitment for there to be a specialist children’s gender service in every region by 2026. These new services will increase service capacity and reduce waiting lists.

We understand that it must be challenging for all those on the waiting list for services, but it is important that we get these services right, which involves developing teams with specialist clinical skill sets and ensuring that research is embedded within services. NHS England has also written to all children and young people on the waiting list for services, to offer them a mental health assessment, and has rolled out an improved referral pathway into services, which ensures that children are assessed more holistically through referral via pediatrics or children’s mental health services.

In his House of Commons written statement HCWS70 on 4 September 2024, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care outlined the significant progress that has been made in the transformation of children and young people’s gender services.