Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of mental health care provision for transgender teenagers.

The National Health Service is providing new services to support transgender children and young people. The Gender Identity Development Service is a national specialist service directly commissioned by NHS England, based in London and Leeds. It is for children and young people up to 18 years of age, and their families, who experience difficulties in the development of their gender identity.

The service is holistic and tailored to the needs of the individual and the family. Young people are seen individually and with their families for assessment and psychosocial intervention by members of the Multi-Disciplinary Team which includes psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy and social work.

The Government is aware that transgender people have a higher reported incidence of mental ill health, attempted suicide and self-harm. The Government published ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision: a green paper’ on 4 December 2017. This green paper sets out an ambitious set of proposals to transform support for all children and young people’s mental health, including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.