Youth Custody: Gender Recognition

(asked on 5th July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance is in place for Youth Custody Services on the care and treatment of people who are transgender.


Answered by
Alex Chalk Portrait
Alex Chalk
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
This question was answered on 13th July 2021

Published Youth Custody Service (YCS) placement guidance (Youth Custody Service Report Template (publishing.service.gov.uk) states that “Young people who identify as transgender will typically be placed into a mixed gender Secure Children’s Home (SCH) or Secure Training Centre (STC) if considered suitable, alongside the risk they present to others and their age”. As part of placement considerations, the YCS placements team will consider an environment where the young person can mix with children and young people who are both male and female but also where that additional support is in place for a young person presenting with complex needs.

The revised Policy Framework for the ‘Care and Management of Individuals who are Transgender’, published in 2019 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/863610/transgender-pf.pdf) sets out the requirements for secure establishments – including Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) –to care for and appropriately manage individuals who are transgender. In addition, as an annex to the Framework, the YCS are developing specific guidance for transgender children and young people in YOIs, STCs and SCHs, which is due to be published later this year. Specialist agencies have been consulted to support the development of the guidance. A multidisciplinary approach is taken to care for and manage transgender children and young people effectively with central or local multidisciplinary meetings held within secure settings at pre-determined points in a transgender child or young person’s sentence.

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