Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for specialist gender identity services for children and young people.
Earlier this year, NHS England announced that the children’s gender identity services provider, GIDS Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, will be brought to a managed close, and replaced by two new Southern and Northern hubs led by five NHS Trusts, which are set to be fully mobilised by April 2024. NHS England plans for there to be a total of seven or eight regional providers supported by a larger clinical workforce once the national transformation programme is complete. This expansion of services will provide improved, more local care to patients, and reduce waiting times for these services.