GIDS review

The Tavistock and Portman has been delivering the Gender Identity Development Service for 30 years. The Trust is proud of its world-leading work in this field.

The Trust has thoroughly investigated the concerns raised in Dr Bell’s report. None of the concerns around safety or safeguarding were upheld by our Medical Director.  The recommendations made by Dr Sinha mainly focused on standardising and evidencing our very thoughtful and personalised processes in a field where clinicians grapple daily with high levels of complexity, sparse evidence and great variety in the young people coming forward, their developmental stage, feelings, histories and hopes.

The service prides itself in taking a perspective on issues of gender identity which is independent, open-minded and based on the needs of an individual young person. Our clinicians work thoughtfully with young people addressing complex issues and appropriately extending assessments on a case-by-case basis.

We are disappointed this unsubstantiated report authored by individuals with no expertise in this field  made its way to the Sunday Times and would urge caution about reproducing its content. It is also important to point out that the report presented hypothetical vignettes rather than actual case studies and does not reflect the practice of the Service.