Watch ‘Kids on the Edge’, a documentary series on Channel 4 starting this Wednesday

Kids on the Edge is a groundbreaking documentary series produced for Channel 4 by the award-winning Century Films. It explores the treatment of complex issues in the nation’s children and young people through exclusive access to three different areas of our work.

Episode one – the Gender Clinic

Wednesday 16 November, Channel 4, 10pm

The Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) is the only NHS-funded service working on gender issues in young people in the UK.

The first film explores the difficult decisions faced by children when they feel like they’ve been born into the wrong gender, or don’t fit into the neat definitions dictated by society. While gender dysphoria is not a mental illness, it presents a whole manner of related developmental and identity issues.

For most living like this can be unbearable. It can lead to distress, suicidal desires, and frightened and desperate parents. And there are no easy solutions – potentially life-changing decisions about transitioning into your chosen gender at a young age, and the medical interventions that follow, are very complicated.

The clinic has seen a 100% increase in referrals in the last year. Directed by the BAFTA-winning Peter Beard (My Son the Jihadi) this episode will follow the daily lives of two transgender children, their families and their treatment by GIDS staff. 

Read more about Kids on the Edge