Former Tavistock Staff Launch Private Trans Surgery Referral Service for Children

Gender Plus will have clinics in London, Birmingham, and Dublin and can provide gender assessments by Zoom for up to £250 an hour

The Tavistock Centre in London in an undated file photo. Aaron Chown/PA

Former staff of a transgender clinic accused of rushing vulnerable children into treatment have set up a private surgery referral service for young people.

Gender Plus is offering services to children and teens across the UK and Ireland, with 7 of its employees previously working for the controversial Tavistock Centre.

Last year, NHS England announced that the London-based children’s gender ID clinic was to close after an official report highlighted safety fears.

The new private clinic—which has offices in London, Birmingham, and Dublin—was set up in the wake of the announcement.

It offers gender assessments by Zoom costing up to £275 an hour, which can be completed in about six sessions, according to its website.

For those under 18, at least one of the appointments “would need to be in person,” it says.

Psychological support appointments are also offered, starting at £150 for a 50-minute slot.

The clinic says it offers specialist gender assessment for children, adolescents, and young adults that can be used as an “onward referral to an appropriate endocrine or surgical team.”

Puberty Blockers

News of the new gender service comes weeks after NHS England said it would limit the use of puberty-suppressing drugs to children enrolled in clinical trials.

The move came after an independent report by Dr Hilary Cass—whose investigation led to the pending closure of Tavistock.

In her February 2022 report (pdf) Cass found that the current “affirmative” model of care for children suffering with gender-related issues needs an overhaul.

Following recommendations in the independent interim review, the NHS said it would no longer routinely offer the drugs to children and young people.

The NHS added that it was in the process of launching a study into the impact of puberty blockers on gender dysphoria in children and young people with early-onset gender dysphoria.

Treatment being received by those currently attending the gender identity development service (GIDS) will not change, a spokesperson added.

However, it is not clear whether private clinics are able to by-pass the newly released NHS guidance.

Asked if Gender Plus will provide puberty blockers to children, a spokesperson told The Epoch Times it was “aware and up-to-date with the recent NHS England service specifications.”

“Our staff team is multi-disciplinary with medical and non-medical experts in the field of gender healthcare, mental health, and neurodevelopment,” the spokesperson added.

“We take a developmental approach to deliver an accessible, holistic, and comprehensive service that goes some way towards meeting the huge level of unmet need that exists currently.

“Our team of experienced and specialist clinicians will continue to try and best meet the needs of this marginalised and sometimes vulnerable group,” the spokesperson said.

A person wears a gender-neutral pronoun jacket at a 'Rainbow Runway for Equality' to kick off Pride Month at Central World Mall in Bangkok, Thailand, on June 1, 2022. Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images

Safety Concerns

Tavistock is to officially close next year following concerns raised by Cass in her independent interim report.

In it, the paediatric doctor expressed deep concerns about the affirmative model, concluding that primary and secondary care staff have had to adopt an “unquestioning affirmative approach.”

“It has become increasingly clear that a single specialist provider model is not a safe or viable long-term option in view of concerns about lack of peer review and the ability to respond to the increasing demand,” she said.

“Primary and secondary care staff have told us that they feel under pressure to adopt an unquestioning affirmative approach and that this is at odds with the standard process of clinical assessment and diagnosis that they have been trained to undertake in all other clinical encounters,” added Cass.

At the time, NHS England said there had been a considerable rise in gender dysphoria cases.

In 2021/22 there were over 5,000 referrals to the clinic, which compared to just under 250 referrals in 2011/12.

In a statement, the NHS said it would move young people who believe they have gender dysphoria into regional centres which will take a more “holistic” approach with mental health support.

It added that there had been a “dramatic change in the case-mix of referrals from predominantly birth-registered males to predominantly birth-registered females presenting with gender incongruence in early teen years.”

“Additionally, a significant number of children are also presenting with neurodiversity and other mental health needs and risky behaviours which requires careful consideration and needs to be better understood,” it added.