New report reveals torment of trans+ children stuck on waiting lists

Protesters on Trans Pride marching through central London in July 2023 (Picture: Guy Smallman)

The number of trans+ children stuck on NHS waiting lists has rocketed in the wake of the Cass Review.

Some 6,225 children were on the national waiting list at the end of March, data obtained by the PA news agency showed on Wednesday.

That’s up from 5,560 at the same time a year ago—an increase of 12 percent.

And the average waiting time for a child to get their first appointment at a specialist NHS clinic has gone up to more than two years.

The increase comes after the Cass Review into trans+ children’s healthcare, which was published in April of last year.

It promised a new “holistic” approach to care, but that was cover for an assault on trans+ healthcare.

The interim report of the Cass inquiry, published in 2023, saw health bosses shut the gender identity development service at the Tavistock centre in east London.

The then Tory government pledged to open eight regional clinics across England delivering “a different model of care”.

But by the time Hilary Cass published the final report, only one centre had opened and waiting lists were sky high.

There are now three children’s gender hubs in London, Liverpool and Bristol. The Department of Health and Social Care has promised another hub in the East of England “later this spring”.

So much for Cass leading to a roll-out of “holistic care”. Instead, the Tories used the review to go on the offensive against trans+ healthcare for all—and the Labour Party has ramped it up further.

Labour health secretary Wes Streeting made permanent the ban on puberty blockers for trans+ under 18 year olds.

Cass painted a fantasy view of medics handing out puberty blockers to children like sweets and dismissed a vast number of studies that show their benefit. Such medication, which is reversible, puts on hold the largely irreversible and sometimes distressing physical changes of puberty.

The report was underpinned by “biological determinism”, the idea that gender is rooted in biology.

The figures on waiting lists come after last month’s transphobic ruling by the UK Supreme Court.

Judges said the legal definition of a woman is based on “biological sex”. The ruling is a major assault on the already limited rights of trans+ people in Britain.

But the trans+ liberation movement that has burst onto the streets shows that hundreds of thousands of people want to defy the Supreme Court.

Mass and militant mobilisation can win demands such as, “Self-identification now,” “No puberty blocker ban,” and, “Fund trans+ healthcare.”

Workplaces will be a key battleground for the ruling as bosses look to bring in guidance that stops trans+ people using single-sex spaces.

The Trade Unionists For Trans Rights network, which had over 300 people at its first meeting, organised a day of action last week. Building action is important to give workers confidence to resist such moves in the workplace.

The movement can push back the British state’s assault. And win a majority to say, “Trans women are women,” “Trans men are men,” and, “Non-binary people exist and should be respected.”