Watch the @BBCNewsnight report on the UK's child gender identity clinic by @deb_cohen and @hannahsbee
Worries go back 15 years
Nurse Sue Evans triggered the review - many of the children had complex backgrounds, sexual abuse, trauma, autism.
Some clinicians would see them for 4-6 sessions and confidently put them on hormone treatments, without further therapeutic work.
Dr Taylor's review noted that children had mental health problems.
Staff faced pressure from patients and parents to refer them for puberty blockers.
These concerns are similar to concerns raised more recently by GIDS whistleblowers
spectator.co.uk/article/it-s-t…
At the time of Dr Taylor's reviews GIDS was much smaller numbers & would only give puberty blockers at 16
Now they have much larger numbers and the age has gone down to 9
Newsnight has been trying for over a year to get the report from GIDS under FOI.
Eventually the Information Commissioners Office ruled it was in the public interest
Dr Taylor recommended clinical audit, research, better understanding.
Evans says this was a missed opportunity
She launched judicial review with detransitioner Keira Bell on whether GIDs is really getting informed consent for life changing treatment.
news.sky.com/story/i-should…
Psychologist Kirsty Entwistle left GIDs in 2018
She previously wrote an open letter medium.com/@kirstyentwist…
She says she was shocked to learn that her concerns were not new, they had been raised by many others for many years
Dr Taylor: "If u try to set out to please or comply w someone, as a parent or clinician, then u wont be helping them. Its v important that u keep an independent perspective but I do think that maybe the service as it developed, to some extent, lost its compass in those respects."
"Many patients would have been better served referred to other services, but underfunding of child and adolescent mental health services made that impossible" says Dr Taylor
He welcomes the forthcoming Cass review of GIDS - "a more public arena for the kind of discussions and debate that we are talking about can go on"
GIDS response: "This report from 2006 is not relevant to the circumstances & issues faced by the GIDS service today.
While the demand for the GIDS service has increased markedly from 2006 each young person does receive a highly personalised service from GIDS colleagues
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.