Parents from Our Duty were not the first to confront The Tavistock about what was going on at their gender clinics. However, our attendance happened at a pivotal time, we found governors sympathetic to our point of view, and the questions we raised were subsequently aired in flagship media: The Sunday Times and BBC Newsnight.
The Gender Identity Development Service – GIDS – attracts the most attention because it is the UK’s only service dealing with children (although it has an outpost in Leeds). The Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) deals with adults, is a model for other services around the UK, and concerns us greatly because children are referred to adult clinics from 17 years of age.
Parents from Our Duty attended the Board of Governors meetings in 2019.
In September 2019, we attended with two journalists, Hannah Barnes of BBC Newsnight, and Joani Walsh, a freelancer writing for The Sunday Times.
The questions we raised (but not properly minuted by The Tavistock), were:
- We consider that our children, mainly girls, are a different patient cohort from the pre-pubescent boys used to design treatment protocols. Why are you not treating these teenagers as a distinct cohort?
- Our children are not innately transgender, they only started saying that they were after after spending time in internet chatrooms focused on gender identity, or were influenced by classmates and LGBT activist groups. Why are these factors not considered?
- These are children with healthy bodies. What medical justification is there for treating them with hormones and surgery? What about “first do no harm”?
- There is just no evidence to support the medical treatment pathway. Do you accept that The Tavistock is harming our children with no clinical justification?
- Are you aware that our children are coached online on how to gain a referral to your gender clinics?
- What can be done about GenderGP? This is a service, based offshore but targeting UK, providing hormones to our children without any psychological counselling.
- Many of our children are autistic or gay, this looks like ‘state sponsored sterilisation’ of gay and autistic children, is this what is happening?
We requested a separate meeting so that we might air our concerns in more detail.
The Sunday Times piece was published on October 26th 2019
The publication of this article led to Paul Jenkins, CEO of The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust cancelling our dedicated meeting.
We wrote protesting this somewhat petulant response, and also highlighting that the minutes of September’s meeting were somewhat incomplete (our most important questions were omitted):
7.2.3 A public member noted that they were the parent of a young person with a learning disability and they were unaware that they could attend the council of governors until recently.
7.2.4 Another member of the public noted it would be helpful to introduce a forum for parents to engage with GIDS to assist with better understanding the issues their children were facing.
7.2.5 A further member of the public noted that there had been a lot of media coverage and it was observed that there was an increase in girls and young women presenting with gender dysphoria. Mr Jenkins noted the change in patient population had been observed in more recent years.
7.2.6 Ms Swarbrick noted that she was a divisional director responsible for the service and emphasised that open dialogue was important to clarifying the way in which GIDS operates.
7.2.7 Another parent noted that children and young people were being coached of what to say to progress on to physical treatment interventions. They further emphasised that there was a general practitioner based in the United Kingdom, but operating offshore, offering hormone blocking and cross sex medication without psychological therapy input.
Extract from Minutes of Governors Meeting, Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, September 2019
BBC Newsnight researchers Hannah Barnes and Deborah Cohen were investigating widely around events at The Tavistock. The program which addressed Our Duty’s concerns was aired on 26th November 2019:
We attended the next meeting in December 2019.
7.2.2 In response to another member of the public, Dr Singer noted that it is not just the organisation facing media attention relating to gender. She emphasised there was a strong debate across academia, sports and politics where people are trying to grapple with this social change.
Extract from Minutes of Governors Meeting, Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, December 2019
7.2.3 In response to a member of the public who was complementary of the Trust’s gender services, Prof Burstow noted that the Trust was delivering the service in line with both its regulatory requirements and against the specification it is commissioned to work to.
7.2.4 Reflecting on a question from a member of the public surrounding the minutes of the previous meeting, Mr Jenkins noted that the GIDS has a service model that is designed to respond to individual needs. He emphasised that this included working with families.
7.2.5 Responding to a member of the public, Mr Jenkins noted that of those that make the decision to transition for a second time can be for a number of reasons. He emphasised of those that were active in the media it remained unclear whether the individuals had used the Trust’s services.
7.2.6 In response to a member of the public, Prof Burstow noted that the Trust does have forums for families to become engaged with the services. He emphasised the organisation will engage with other groups where there is mutual respect.
7.2.7 There were no further questions from the public.
In 7.2.4 we repeated our concerns regarding the accuracy and completeness of the minutes of the previous meeting.
The reference to those who ‘make the decision to transition a second time’ was Paul Jenkins way of referring to detransitioners.
The point about “mutual respect” in 7.2.6 refers to The Tavistock’s displeasure regarding our coverage in The Sunday Times.
Subsequent communication resulted in our meeting reinstatement appearing on the Agenda for the March 2020 meeting. However, by this time the Coronavirus was interfering with many such plans.
It became clear that the main board of The Tavistock and Portman were in “avoidance and denial” mode and any further engagement was not the best use of our time. We had raised our points, and we had the governing body thinking properly about them. Better still, our visits had resulted in parents concerns being treated seriously, by some governors, in The Sunday Times, and on BBC Newsnight.
A Care Quality Commission inspection is due.
Addendum (February 2021)
When the inspection report was published, sadly it did not pick up on all that we had hoped it would…
What the media missed about the Care Quality Commission’s Tavistock report
