Health chiefs won’t be asked to back trans toolkit
HEALTH chiefs will not be asked to endorse a toolkit on the experiences of trans people amid fears contributors “could not participate safely in an open way”.
The Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group wanted to remove references to the use of hormone blockers in young people from the document, and for it to recognise sex as a protected characteristic.
Chief executive Julia Ross said those edits presented some “understandable challenges” for authors at Stand Against Racism and Inequality (Sari) and it was no longer seeking the CCG’s endorsement.
The toolkit was commissioned in 2018 to help health and care practitioners better understand issues around gender identity and what it means to be trans.
Ms Ross told the CCG’s governing body: “Our plan was to pull together an independent panel so we could ensure objectivity, remove any bias and ensure that our final set of mitigations fully represented all of our stakeholders’ needs.
“Unfortunately, this presented some understandable challenges for the original writing team within Sari. Most significantly, given the public climate around gender issues, there was discussion about the ability of various panel members from all stakeholder groups to feel that they could participate safely in an open way.”
The CCG wanted to make changes after concerns were raised by clinicians and an equality impact assessment highlighted potential negative impacts on the basis of sex, age, disability and faith/religion.
It had called for references to the use of hormone blockers in young people to be removed pending the outcome of the Hilary Cass review into gender identity services, and said the statement “doing nothing or delaying treatment CAUSES HARM” should be taken out.
Ms Ross said: “The Sari writing team has decided they will no longer seek the endorsement of the CCG for the toolkit and are going ahead to redraft it to reflect changes that have taken place since it was first written.
“They didn’t want to engage further in the kind of work we were proposing. We fully respect that decision.
She added: “We’re really sorry not to get to an agreed version of the toolkit but it’s just one component of delivering better healthcare for the transgender community and we remain committed to engaging with our population.”
The Bristol Education Research Group, a small campaign group formed to “challenge the prevailing assumptions regarding trans identified children and young people”, had raised concerns about the safety and effectiveness of puberty blockers for children and teenagers. It said the CCG was right not to endorse the toolkit.
Sari director Alex Raikes said: “The writing group continues to work in partnership with the CCG. They’ve been very supportive. We’re working with a number of partners to finalise the toolkit.”