TIMELINE FOR CHANGE

● SEPTEMBER 2020: The Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People is commissioned to make recommendations about NHS services for gender-questioning children and young people.

It is led by Dr Hilary Cass, former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

The review follows the rise in referrals to the Gender identity Development Service, based at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, from just under 250 in 2011-12 to over 5,000 in 2021-22.

● OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021: The Care Quality Commission watchdog inspects Gids – the only service in England for children and young people with gender dysphoria. It also treats young people from Wales.

● JANUARY 2022: The CQC rates the service inadequate overall. It says it is difficult to access, young people wait more than two years for a first appointment and staff do not develop holistic care plans.

● MARCH 2022: Dr Cass’s interim report says a “fundamentally different service model is needed”. She concludes a sole provider is “not a safe or viable long-term option”.

● JULY 2022: The NHS announces Gids will close and be replaced with a regional network, aimed to be up and running by spring 2023.

● 2023: The regional clinics operating deadline is pushed back to spring 2024 amid the “complex” set-up of the “completely new service”.

● MARCH 2024: NHS England confirms children will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender clinics.

● APRIL 2024: New regional hubs open, led by London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool. It is hoped they will be the first of up to eight centres in the next two years. Dr Cass publishes her final report.