A chequered history

Eighteen years of controversy

2004

Clinical nurse Susan Evans became the first to blow the whistle about the ‘precipitous referral’ of children in the clinic on to a medical path to change gender

2014

GIDS lowered the prescription age for puberty blockers from 16 to 11, and Dr Polly Carmichael, the clinic’s director, appeared on the CBBC programme I Am Leo praising them

2018

Dr David Bell, a leading psychiatrist and then staff governor at the Tavistock, wrote an internal report urging the clinic to suspend all experimental hormone treatment for children

2020

The High Court ruled that it was ‘highly unlikely’ a child under 13 could give informed consent to puberty blocker treatment and ‘doubtful’ for those aged 14 or 15. It followed a legal challenge by Keira Bell

Jan 2021

The GIDS clinic was rated ‘inadequate’, the lowest mark, by the Care Quality Commission, with inspectors finding ‘significant concerns’ and a ‘crisis of capacity’ with 5,000 children on waiting lists

Sept 2021

The Court of Appeal overturned the High Court’s ruling following an appeal by the Tavistock Trust, allowing doctors to judge if under-16s can give informed consent to puberty blockers

Sept 2021

Sonia Appleby, a top psychotherapist, was awarded £20,000 in damages after a tribunal found the Tavistock Trust’s treatment of her prevented proper work on safeguarding