THE Scottish Government has published its response to the recommendation made by an independent team regarding how the Cass Review can be applied to NHS Scotland.
A senior clinical team, commissioned by the chief medical officer for Scotland, considered all 32 recommendations of the Cass Review into gender identity services for children and young people in NHS England.
The team assessed to what extent each recommendation was applicable in a Scottish context and whether they could be implemented in Scotland’s health service.
The recommendations from the team for the Scottish health service included senior clinical staff, preferably a consultant, who should take responsibility for each young person’s care.
Puberty-suppressing hormones, also called puberty blockers, should be paused until further clinical trials are done.
Care plans should include a full assessment of the child's psychological and physical needs and that a regional service for children and young people should begin immediately.
They also added that services should be as local as possible and based in the children’s health services.
Pre-election rules prevented the publication in the run-up to the General Election, but a commitment was made to the Scottish Parliament to publish at the first opportunity after the restricted period ended.
The Scottish Government will now consider the recommendations from the clinical team and will outline how they plan on implementing the changes and how they aim to fund future services.
Health Secretary Neil Gray (below) said the Scottish Government remains committed to offering ongoing support and wants to improve gender identity healthcare for children and young people.
He said: “The Scottish Government welcomes the multi-disciplinary team’s report, which has carefully considered the Cass Review’s recommendations and how they apply to Scotland.
“The conclusions of the report will now be considered and used to improve gender identity healthcare for children and young people. The Scottish Government will update Parliament after summer recess.
“We remain absolutely committed, not just to ensuring ongoing support is available, but to reforming and improving gender identity healthcare across Scotland.”
The review, which was published by Dr Hilary Cass (below) earlier this year, made a series of recommendations about what should change in the provision of transgender healthcare for people under the age of 18.
Cass’s claim that there was “remarkably weak” evidence on medical interventions led to the NHS in Scotland pausing the prescription of puberty blockers and hormone treatments to new patients under 18.
The Scottish Government commissioned the recommended applications of the Cass Review for NHS Scotland despite it being harshly criticised by academics.
Deputy chief medical officer, Professor Graham Ellis, said the team approached the Cass Review with the aim of providing holistic and person-centred care for young people and children in Scotland.
He said: “The Cass Review was established to make recommendations on how to improve NHS England gender identity services for children and young people. Through this review, we have aimed to set out which recommendations could apply to Scotland, and how they might be implemented.
“At the heart of this question are children and young people in distress, and our ambition must remain focused on meeting their needs with holistic, person-centred care as close to home as practical.
“The Cass Review identified the need to ensure that gender identity services for young people are more closely aligned with other areas of clinical practice, and that responsibility for the full range of services required should extend beyond specialist services. This will be essential as we seek to always provide the best possible care.
“In responding to the Cass Review, the multi-disciplinary team looked at the recommendations from a clinical perspective, always remembering that we have a responsibility to make sure that all children and young people grow up safe, respected and supported.”
