We’ve just uploaded our recent webinar on childhood social transition.
The context for this webinar is the recent guidance from the government to schools on social transition, and the current public consultation on the matter. This consultation will run until the 12 March. We hope that after listening to the webinar people may feel inspired to contribute to the consultation, especially if you are a parent, teacher or school governor.
The background to this, and the reason we believe this has clinical dimensions, is the interim Cass review which talked about social transition as a clinical intervention, not a neutral act, and one that could have a significant impact on a child or young person’s wellbeing and development.
Hilary Cass noted the lack of evidence for risks or benefits and that more knowledge is needed. The current evidence base is very poor but what evidence there is suggests not only that social transition does not improve children and young person’s psychological wellbeing but that it can interfere with the natural resolution of gender dysphoria that occurs in about 80% of young people who previously identified as trans.
The website for the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine has scholarly articles on the evidence about social transition. An independent group of systematic review specialists at McMaster’s university in Canada has done a systematic review of the evidence on social transition which will be published soon, and as soon as it is we will share on our website.
We were delighted to have three great speakers:
Stephanie Davies-Arai BEM. Founder and director of Transgender Trend (a UK based organisation calling for evidence-based treatment of children experiencing gender-related distress and science-based teaching in schools). Stephanie talked about what ‘social transition’ means, how it developed as an approach, the historical context and the evidence we have comparing watchful waiting with gender affirmative approaches.
Dr David Bell who retired in 2021, after 25 years as a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Tavistock- where he led a Unit for the treatment of serious/complex psychiatric disorders. In 2018 in his role as academic and clinical representative on Trust’s Council of governors he delivered a report on the GIDS which brought to the attention of the Trust very serious concerns about the service. This report became public and the was one of the factors leading to NHS review and eventually the decision to close the service. He is a psychoanalyst and a Past President of the British Psychoanalytic Society. David talked about social transition from a clinical perspective, with reference to the Cass interim review and proposed changes to children and young people’s gender services.
We were sorry that our third speaker Dr Jane Martin was unwell and not able to join us in the webinar. But we were delighted that in her place we had Peter Jenkins. Peter is a counsellor, supervisor, trainer and researcher, and a member of the steering committee of Thoughtful Therapists. Peter presented aspects of the talk that Jane was going to give, covering three main issues:
How might materials used in schools to promote gender identity ideology persuade children to accept and act upon their message? What are some examples of materials used in schools to promote gender identity theory? Is social transition a child safeguarding issue? You can read Dr Jane Martin’s paper here.
Other organisations have published draft guidance for responding to the government’s consultation on its schools guidance including Transgender Trend and Sex Matters.