Gender Dysphoria Clinical Programme

In 2018 we established a programme board for gender dysphoria services. The programme board is responsible for leading the future delivery and configuration of specialised services for people with gender dysphoria across England. Read the terms of reference and membership.

The Clinical Reference Group (CRG) provides independent expert advice to the Programme Board for Gender Dysphoria Services on the various aspects of the board’s work.

  • Chair, Dr John Dean, Consultant at Devon Partnership NHS Trust
  • Dr Sarah Davidson, Consultant Clinical Psychologist
  • Matthew Mills, Consultant Speech and Language Therapist
  • Dr Talat Mushtaq, Consultant in Paediatric Endocrinology
  • Dr Jatinder Singh, General Practitioner
  • Dr Robert Wilson, Consultant in Public Health Medicine.

Since the Programme Board for Gender Dysphoria Services was set up, it has:

  • developed two new service specifications for adult services, that were agreed by us as an outcome of extensive stakeholder engagement and public consultation
  • overseen the process of awarding contracts for the provision of specialised services for adults (surgical and non-surgical) through a process of competitive procurement
  • developed the framework for the establishment of new gender dysphoria services in primary care and sexual health services, as pilots for evaluation, in London, Greater Manchester and Cheshire and Merseyside
  • established a national referral support service to assist individuals in choosing a surgical provider that can best meet their objectives; the next phase of this work will involve establishing a new quality framework that requires designated surgical providers to report meaningful clinical indicators, and that includes patient reported outcome and experience measures (to be co-designed with people with lived experience).

Adult services for gender dysphoria

In 2018 we published two new service specifications for adult services, formed through a process of extensive stakeholder engagement and public consultation. You can read the analysis of responses and consultation report; and the service specifications:

Gender identity development service for children and young people

The existing service specification and clinical commissioning policy for the gender identity development service have now reached their planned review date. Both documents are being considered as part of a full independent review of the service which will take place during 2020-21. You can read the terms of reference for review of gender identity development service for children and adolescents.

The current service specification and clinical commissioning policy are available below: