Psychologists fear transgender children are being coached to provide preconceived notions to access puberty blockers, Court of Appeal hears
- The former head of the NHS trusts parents and friends fear putting children under pressure
- The NHS changed guidance on ‘puberty blockers’ following landmark management last year
- Children should not be allowed blockers unless they understand long-term risks
- The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is appealing for the Supreme Court ruling
Children may be getting ‘coached’ to provide answers to access youth inmates, the Court of Appeal has heard.
Dr David Bell, a former governor of the NHS gender identity trust, said transgender children could be under the pressure of parents, friends or online products when dealing with feelings of sexual dysphoria.
Psychologist Tavistock and the NHS Portman Foundation Trust for nearly 25 years until this month, have now allowed Dr Bell to intervene in a specific legal case to determine if for transgender children to legally take puberty blockers.
In last year’s Keira Bell trial, the Supreme Court agreed that children should not be prevented from puberty unless they understand the long-term risks and consequences. Ms Bell started taking them at the age of 16 after getting permission from the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, but then decided to reverse a sex transfer
The Trust launched an appeal against a Supreme Court ruling from November which ruled that the children of the perpetrators should not be allowed unless they understand the ‘dangers and the their long-term results ’.
At the time, the NHS changed its direction overnight without a court order.
Dr Bell, who was described as a ‘high-profile traitor’ in legal documents after investigating the trust’s’ real concerns’ about the use of blockers in August 2018, said he was’ feeling ‘suffering for the whistleblowing’ and so did not take part in the first High Court battle.
A report also found that Tavistock’s gender identity clinic was not ‘fit for purpose’, ‘warning that some young patients will‘ live with the destructive consequences ’.
His intervention, which will include concerns raised by practitioners that children may have been coached to respond, will be heard over two days in April.
After his retirement on January 15, however, he feels ‘he is no longer subject to the same restrictions’, the legal documents say, but ‘there is evidence that fear of staff coming forward ‘.
‘Dr Bell, a distinguished psychologist who was hitherto in a senior position with the Appellant, is now free from his work and able to investigate the concerns, which he has thoroughly investigated,’ he add.
Dr David Bell, former governor of the NHS Tavistock and Portman trust, will give evidence against his appeal in April, as he warns that some children are being ‘coached,’ to provide responses with parents to obtain puberty inhibitors
In addition to the potential for stress on children, ‘very complex factors’ such as family death may influence perceptions of gender, the documents state.
Last year’s case against the NHS Trust was launched by Keira Bell, who caught puberty blockers at 16 before deciding the sex change process seven years later.
She said she should have more challenge about her decision.
Lawyers for ‘Mrs A’, the mother of a 15-year-old girl on the waiting list for treatment, said children ‘going through tuberculosis’ are unable to properly understand the nature and effects of hormonal blockers.