Alison McGovern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to implement the recommendation of Professor Steve Field in his report on how the NHS treats transgender people.

Jane Ellison

Specialised gender identity services are directly commissioned by NHS England.

NHS England has considered the outcomes of the listening exercise conducted by Professor Field and has put in place a significant programme of work to improve healthcare services for transgender and non-binary people. A dedicated task group has been established to provide leadership and coordination of NHS England’s work to improve transgender and non-binary people’s experience of the National Health Service, and NHS England holds a Transgender Network event twice a year. Regular updates on NHS England’s work to improve gender identity services are given on NHS England’s website by the Regional Director of Specialised Commissioning (London) who chairs the task group.

A Clinical Reference Group for Gender Identity Services has been established, comprising professional and lay experts. This group makes recommendations to NHS England on clinical matters. Issues around the standardisation of pathways across gender identity services and clinical protocols are being considered as part of the current work to develop a service specification that, it is proposed, will describe how NHS England will commission these services in the future. The process for developing a proposed service specification has included a period of public consultation.