Children as young as six on transgender waiting list

Numbers published by The Telegraph following a Freedom of Information request show that children as young as six-years-old are on the waiting list for NHS gender care.

Information obtained by the newspaper found that numbers on NHS England’s gender care waiting list have fallen by a third over the past year, with the average waiting time for an initial appointment being under two years.

More than 250 children of primary school age are currently on the waiting list, with the youngest being six years old. Over 4,000 children were waiting to be seen at one of the three NHS gender clinics as of March this year. This has fallen from a figure of over 6,000 children at the same point last year.

Fewer than ten of those on the waiting list were six or under, but NHS England would not release the exact figures as the small number could make it possible to breach confidentiality.

The Cass review, which was published in 2024, was critical of the gender services offered to children, saying that they had been let down by a lack of research and evidence. It led to a halt on puberty blocker medication being used for children with gender dysphoria. The Cass review had recommended a clinical trial to gather more evidence about this treatments, which was launched but was put on hold in February amid concerns about long-term risks.

NHS gender clinics offer therapy and specialist care for those with gender dysphoria, and new referrals have to be seen by both a GP and a mental health professional first.

Stephanie Davies-Arai, director of Transgender Trend, said: “The number of younger children is larger than in the past, which is not surprising when parents are now encouraged to believe their child is ‘trans’ if they don’t conform to rigid gender stereotypes.

“Clinicians at the new clinics should be advising these parents not to socially transition their child and set them on a pathway to medicalisation, but to allow them to grow up and grow out of it as the vast majority naturally do if they are not ‘affirmed’ as the opposite sex.”