MLAs call for transparency over NI gender clinic after Mike Nesbitt confirms he has Cass recommendations

Mike Nesbitt was responding to a review of NHS transgender services in Northern Ireland by Baroness Hilary Cass. She was called in by the UUP minister after criticism last summer of his announcement of a ‘lifespan’ service for people questioning their gender.

Unionist MLAs, including some in Mr Nesbitt’s own party, had questioned the fact there is no lower age limit on referrals. There has also been opposition to his endorsement of children in Northern Ireland taking part in trials of puberty blocking drugs.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health (DoH) confirmed that officials had received Baroness Cass’s review of the service in Northern Ireland – but gave limited information on her recommendations.

DoH said three of her recommendations focus on “integration with paediatric services, and clinical leadership within under-18 services” – but did not explain what this meant for the existing Lifespan service, signed off and funded by Mr Nesbitt in July.

The minister told the assembly this week that the current model is “a key asset of the Northern Ireland approach, as is the chance to have a seamless interface across the age range”.

Officials also said the aim of the recommendations was “to align NI services with those in England, including securing staffing and funding a clinical lead”.

Diane Dodds, who sits on the assembly’s health committee, said the report must be published in full. The DUP MLA warned that “any suggestion or attempt at secrecy will only deepen public mistrust”.

TUV MLA Timothy Gaston said there are “serious questions” about why work is already under way without the aAssembly having seen the Cass report – saying that “scrutiny is being bypassed and democratic oversight weakened”.

The DoH has declined to commit to publishing the final report in full when asked by the News Letter over recent months.

Mrs Dodds said families, clinicians and the wider public “are entitled to see the evidence and recommendations in their entirety, not filtered or selective summaries carefully released by the minister”.

“We are told that alignment with England is one recommendation, but that raises serious and unanswered questions, particularly around age thresholds, clinical safeguards and the nature of future provision, given that services here have previously been offered to children as young as five.”

Mr Gaston told the News Letter that the department “remains unwilling to provide basic clarity” on who was involved in the co-design of these services.

“When services dealing with vulnerable children and young people are being reshaped, it matters profoundly who is at the table, who is excluded and whose assumptions are being built into the system from the outset. This is particularly the case when you have activist groups like the Rainbow Project and similar organisations which are ideologically committed to extreme transgender positions.

“Despite repeated Assembly questions from myself, the minister has refused to give a clear, comprehensive list of co-design partners.”