ALT Let's Talk about DATA What is data? Why do we collect it? How should it be stored and processed?

ALT We have already seen the negative effects of the media discussions of the report and want to reassure you that we will be taking time over the coming weeks to read and analyse the publications in full, and hope to share our fully-formed reflections with you, our community. All trans people, regardless of age, have the right to live as themselves, free from discrimination and violence, particularly from the institutions that should be there to protect them. It is vital that we preserve bodily autonomy for everyone. The continued attacks on trans people’s autonomy cause very real harm for trans people and all people fighting for the right to bodily autonomy. We will continue to fight for the care and dignity every trans person of every age deserves.

ALT We believe that the report recommendations will lead to further gatekeeping for trans children and young people, particularly around access to medical treatment. This Review will also have international implications that will cause direct and irreparable harm to young trans people. The Trans Learning Partnership knows the importance of centering lived experience and community expertise in creating impactful research. We have long been concerned that the Cass Review does not understand this importance, and we believe this is clearly reflected in the final publication.

ALT We are particularly concerned about the content discussing neurodiversity; social transition; and access to medications for children and young people. The report positions the fact that clinicians are unable to predict the future of children and young people’s gender expression as a critical failing of current practice. No service can or should aim to predict the future of children or young people’s lives and the idea that a clinician will know a young person better than they know themselves is in direct contradiction to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The aim for clinicians should be to provide a safe, accessible and supportive service which provides individualised care to all children and young people it encounters. We also note that despite the review’s scope being limited to under 18 year olds, the report comments on adult care and makes recommendations which could be seen as threatening access to hormone medication for adults.

ALT The report is accompanied by several literature reviews prepared by the University of York. These reports determine that the evidence base in this area is generally of ‘low quality’. The report then dismisses this evidence, claiming that it cannot be considered in policy making. There is no acknowledgement that much of medicine, particularly for children and young people, uses evidence bases of similar quality to understand and direct developing policy. Additionally, the report makes multiple recommendations on the basis of other research without qualification to its quality. Some of these recommendations follow entirely spurious narratives and draw unfounded conclusions. The whole report is positioned in a way which considers continuation of current medication access as harmful, but removal of the current medication access as a neutral or beneficial act, despite no evidence to support this.

ALT On 10th April, the final report of the Cass Review was published. It is clear from the outset that this review has used a patriarchal, cisnormative view of society and questionable research etiquette to make claims and recommendations which will have outstanding and immediate negative implications for the care provided to children and young people. While there are some recommendations that we believe would be beneficial to children and young people and their healthcare access if appropriately implemented, these recommendations are delivered with a tone of cis-supremacy and transphobia which serves to undermine the rights of children and young people.