The NHS England will test all children who believe they are transgender for autism following Baroness Cass’s review of gender identity for young people last year.
The move comes after the review by Cass found mental health conditions were significantly more likely to appear in children who say they have gender dysphoria.
According to The Telegraph, medics will evaluate each child’s mental health, their relationship with family, and their sexual development.
Part of the analysis is also said to include whether they are experiencing same-sex attraction.
The new guidance is set to be released for a public consultation before being implemented later this year.
It will be used by children’s gender clinics in London and Manchester after being given the green light by Cass at the start of 2025.
An NHS spokesman said: ‘As part of NHS England’s commitment to implement advice from the Cass Review, we have recently gone out to stakeholder testing on a proposed revised specification planned to replace the interim service specification for the Children and Young People’s Gender Service.
‘We will soon be going to full public consultation on this draft specification which sets out the new holistic assessment framework that was described by Cass in her report.
‘NHS England has recently changed the referral pathway so child patients can only access gender services that we commission if they’re referred by a paediatrician or a child and adolescent mental health worker.’
It comes after the news that women are set to be barred from female bathrooms and sport, an equality chief said this month – as lawyers suggested they could be asked to use disabled bathrooms at work.
The Supreme Court’s ruling that the definition of a woman in equality law is based on biological sex means trans women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) can be excluded from single-sex spaces if ‘proportionate’.
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) chairwoman Baroness Kishwer Falkner described the ruling as ‘enormously consequential’ and she vowed to pursue organisations which do not update their policies.
