Special Interest Group | Gender Dysphoria

Safeguarding Gender Distressed Children: After Cass

17 October 2024, 9:30am - 11:30am

Chair: Nicola O'Brien

Speaker: Sonia Appleby

The Cass Report (2024) emphasised the need for safe, effective clinical management of children and young people, who are questioning and/or distressed (GQ/D) regarding their gender identity.

Safeguarding (GQ/D) children and young people in the context of social and political controversy; intensified by disputes about the primacy of biological sex; ill-founded (Cass) medical interventions, compounded by affirmative rather than clinically, neutral care; the unprecedented numbers of children and young people and the rise of birth girls, some but likely more with neuro-divergent features, have provided a perfect storm of dangerous outcomes for children and young people, their families and professionals.

In the absence of national, multi-agency safeguarding procedures regarding children and young people affected by gender distress, professionals must ensure the pre-eminence and, therefore, constancy of safeguarding children and young people by not excluding any individual or groups based on a presumption of safety.

Sonia Appleby will undertake a presentation and open a discussion about managing ethical dilemmas associated with gender dysphoria (<18s) particularly in hostile organisations; how to avoid being isolated and where to access support.