CALL TO ACTION
Please help us put pressure on the three main professional bodies* for psychotherapy and psychology to implement the recommendations of the Cass Review. You can do this by reporting them to the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care and the Charity Commission for England and Wales. See below.
* British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) The British Psychological Society (BPS) UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)
INTRODUCTION
“It has been 18 months since the Cass Review was published and nothing has happened”. These are the words of Dr Christian Buckland, former Chair of the UKCP, in an interview with Talk TV. When asked by the host whether this was damaging children, Dr Buckland replied unequivocally “Yes”.
Dr Buckland is not alone in his concerns. In an exposé published by the Sunday Telegraph he was joined by three former leaders of the UKCP, BPS, and BACP. Collectively they blew the whistle on their respective professional organisations for failing to “protect gender-questioning children from policies that would encourage them to be trans and go on to receive life-altering drugs and surgery”.
These organisations are culpable because the Cass Review, published in April 2024, declared in Recommendation 31 that: “Professional bodies must come together to provide leadership and guidance on the clinical management of this population taking account of the findings of this report”(p.45).
The Review also stated that: “Clinical staff need support and guidance from their professional bodies to apply the evidence-based approaches described in this report” (p231). Clinical staff are still waiting for that support and guidance. Young people who are gender-questioning are still at risk of seeing psychotherapists and psychologists who practice ‘gender-affirming care’ – an approach criticised in the Cass Review and a contributory factor in the closure of the Tavistock GIDS clinic. The professional bodies’ responses to the Telegraph exposé are inadequate and unacceptable. A full 18 months has passed since the Cass Review was published and children remain at risk of significant harm due to their inaction.
TAKE ACTION
Please write to both the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care and the Charity Commission for England and Wales raising concerns about the risk of harm to gender-questioning children and young people arising from the failure of the BACP, BPS and UKCP to implement the recommendations of the Cass Review. Below is some suggested wording, but we recommend you use your own words and add your own concerns based on your personal experiences. It may be helpful to reference the Sunday Telegraph exposé.
In the 18 months that have elapsed since the publication of the Cass Review, the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, the British Psychological Society and the UK Council for Psychotherapy, have all failed to follow Recommendation 31 of the Review to ‘come together to provide leadership and guidance on the clinical management of this population taking account of the findings of this report’. Failures on the part of these professional bodies, represents a serious safeguarding risk to children and young people who are gender-questioning. Without clear leadership and guidelines from those professional bodies, their members are not properly equipped to provide appropriate care for this client group.
BACP: Has not even publicly acknowledged the Review’s existence. Former Chair Natalie Bailey has highlighted governance failures regarding implementation of the Cass Review and accuses the BACP of agreeing to a policy that “pushed for affirmative care in children.”
BPS: Initially acknowledged the Cass Review but has taken no action to implement its recommendations.
UKCP: Claims to be developing ‘gender-related guidance’ but has not implemented Cass Review recommendations and has been accused, by former Chair Martin Pollecoff, of producing ‘fraudulent’ minutes of a meeting in relation to the inclusion of children in the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy.
Please send your complaints to the following email addresses:
1. Professional Standards Authority
share@professionalstandards.org.uk
2. Charity Commission
enquiries@charitycommission.gov.uk
Please let us know if you have made a complaint with a message on our Contact form. Thank you.