Young Person's Service FAQs

1-    What is the Nottingham Young People Gender Service (NYGS)?

Our service (NYGS) will offer psychosocial support from a range of specialist healthcare professionals to young people seeking support for their gender identity who are under the care of one of the specialist paediatric endocrinology (hormone) services based at University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust or Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

2-    Who is this service for?

This service is for young people under 17 years and 6 months who have previously been assessed by GIDS at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and were referred to, and accepted by, the endocrinology service and are:

·       Waiting to start on gender affirming hormones who have been accepted for care; or

·       Waiting to start on puberty suppressing hormones who have been accepted for care; or

·       Currently receiving puberty suppressing hormones; or

·       Currently receiving gender affirming hormone treatment

The service does not accept referrals of any other individuals or from any other service.

3-    Why has this service been developed?

Following the closure of GIDS at the end of March 2024, patients have been moved to new services. Young people who are already receiving puberty suppressing hormones or gender affirming hormones, or have been accepted for this treatment, will continue under the care of their current endocrine team. However, they may also need additional specialist psychosocial support or specialist assessment linked to their gender identity, we (NYGS) will be offering this.

4-    Who is working in the new service?

This is a new service, and the staff structure is comprised of clinical psychologists, paediatricians, nurses, psychiatrist, family therapists, specialist nurses, care navigators, speech and language therapists and social workers as part of the multidisciplinary team.

5-    When will young people be seen by the service?

NYGS opens 1April 2024. We will review all referrals using information provided by GIDS (this information is held securely by NYGS) to identify care needs. This will include your care needs, the appropriate support pathway, and time since your last appointment. We aim to have minimal delays to your care. We anticipate that face to face appointments will be offered in July. If any further information in required NYGS will contact, you and/or the appropriate services. We will offer consultation to the endocrinology team looking after you to discuss any psychosocial concerns that they may have while you wait to see us.

Unless we need to contact you for more information, we will not write to you again until we able to arrange your first appointment.

6-    For how long will NYGS be involved with the young person?

We will support young people, together with their families or carers, until either:

·       they have been accepted into an adult service, or

·       they agree with their care teams at NYGS and the endocrinology clinics that they no longer need the care gender services.

7-    What do I need to do before my first appointment?

Once NYGS receives your referral, we will review it. We hope to start reviewing all the referrals around the 10^th of April as it will take a bit of time for the referrals to go into our system. If there is any information missing, we will contact you and we will send you a letter with a link for you to complete a short form online. If you and your parents/carers are ok to receive correspondence via email or sms, please signed the attached form and send it back to us, 

If there is anything unclear in the referral and in the form, we will organise a phone conversation. 

8-    How will this service work with the endocrinology services that are looking after the young person currently?

Every young person who wants their current treatment to continue will be looked after by their endocrinology service in London or Leeds. This will not change. NYGS will be offering psychological and psychosocial support before and/or during their hormone treatment. We will work closely with patients’ endocrine teams. Our clinical teams will meet with the paediatricians regularly to discuss and agree ongoing treatment decisions.

9-     What does psychosocial care mean?

Psychosocial care at NYGS will involve a comprehensive assessment of a young person’s individuals needs related to the mental health and social wellbeing. This may or may not involve significant others such as family or friends. If appropriate personalised support plans describing psychological intervention or support (if required) will be developed with the young person.

10- What do I do if I am struggling with my mental health until I see you?

If you are struggling with your mental health, we advise going to speak to your GP or your local child and adolescent mental health service. NYGS is not a crisis service and so we cannot provide support with this.

11- Where is NYGS based?

We are based in Nottingham city centre (3 Oxford Street, Nottingham NG1 5BH). There is easy access by train, bus, and car.

We understand that people who are not from Nottingham will have to travel for their appointments, and that this may involve additional time and cost. However, the staff will have a lot of experience in offering online appointments and consultations and they have good facilities for this. We will offer online appointments whenever clinically appropriate after a few initial face-to-face appointments.

Some people may be eligible to claim back travel costs, using the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme .

12- I have some questions about my care.

We appreciate this may be an anxiety provoking time and you may have questions about your care. We do hope this letter alleviates some of that. Please do not contact the Nottingham Young People Gender Service with questions about your hormone treatment as we will not be able to answer them.

If you have questions about your continuing hormone treatment, please contact your lead clinician at the hormone clinic. If you have any urgent questions you can email us on: NYGSadmin@nottshc.nhs.uk

Please do not contact the GIDS at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust after 31 March 2024.