BBC News
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image captionKeira Bell said the gender identity clinic should have challenged her more as a teenager
A Court of Appeal hearing begins today into whether under-16s can give informed consent to medical treatment that delays the onset of puberty.
The appeal is being brought by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the UK s only Gender Identity Development Service (Gids).
The appeal hearing will last for up to two days, and the court will also hear from LGBT and other interested groups.
The judgement is likely to be reserved until a later date.
Keira Bell, one of the claimants in the case, started taking puberty blockers at the age of 16 after being referred to the Tavistock and Portman Trust.
Jennifer Huls
Schools are using boys’ names for girls as young as 13 and recording them on official documents, a newspaper investigation has revealed.
The Mail on Sunday found that at least three mothers were not informed that their schools had started to refer to their daughters as boys after they began to identify as male.
Responding to the investigation, public law barrister Amanda Jones blasted the schools for “acting outside their powers” and warned that parental responsibility could not be overruled by “school diktat”.
‘Bullied’
One mother from the South of England was told over the phone that her 13-year-old daughter’s name had already been changed.
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday has found three mothers discovered schools had allowed their daughters to be called by boys names without first being consulted.
The management team of the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) in London has been disbanded , documents reveal.
It comes weeks after the clinic, run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, was judged inadequate by the Care Quality Commission.
Watchdogs said staff were afraid to raise concerns about patient safety for fear of retribution from bosses.
A report said: Staff did not always manage risk well. Many of the young [patients] were vulnerable and at risk of self-harm.
The management team of the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) in London has been disbanded , documents reveal. It comes weeks after the clinic, run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, was judged inadequate by the Care Quality Commission