Time to Think

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION ¿SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING ¿'This is what journalism is for' - Observer ¿Time to Think goes behind the headlines to reveal the truth about the NHS's flagship gender service for children. The Tavistock's Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) was set up initially to provide talking therapies to young people who were questioning their gender identity. But in the last decade GIDS referred around two thousand children, some as young as nine years old, for medication to block their puberty. In the same period, the number of referrals exploded and the profile of the patients changed: from largely pre-pubescent boys to mostly adolescent girls, who were often contending with other difficulties. Was there enough clinical evidence to justify such profound medical interventions? This urgent, scrupulous and dramatic book explains how GIDS has been the site of a serious medical scandal, in which ideological concerns took priority over clinical practice.It is a disturbing and gripping parable for our times.

Hannah Barnes spent fifteen years at the BBC specialising in analytical and investigative journalism, most recently as Investigations Producer for BBC Newsnight. Hannah is now an Associate Editor and Writer at the New Statesman.