National Service Standards for Gender Identity Services:

Healthcare Improvement Scotland were commissioned to develop national standards for adult and young peoples gender identity services. Service standards, or standards of care, act as a benchmark for service provision so patients know what they should be able to expect when they use them. They provide a national minimum level of what a good service looks like – with the idea being that this makes sure people can be confident of getting person-centred, safe and effective healthcare.

This is the first time national service standards have been set for gender identity services. We hope that national service standards will mean that existing services across Scotland are delivered in a more consistent way and to a higher standard, as well as providing a strong foundation on which new and innovative services can be built. Most importantly they will mean that we, the people using the services, will have a clearer idea of what we can expect from them.

A self-assessment toolkit has also been created to enable gender identity services to evaluate how well their service is meeting the new standards. The toolkit allows services to develop an improvement plan. This could be a very important way of helping services improve – but it relies on them. We plan to regularly ask services if they’ve used the toolkit, what they’ve learned, and how they are planning to deliver on their improvement plan.

Transgender Care Knowledge and Skills Framework:

NHS Education for Scotland were asked by the Scottish Government to develop a Transgender Care Knowledge and Skills Framework. This document will set our what NHS staff need to know about caring for trans and non-binary patients. It has four levels – essential, skilled, enhanced and expert – and will apply to all NHS staff, from receptionists to nurses, GPs and staff at GICs.

We hope that this framework will mean staff across the NHS have a better understanding of how to care for trans and non-binary people. We also hope that it will have an impact on how many staff in Scotland are able to work in gender identity services. One of the biggest problems facing services right now is that they struggle to recruit staff who have the necessary knowledge and skills. This framework, and the training that will be developed to support it, will hopefully mean more people are able to be trained to work in GICs and deliver gender affirming care.

If you want to read more about what these two documents mean and why they are important, you can find out more in our guide ‘What’s happening with trans healthcare in Scotland?’