Chamber and committees

There are currently four gender identity services providing specialist gender identity healthcare to adults in NHS Scotland. A separate service for young people accepts referrals from across Scotland. The governance of each of gender identity healthcare service remains the responsibility of the respective Health Board running the service.

Several actions from the NHS Gender Identity Services: Strategic Action Framework 2022-2024, published in December 2021, jointly support the NHS Health Boards in strengthening governance arrangements to deliver safe and effective healthcare:

?Healthcare Improvement Scotland has published national Gender identity healthcare services standards. These support national consistency in the multidisciplinary delivery and coordination of high-quality gender identity healthcare, which is based on current evidence and best practice. Standards apply to all services where people may access gender identity healthcare and are clear in expectation that organisations must demonstrate effective and collaborative leadership, governance and partnership working.

• The Gender reassignment protocol for Scotland (September 2024) sets out expectations for pathways and delivery of NHS Scotland adult gender identity healthcare.
• NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) has published their Transgender Care Knowledge and Skills framework for adults and is now developing an annex to the Framework for staff supporting children and young people who are trans or gender-questioning
• On 28 October 2025, Public Health Scotland published, for the second time, nationally collated data on waiting times for accessing NHS gender identity clinics. This follows the first publication on 5 November 2024, which was the first of its kind in the UK.