‘Not in danger’: How social services are failing trans children

Three years after he first asked for medical help and still on the waiting list to receive gender affirming care, Adam* told his mother he would “feel better dead” than waiting to start his transition.

“He would break out in tears at home,” she recalls, “and never wanted to leave the house”.

In March 2025, Adam was 15. He “didn’t like himself or his body”, his mother continues, and made an attempt on his life.

“There had been so many delays in Adam being able to access gender affirming care that we became gravely worried for his life,” she says. “So I decided to take matters into my own hands and began to research private gender identity clinics based in the UK as Adam had turned 16.”

Adam’s parents found a clinic that said they follow global standards on best practice for trans healthcare, only work with fully qualified professionals who are regulated within their respective countries, and monitor patients continuously. Adam was allocated an endocrinology doctor from Spain and was prescribed testosterone in October 2025. His family were trained how to inject this medication, which they can collect from the local pharmacy.

But on the day that Adam was due to take his first injection, a social worker from the NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health team (CAMHS) met with him to follow up his referral for his gender dysphoria. Adam said he was excited for his first injection, but despite the fact that there is no ban on prescribing testosterone to 16 year olds, the social worker told him that taking his medication would be “illegal”.

The social worker and her manager admitted that they had no expertise in either gender dysphoria or gender affirming care, and that Adam was happy, healthy and well provided for in a strong and loving family unit. But they referred him to children’s services as a safeguarding concern. This started a series of upsetting and intrusive investigations, as well as stressful child protection meetings for Adam and his family. Social services even insisted on making a home visit on the day Adam’s mother suffered a miscarriage.

The pharmacy also suddenly refused to provide Adam’s testosterone – forcing the family to find an alternative pharmacy outside their town.

With the family fearing that the council would issue formal care proceedings, they reached out to Good Law Project. We started to prepare a claim, but after months of traumatic meetings, the local authority decided that Adam wasn’t at risk of significant harm. 

For Adam, the relief that his vital medical treatment can continue is monumental.

“He is feeling much more hopeful about his future,” his mother says, “more confident in himself and more willing to participate in day to day life. He is finally living again and there are no words to describe how this makes us feel.”

For Cat Knight, deputy head of legal at Good Law Project, Adam’s case reveals a wider problem of damaging referrals which run directly against children’s safety.

“We’re seeing a pattern of social services getting involved with families where young trans people are not in danger,” Knight says. “They have loving and supportive families, who are desperate to get essential and life saving treatment for their children. It is particularly concerning that the social worker in Adam’s case gave his family material from the transphobic charity Sex Matters.”

Good Law Project is following this issue closely to make sure that young people get the healthcare they need.

If you have been affected by this story, get in touch with us via email on legal@goodlawproject.org or via SecureDrop.

*We’ve changed Adam’s name, to protect his identity.