A leading review has found the "toxicity" of the debate surrounding gender has let down young people with gender dysphoria.

The Cass Review, as published today by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, has called for gender services for young people to match the standards of other NHS care.

The long-awaited report showed that young people with gender dysphoria are being set on a path of irreversible change despite limited medical data.

Cass' conclusions are documented in a 388-page report, making 32 recommendations on how gender services for children and young people should operate.

Addressing children and young people in the foreword to her report, she wrote: "I have been disappointed by the lack of evidence on the long-term impact of taking hormones from an early age; research has let us all down, most importantly you.

"The reality is we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress."

She added that young people have been "caught in the middle of a stormy social discourse...There are few other areas of healthcare where professionals are so afraid to openly discuss their views, where people are vilified on social media, and where name-calling echoes the worst bullying behaviour."

Cass laid the groundwork for schools to introduce clearer guidance when dealing with trans children, ending the exclusion of parents, recommending a "follow-through service" for 17 to 25-year-olds to protect teenagers "falling off a cliff edge" in care when they hit 17.

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Today's review has been welcomed by both Conservatives and Labour. Rishi Sunak said the Government had "acted swiftly" after the interim report in 2022 and "will continue to ensure we take the right steps to protect young people."

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting described it as "a watershed moment for the NHS's gender identity services".

An NHS spokesperson said: "NHS England is very grateful to Dr Cass and her team for their comprehensive work on this important review over the past four years.

“The NHS has made significant progress towards establishing a fundamentally different gender service for children and young people, in line with earlier advice by Dr Cass and following extensive public consultation and engagement, by stopping the routine use of puberty suppressing hormones and opening the first of up to eight new regional centres delivering a different model of care."

Helen Joyce of gender critical charity Sex Matters, said: "Hilary Cass's report demolishes the entire basis for the current model of treating gender-distressed children.

"It is a shameful day for NHS England, which for too long gave vulnerable children harmful treatments for which there was no evidence base.

"Cass's review is a breath of fresh air, marking a return to common-sense decision-making and evidence-based medical treatment."

A spokesman for Bayswater, a group that supports parents of trans children, said the Cass Report "represents a sea change in the treatment of trans-identified children and young people."

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told GB News: "This is a really important report. Labour accepts all the recommendations.

"Children have been badly let down because the support has not been based on evidence."