03/05/2017 London News

We hear from young people with gender identity issues

about the impact of having to wait up to two years for treatment.

I developed an eating disorder caused by my gender dysphoria.

I struggled with depression and self-harm and being suicidal.

However, there is concern over what age treatment should be offered.

We look at the challenge of paying for adult social care ahead

As kids in the capital are encouraged to move more

by Lord Coe, we talk to him about anti-doping measures in sport.

Plus, how one of the biggest pop stars on the planet surprised

a special young fan, and her dad captured

We'll tell you why Ed Sheeran arranged a special one-to-one

performance for this ten year-old from Croydon.

Welcome to BBC London News with me, Riz Lateef.

Young people who are experiencing gender identity issues are having

to wait up to two years to be seen at London's only

A leading expert in the field has likened the wait to suffering

Ben Hunte has been to meet one young person on the list.

I developed an eating disorder caused by my gender dysphoria,

I've struggled with depression and self-harm and being suicidal.

Alex is one of thousands of teenagers in the UK who would

He's asked the NHS for help and has been made to wait more than a year.

I felt like I was having to put my whole life on hold to wait

for this thing I needed, with no idea at the time

because it was so unclear how long it would be and how long

It was something that affected the whole family.

We were really very frightened and alone,

Nobody seemed to be able to advise us.

Everyone was saying they didn't know anything about gender issues

and it was the Tavistock who would advise on that,

but we couldn't see the Tavistock for months and months.

Alex is waiting to be seen at the Tavistock, the UK's only

clinic for under 18s who have difficulties with

They offer everything from counselling to puberty

blockers, medication which prevents the body's natural development.

And the demand has never been higher.

BBC London has learned that between 2016 and 2017,

there were just over 2,000 referrals to the clinic.

Looking back to the previous year, there were just

That equates to a 104% increase - a doubling in the numbers.

This demand is leading to long waiting times,

which some experts say is damaging to health.

For them, the wait is hugely distressing.

Every day is an agony, as they see themselves being more

and more developing into a physical body that is quite foreign to them.

Although the Tavistock Centre acknowledges it can do more

to reduce waiting times, the team says some of the treatments

are life-changing and can lead to infertility,

We offer young people the opportunity over time to be

thinking about their options and thinking about what's right

for them both in the present and in the long-term.

And gender identities may carry on or they may change over time,

and I think it's about not racing forward too quickly

The centre is now recruiting more staff to deal with

Even so, for young people like Alex, the wait continues.

We should be worried about young people having

to wait for this therapy, because trans teenagers have such

a high rate of suicide and mental health problems.

We're risking their lives when we make them wait for treatment.

No-one knows why the demand for gender therapy has

But experts say, despite the wait, any young people who need help

Our correspondent, Alex Bushill joins me now in the studio,

and Alex, there is a debate over these treatments, isn't there?

As we heard in Ben's report there, there are many young people who

benefit hugely from the work and treatment that is on offer out there

on the NHS, but there are critical voices and B are concerned while it

would be of course very cruel to refuse trans people of the treatment

that they need, equally they say it would be unfair and unethical to

pressurise youngsters to have decisions that they have to make

that they later regret. On that point, we have been speaking here to

five parents, who have really deep concerns. These are parents of trans

children themselves. One of them said his daughter has no proudly, it

is a lesbian women, who now believes it was never appropriate for her to

have thought of herself as being trans in the first place. That is

the point many of the critics focusing on this idea, decisions

that people later regret. Critics like the founder of trans gender

trend. She is also an author Andy children's communicators expert.

We're treating them as if they're adults and they know themselves.

Nobody as an adult identifies in the same way as they did

We have to give children a chance to grow up before making such

There's no evidence base, there's no long-term research.

We have no idea of the affect of blockers on the developing

She is concerned about the role of social media and goes a step

further, arguing there is unfair pressure on gay young people to

change the opposite sex in order to become more heterosexual. That last

point is a particularly contentious one. As for the Tavistock clinic,

the stress that these decisions are not rushed and very many of the

trans children or trans young people that they deal with, who are often

suicidal before they come to them, this is not only a life changing

treatment, it is also potentially life-saving. OK, thanks Alex.

Now, as the election campaign got formally underway,

the issues of health and tax surfaced immediately in the capital.

Some councils have long refused to sign up to NHS plans,

which could see some hospitals lose their A department.

Today, Labour pledged to put all closures on hold, if elected.

While the Tories suggested Labour planned to raise taxes.

We can get more from our political Editor Tim Donovan at Westminster.

Here at the outset, a pretty good idea of the likely dividing lines?

Yes, public services from Labour straightaway, a handful of A Es

could be under threat in the capital. There are plans to

downgrade some hospitals, the suggestion will be closures. St

Helier Hospital in south-west London, one of the cluster of five

credit has been an option to close one of these hospitals. Labour CV

are not putting off for ever the idea of this kind of

rationalisation. The seeing if they were elected they would have an

immediate moratorium and hold off and look at this again with an

expert panel and also do a lot more public consultation. This was Sadiq

Khan, the Mayor of London today. I've seen in West London,

in North London, I was in Redbridge of the broken promises

from the Conservative Government. A top down re-organisation

costing billions of pounds, A Es across London

are closed, which means, literally, people's

lives being put at risk. And I welcome this announcement

to halt the A closures whilst a full review

is undertaken. You don't exactly find a lot of

politicians campaigning during elections to close A Es. The Lib

Dems are looking to make gains in this part of London. The trying to

get back in places like Kingston, a hospital that has been named as

under threat. This is health spokesman.

Fundamentally, if there is not enough money in the system,

however you rejig those services, you are never going to be able

to provide the quality of care that is needed,

and that's why as a party, the Liberal Democrats,

we are calling for significant investment to be made in the NHS.

The Conservatives didn't want that anyone up for interview but the

icing of Labour's policy, how come when the supported the principles of

NHS reform in 2015 election, the eye seeing this is all about economic

competence. On that note, they have specifically raised the possibility

that Labour, in reversing giveaway taxes, which its financial spokesman

has been suggesting, that it may well be the Tories claim that Labour

may well half the threshold at which you pay inheritance tax, you will be

paying it much earlier. That 40% rate. Labour say there is no

intention to do that. But you have to wait and see their manifesto. The

Lib Dems have been focusing on education and schools, they have

been welcoming the suggestion today it has been suggested the

Conservatives are facing controversy over death of the funding formula

which could reduce money to many of London's schools. It is already

leading suggestion schools are going to have to lay off staff. There is a

suggestion the Tories are not going to go ahead with that proposal. Of

course, there is an election tomorrow, not here in London but

London. The four home counties, the Conservatives are dominant and, of

course. These four. 186 councillors they have at the moment, compared to

36 Lib Dems, 25 Labour, 13 you get, and 20 others. One thing they agree

on is caring for an ageing population. You may remember that

controversy involving Surrey. There was the suggestion might have split

council tax up by 15%. The scrap those plans. How are they going to

pay for this care? We visited a care home in Surrey and asked residents,

staff and the politicians. Hello, Doreen. It is not your

average care home seen, it's here at Priory Court near Epsom they have

their very own pub room. One apple juice coming up. Some light relief

is needed. Resident here and thousands more across the Home

Counties know they epicentre of a row over how their care should be

paid for. It costs up to ?1000 a week here. Some other home charged

2000 per week and councils don't have enough money to meet the

growing number of those who who can't find themselves. Surrey says

it has to find an extra ?60 million every year. I think there is this

turn a worry as to where is the money going to come from? The older

you get the more you worry about things. I think families get worried

as well. We asked politicians from Surrey County Council the -- council

to tell residents what their party would do to solve the funding

crisis. I believe it's time the Government looked at putting up a

special tax or insurance policy for the elderly. So that over the years

we have sufficient funds to pay for your care when you get elderly. The

Government recently announced an extra ?1 billion for adult social

care. In my view, that's not enough. The Lib Dems called for ?2 billion

to tackle the crisis. It's a lovely thing, we can live longer, but it

needs a lot of funding. The Council to be addressing the Government, we

need a nationally funded integrated system that provides for adult

social care and the NHS services to work together. How are you going to

do it? How are you going to find it? We will probably have to look at

more taxes or some other way of funding, maybe for me, did the EU,

some of the money which we are not going to be sending over to

Brussels, maybe some of it, and I think we should be using some of it,

Tippett marbles into the NHS and the carer needs. We spoke to the four

main parties on Surrey County Council here at Priory Court this

morning, but labour and the Green party rolls are represented on the

authority with one seat each. We're going to ask them how they would

tackle the crisis in funding for adult social care. We would look to

do as other counties have done, whether it is Berkshire or Dorset,

Oxfordshire, streamline your local authority which would make one-off

savings and ongoing savings, which could be used to fund adult social

care. The real challenge is in terms of local councils, we need to

prioritise care, prioritise the future, prioritise the most

vulnerable people in the UK before Corporation tax cuts. Back at Priory

Court, what do the residents think? Have you heard anything today from

any of the politicians that have given you any hope they might have

the answers? I'm afraid not. They all follow the party line. The oral

coming up with the same thing, that something has got to be...

Something, I don't know for. A sentiment which was going to the

polls tomorrow will no doubt agree with.

Police investigating the murder of an 80-year-old at an allotment

in north west London have released an image of a man

A ?20,000 reward is on offer for information leading

to the arrest of Mubarick Duat who police say has many aliases.

In February, lea Adri Soejoko's body was found in a shed

New rented homes designed to make it easier for Londoners

to save for a place of their own have been unveiled

The so called 'living rent' properties in Beckenham are intended

to provide rented accommodation at a cheaper level

The price is capped, based on average earnings for an area.

Police have launched a fresh appeal to catch the killer of a seven year

old girl from Reading who was murdered twenty years ago.

Emily Salvini died when her home was set on fire in 1997.

Her mother and brother were also in the house and were badly hurt.

This is Emily Salvini welcoming home her newborn brother.

Three years after this was filmed, she was dead.

Emily did nothing to anyone, she was just a little girl.

Living a little girl's life with Barbie dolls and Spice Girls.

Phone lines were cut at the family's home in Caversham to prevent them

Petrol was then poured through the letterbox and set alight.

Despite a number of arrests, no-one's ever been

Emily's mother says that wait for justice has taken its toll.

It's just about keeping sane a day at a time,

and for the last 20 years, I've just tried to be sane

Emily's brother Zack was three years old at the time and says the fire

She spent weeks in hospital being treated with serious burns. He came

back crying instructing my forehead. From which point I just ended up

screaming. They knocked me unconscious and that's the last I

remember for four weeks. Emily's brother Zack was three years

old at the time and says the fire I saw my mum frantically grab

the door and when she swung the door open, there was like a wall

of something hit her, a wall of white, and I remember Mum

screaming Emily over and over again. Police are using the 20th

anniversary of the attack to appeal for new information and say

advances in forensics As part of the reinvestigation,

we're resubmitting items We're hopeful, but we can't

rely on those results. Detectives believe there's still

someone protecting the identity I'm on a rooftop in Peckham, stay

watching to find out why and give you a clue, it involves popcorn and

extra terrestrial. Two words to describe our weather

today, a cloudy and cool. What hope of something warmer? Or greater?

Over the next few days. Find out, see the full forecast later in the

programme. The head of world athletics

governing body Lord Coe says he's confident the sport's

anti-doping measures are stronger than ever

as London prepares to host His comments come amid controversial

plans to rip up all world records set before 2005 when drug testing

was not so advanced. Children at this school

in west London run outside At the end of May, Lord Coe

will join some of them at the Westminster Mile,

which has been run every It seems these youngsters have

really caught the running bug. Taking athletics to a younger

audience was one of Lord Coe's office as IAAF president

in the summer of 2015. Much of that hard work has

gone under the radar, as the sport lurches from one doping

crisis to another. A successful and clean

World Chamionships in London this summer is essential

if athletics is to maintain some of its credibility

with young and old alike. How can we be sure that

what we see at London 2017 Because we've had 29

medallists stripped What we are doing is we're putting

measures and we're putting technology to use that wasn't

there ten years ago. We can now go back ten years into

samples and redistribute medals. Drug testing was not

so stringent before 2005, so one controversial

plan Coe and the IAAF are considering is erasing all world

records set before then. That's not gone down well

with clean athletes, like Jonathan Edwards,

Paula Radcliffe and Colin Jackson, who would all see their records

disappear. Eradicating records from the past

surely is not going to make any difference to the future

in that particular way. They've really got to make

sure that the doping I do think we have to start

somewhere and this is a debate the athletes have actually been

prompting the administrators to have for far too long,

and I welcome that debate. For the avoidance of any doubt,

you do have those counter arguments to listen to, but right

now you think it's a good idea, What I'm saying is those counter

arguments need to be heard. It's a debate which clearly has

some way left to run. Now, it started as the brainchild

of a former trapeze artist who swapped the circus

for the cinema. This Peckham rooftop has once

more opened its doors Sometimes it feels as if the weather

has inkling for these things. Let's join Alice

Bhandhukravi who's there. You know what I mean, Alice? I

certainly know what you mean. You join me at the box office where we

have some freshly made popcorn, Fognini this way through to the

screening room. I say screening room, but actually it is a rooftop

here in the middle of Peckham and you can see this way, the beautiful

views of the City of London and the shard in the distance. We are here

for a special screening of ET, which unbelievably is 35 years old. Some

of us remember the original time ET was Sean. Jerry, this is all your

idea? Yes it is, indeed. You have opened up this roof, it is not ideal

weather. Very British weather, but the show must go on. Some optimists

here waiting for the film this evening. Why did you decide to

choose this idea of rooftops for the screening? We started in 2011 and it

was just about doing something different. A great location with a

great film equals a great experience and that's always always try to do

rooftop film club, something completely different. When you have

screening at altitudes, it is much better. Come and sit in the sun or

the barmy British weather. Even in this light rain and cold! You

actually left the circus to join the cinema. I am an ex-client, the only

man to run away from the circus! I came to one of the great issues,

here in London. I worked in events and made my dream come true and

started this film experience. What other films can we look forward to?

Lots, all the Oscar Classics, Lala land and moonlight. We are going to

be the first outdoor cinema here in the UK to shoot 3-D, we're going to

show Gravity on the big screen there. Thank you. We have to leave

it there. If you can't make it to Peckham, there are other rooftop

screenings in Shoreditch, Stratford and in Kensington. The man who ran

away from the circus, I love it! Alice, thanks very much.

Imagine being serenaded by one of the biggest

Well, last night, that's exactly what happened

She thought she'd never be able to go to one

of his concerts because she lives with painful,

So the superstar arranged a special one-to-one performance.

She's got the signed guitar and an Ed Sheeran doll, like lots of

ten-year-olds, Melody has a bit of a crash on the pop star. What's more,

his music seems to ease her suffering. It's amazing to see

someone that goes through so much pain and she can't walk and she

can't talk and she's basically not got much of a life, to then have Ed

Sheeran enter it and he's given her a whole new meaning of life. He

keeps fighting, he keeps her happy. Through the power of social media,

Ed Sheeran heard about this and last November turned up unannounced at

her hospital bedside. It led to this, a one-to-one gig at the O2

last night. # I told you I love to

#. Melody can't go to a public concert because of the risk of

infection, but to be stymied sure she didn't miss out. He did the

staging, the lighting, the big screens behind her. He made sure

that her it felt like a proper concept. He went all out for her.

She got treated like she was the star, rather than him. When they met

backstage, Ed Sheeran said it wouldn't be the last time. Until

then, Melody will have to make do with his regular video messages. Hi,

Melody, I hear you got a big operation this weekend, but I'm just

telling you to be brave and step through it and please listen to my

songs that helps. I will be thinking of you. Sending lots of love. Surely

enough to make any super fan very happy indeed.

Let's get a check on the weather, shall we?

Ben Rich is here. It felt distinctly colder today.

Alice has done so well there, as she? She misjudged that one. It has

not been so great to date. In a word, cloudy. I've got some pictures

of close to show you from our weather watchers. This one comes

from Stevenage, cloudy skies here as well and one more. Yes, it was

cloudy here as well. Underneath that cloud, a little bit of rain and it's

been feeling chilly. Temperature is no higher than 12 degrees in the

centre of town, down to the south of London, those spots higher than 12

degrees. With that cloud, outbreaks of showery rain, not raining all the

time, lots of dry weather, but you can see showers coming through at

the moment and some of these will continue for a time if you are out

and about this evening. Overnight, those showers will tend to fade away

but we will keep the cloud. Underneath the cloud not a

particularly cold night, temperatures not dropping far from

where they were during the day. Tomorrow, getting utterly cloudy

start, the cloud still capable of producing light and patchy rain at

times. We might see some glimmers of brightness coming through, but don't

expect sunny skies. It will still be largely cloudy. Not quite as chilly

as it was today, temperatures getting up to 15 degrees. This is

Friday's forecast, a largely cloudy story for the most part. Odd

outbreak of rain and odd limbs. Temperatures around 15. In the

weekend, often cloudy, not all the time, some brighter spells as well.

It will be a little less chilly. You have early spotted the fly in the

ointment, this area of low pressure and the weather front trying to work

its way in from the south during Saturday. At this stage, it doesn't

look like it will make much progress, some of us should stay

dry, but this rain is not far away. If the rain does get close, it

should clear away again by Sunday to leave largely dry weather. Still a

fair might have played but it should brighten up from time to time to

lift damages to 17 degrees. The outlook does look unrelentingly

cloudy, but it won't be as bad as all that. There is the chance of

some brighter spells and it should feel quite as chilly as it did

today. A little bit better. The Prime Minister has made

an unparalleled attack on European politicians and officials,

accusing them of trying to influence Just minutes after parliament was

officially dissolved, Theresa May said the EU's position

on a Brexit had hardened. Labour says it would suspend

the planned closures of hospital services across England if it wins

the general election. That's it.

We'll be back later during the ten o'clock news, but for now

from everyone on the team have a lovely evening.

Goodbye. Three reasons we love Eurovision -

the costumes. Ah, yes!

Who could forget the milkmaids? The passion.

We are unstoppable. I've got some good news.

Did you hear?