Medical staff from England’s only children’s gender clinic have gone public for the first time to raise fears about the treatment of youngsters seeking a sex change.

Kirsty Entwistle, who was a psychologist at the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) in Leeds until October last year, accused some of its clinicians of misleading patients.

She warned they are “making decisions that will have a major impact on children and young people’s bodies and lives . . . without a robust evidence base”.

In an open letter, published online, to Polly Carmichael, who runs the Tavistock clinic, where Gids operates in London, Entwistle said “children who have had very traumatic early experiences” were being “put on the medical pathway” to transition “without having explored or addressed