We are The Gender Pathway CIC, a new project as of July 2025 with the aim to cover most of the costs associated with private gender affirming care in the UK for low-income trans and gender diverse people. The pathway to gender affirming care is being developed to support people to a point where a GP can take over the care, within the NHS adult gender service specifications. At this present moment we are organising to set up the fund, and will hopefully be able to provide grants before not too long.
Our aim is to grow a fund that will enable us to provide trans and gender diverse people on low income with a grant to cover most of the initial costs of gender affirming care with a private health provider.
We want trans and gender diverse people to feel validated, supported, equal and empowered through our fund.
This project only began in July 2025.
We are a non-profit organisation, run by a small team of enthusiastic volunteers, with a desire to support our community.
We are looking to grow - to grow our fund and grow our people. We are seeking like minded individuals from the trans/non binary community and allies to join us in this project. There are many aspects to starting a new venture such as this and we welcome a wide range of skills, suggestions and experiences.
Jace is a co-founder and director of The Gender Pathway CIC.
Jace is a young trans man who has been actively involved in a number of volunteering roles within his community.
Jace recently graduated from the University of Wollongong, Australia where he studied aid and development, alongside gender studies. This experience fuelled Jace’s passion for finding ways to improve the lives of others, particularly within the trans and gender diverse
community.
At university, Jace collaborated with international aid organisations and had hands on experience with a development project.
Having been fortunate enough to secure access to trans healthcare in Australia, Jace wants to improve accessibility through funding in the UK.
Co founder and director of the Gender Pathway community interest company (CIC).
Suzanne is a proud parent of a trans child and strives to be an active ally to the trans community. Suzanne was a member of the Mermaids campaign group. Suzanne believes this fund would deliver a strong message of solidarity, in addition to providing practical support.
Suzanne has experience of volunteering for and running not for profit organisations. Suzanne was a family lawyer for over 30 years,.
The Gender Pathway Fund would not have got off the ground without the inspiration from the pilot scheme offered by Gender Plus.
Thank you to Dr Aidan Kelly, director of Gender Plus and Dr Rosie Jones, the lead for Public and Patient Involvement for giving of their time and sharing their experience of the pilot. We also acknowledge the expertise offered by the Gender Plus service user group into how they ran the pilot at Gender Plus. We are fortunate to have this expertise from volunteers in our project.
We are also thankful for the ongoing advice, guidance and support we have received from Transactual and Gendered Intelligence. Their websites can be found at https://transactual.org.uk/ & https://genderedintelligence.co.uk/.
We are very much indebted to Liam Harris for his production of our fabulous graphics and logo. He can be contacted at LDHgraphicdesign@gmail.com or through his website https://ldhgraphicdesign.wordpress.com/.
We would like to thank Lucy Rose Shaftain-Fenner for her time and attention to produce some videos for us, setting out the aims of the project. Lucy’s work can be found at https://lucyrose.info and https://www.instagram.com/lucyhtml.
We would like to thank Dr Gillian Russel from Transvox for inviting us on their Podcast to discuss our up-and-coming organisation. You can find more of her work and other podcasts at https://transvox.co.uk/.
We are grateful to Carla, managing director of The Outside Project, for allowing us to borrow their space to do some filming. You can find out more about The Outside Project and their work at https://lgbtiqoutside.org/.
We would also like to thank Aby from TransMissionPR for her support on raising awareness about The Gender Pathway Fund. Her work can be found at https://transmissionpr.com/.
We aim to ensure that trans and non binary people feel valued and can have access to the healthcare that affirms their identity.
We believe that every person is entitled to have access to the healthcare that should be universally available through the NHS.
We wish to support those in the community who face financial challenges to
obtaining the healthcare that they need.
To give trans and non binary people the opportunity to obtain healthcare that brings the changes they seek.
The funding is paid directly to the health care provider to cover the cost of gender assessment appointments, initial hormone clinic appointment and a 2 year subscription to the hormone clinic.
We are unable to fund:
We have limited funds and wish to help as many people as possible.
If your GP is prepared to work with the private health care provider under a shared care arrangement,
the GP can undertake blood tests and issue prescriptions, as required. The only
additional fee with a shared care arrangement would be your usual prescription fees,
unless you are exempt from paying the fees.
You must live in the UK.
You must have the consent of an appropriate parent or carer if you are under the age
of 18 years.
People will be eligible to apply for this pathway if they (or their parents/carers for
those who are under 18) are in receipt of one or more of the following means-tested
benefits:
● Universal Credit
● Housing Benefit
● Pension Credit
● Child Tax Credit
● Income Support
● Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
● Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
● Council Tax Support
● Student: Low Income Scholarship, Grant or Bursary
Please refer to the nominated health care provider’s website for details of assessment,
treatment and what is covered by the 2 year subscription.
At present our arrangement is limited to Gender Plus to provide subsidised gender
affirming care within the terms of our arrangement. In the future we hope to work
with a range of providers in order to expand the choice to applicants.
Our priority is to ensure that we support gender affirming care in partnership with
service providers who are registered with the Care Quality Commission and/or the
appropriate professional body.
- You will need to provide documents to prove your identification and
- proof of your UK address;
- You will need to provide proof of receipt of one of the benefits listed in
eligibility, and it must be legible and dated within 3 months of the application;
- If you are applying on behalf of someone under 18 years old, the proof of
benefits should show the benefits received on behalf of or including the
applicant young person.
We do not wish to create barriers to your application. Please be reassured that your personal details will be kept confidential and your application will be handled with care and sensitivity. If you have any concerns please contact us at applications@genderpathway.org.uk
There will be a random choice of successful applicants who will be selected provided
that they have the necessary proof of identification, address and benefits.
Yes. It is important that all documents are provided at the time of the application.
We hope that by reading through the process you will have plenty of time to
understand what is needed to apply. If you have any questions about the process it
is important that you get in touch before the date that the applications are live.
Contact us on applications@genderpathway.org.uk