The report found a wide variation in services across the country and said while more money had been put in to help them recruit extra staff, that was not always reflected in an increase in the workforce.
It also said some clinics did “little or no improvement work or knowledge-sharing”.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting welcomed the report, and said that further services would be commissioned, self-referrals would be stopped and existing services would be improved.
Trans rights organisation, TransActual, welcomed recommendations “for a more streamlined, patient-centred care pathway”, but raised concerns about ending self-referrals and said requiring a first assessment to be done by a senior clinician “risks unnecessarily hampering efforts to reduce waiting times”.
Translucent, a transgender advocacy group, said the report makes clear that “trans healthcare is in crisis” and called for more trained trans-people to be involved in designing and running gender care services.
Sex Matters, a gender critical human rights organisation, said the review failed to consider whether the treatments offered by the clinics were effective. CEO Maya Forstater said: “It is a wasted opportunity to rethink a failed treatment model.”
Dr Levy will now chair a new national improvement programme for adult gender services, starting in 2026.