Weekend Woman’s Hour: Dr Hilary Cass, Meera Syal & Tanika Gupta, SEND teacher training, Sophie Kinsella, Contraception

BBC

Dr Hilary Cass, now Baroness Cass, led a four year review into children’s gender identity services in England. Her final report concluded that children had been let down by a lack of research and "remarkably weak" evidence on medical interventions, and called for gender services for young people to match the standards of other NHS care. In an exclusive interview Nuala McGovern gets Dr Hilary Cass’s reflections six months on from releasing her landmark report.A Tupperware of Ashes is a play which follows an ambitious Michelin-Star chef, Queenie, played by Meera Syal. It's a family drama about life, immigration and the Indian spiritual cycle of death and rebirth written by playwright Tanika Gupta. Both women joined Anita Rani to talk about the play which is currently on at the National Theatre.Mums say that the UK’s system for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is broken. An opinion poll from Opinium commissioned by Woman's Hour for a programme on SEND last month revealed that only half of mothers believe their child with SEND is well supported in school, and those in Scotland are the least likely to feel this way. Krupa Padhy takes a look at what is going on behind the scenes with Julie Allan, Professor of Equity and Inclusion at the University of Birmingham; Bev Alderson, National Executive Member of the teaching union NASUWT and Jo Van Herwegen. Professor of Developmental Psychology and Education at University College London.Bestselling author Sophie Kinsella, known for the hugely popular Shopaholic series and many other bestsellers, talks to Nuala about her latest novel, What Does It Feel Like? It is her most autobiographical yet and tells the story of a novelist who wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there and learns she’s had surgery to remove a large tumour growing in her brain. She must re-learn how to walk, talk, and write. Six months ago, Sophie shared with her readers on social media that in 2022, she had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, a type of aggressive brain cancer. It is known for its poor prognosis with only 25% of people surviving more than one year, and only 5% survive more than five years.A new report from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS, looks into what women want from contraception, the innovations in non-hormonal contraception, and the contraceptive options available to men. Anita was joined ...