Health trust to review links with Mermaids trans charity

AN NHS Trust will review its involvement with the controversial charity Mermaids after The Daily Telegraph revealed it was running training sessions for staff.

The South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLAM), which is taking over care of trans children from the Tavistock clinic, was due to receive training later this month.

SLAM said on Saturday it was planning to commission professional training courses from a range of providers.

However, after further criticism over the weekend about the procurement of training from the charity, David Bradley, the trust’s chief executive, said arrangements would now be reviewed.

SLAM was last night unable to provide further details of the review.

The trust will provide specialist mental health support for children through a new gender identity clinic after it was found that the Tavistock’s service was “not safe”.

Some whistleblowers claimed campaigners for Mermaids, which is facing an inquiry by the Charity Commission, put pressure on medical staff to affirm children’s belief that they were trans.

The commission announced in September it was investigating “governance and management issues” at Mermaids, after The Telegraph revealed it was sending breast-binding devices to children without parents’ knowledge.

It comes as a report published today reveals that Stonewall, the controversial trans rights charity, received more than £1.2 million in funding from public bodies last year even though Government departments, including the Foreign Office, have been told to withdraw from its Diversity Champions scheme.

An audit by the Taxpayers’ Alliance found that 175 public organisations are still paying into it. Bodies that have paid for Stonewall programmes include the Scottish and Welsh governments.

The pressure group said: “Taxpayers should not be subsidising controversial campaigners.”