Mermaids refuses to let staff see report on former chief amid ‘safe space’ fears

Mermaids is refusing to let staff see a report into ousted boss Susie Green’s leadership because there are not “safe spaces” in which to read it.

The scandal-hit child transgender charity’s workforce were due to receive the highly critical audit on Monday after the chief executive was forced out in a staff revolt.

Last weekend, a whistleblower told The Telegraph how Ms Green faced a staff backlash over her “incapable” leadership, culminating in the “nail in the coffin” report, seen by trustees.

But on Monday staff were told that the board of trustees felt “we can’t safely share the EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion] report today as we had planned”.

Citing media reports and an “unacceptable risk” to the authors, Mat Maddocks, a Mermaids trustee, wrote in the email that “our first priority is the well-being of our staff and given these events it isn’t possible to create the safe spaces for processing the report that are vital”.

The audit by the Social Justice Collective (SJC), a diversity group, follows staff complaints about alleged racism, safeguarding after a trustee spoke at a conference sympathetic to paedophiles, and Ms Green “shoving her head in the sand” over scandals.

It prompted the Charity Commission to open a statutory inquiry, its most severe investigation, last week.

The regulator’s initial investigation began when The Telegraph found Mermaids was agreeing to send potentially dangerous chest-binding devices to 14-year-olds against their parents’ wishes.

‘Heated and hostile’ calls

Further whistleblowers have now come forward. A second insider told The Telegraph: “Staff are very upset and outraged that our well-being is being used as an excuse to bury the report, when clearly it’s all about Mermaids wanting to protect what’s left of its reputation.”

The source said calls between senior management and staff on Monday morning “got very heated and hostile” and staff “don’t believe the report will ever see the light of day”.

Mermaids, the UK’s largest charity for trans children, has received taxpayer funding and runs training in the NHS, schools and police forces, as well as controversial online forums for gender-distressed children.

It has endured an exodus of staff in recent weeks, including “upset” among some junior transgender staff who alleged they were “treated like children” by Ms Green and that their complaints “fell on deaf ears”, with many in the trans community also wanting a trans CEO.

The SJC’s audit involved surveys and focus groups. One staff member who attended told The Telegraph: “The focus groups I was in, I was thinking ‘I’ve got things to say’ – but when I went in everyone was feeling the exact same, all saying how upset they were with senior management and how they handled things.”

Mr Maddocks said in his email that the charity is “fully committed to finding a way to safely share the EDI report”.