GIDS being sued by their safeguarding lead.

[quote Caorthann]Dr David Taylor's review of GIDS (then known as GIDU) in 2005-6 is worth adding to the timeline,
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1319351037279539206.html[/quote]
Link to the report on the Tavistock FOI log:

tavistockandportman.nhs.uk/documents/2248/FOI_20-21117_2005_David_Taylor_Report.pdf

Thanks for that amazing summary findthetruth!

Interesting that the head of the Tavistock trust was previously in a cross parliamentary health group. Is that one of the APPG's that have been in the news recently? I think there is a bit of a scandal brewing there too with lobby groups and their access to politicians and party machinery. Some personal 'donations' to help causes maybe?

Dr David Taylor's review of GIDS (then known as GIDU) in 2005-6 is worth adding to the timeline,
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1319351037279539206.html

It's shocking to see it written out like that.

Thanks FindTheTruth

I truly don't know what to say.

And Paul Jenkins was CEO of this whole mess. Hmm. I've had some experience of his management style. Not saying anything else.

The Chair of any Trust is also important.

Paul Burstow joined us as Chair of the Trust in November 2015 and is currently serving his second term.

Paul was previously a member of parliament from 1997 to 2015, where he served on the Health, Select and Public Accounts Committees, and worked cross party to secure debates and lobby Ministers on social care and health. From 2010 to 2012 he was the Minister of State for the Department of Health and led the development of the “No Health Without Mental Health” strategy.

Prior to serving as an MP Paul was a Councillor for the London Borough of Sutton, and also served as first campaigns officer, and the CEO, of the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors.

tavistockandportman.nhs.uk/about-us/governance/board-of-directors/

This has taken a long time to start to come out properly and no doubt there is much more to emerge.

David Bell's report was covered by the UK press February 2019.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6713887/NHS-transgender-clinic-warns-damage-young-patients.html

The report, made by former staff governor David Bell, said some children 'take up a trans identity as a solution' to 'multiple problems such as historic child abuse in the family, bereavement, homophobia, and a very significant incidence of autism spectrum disorder'.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3510367-Tavistock-article-in-the-DM

And Paul Jenkins was CEO of this whole mess. Hmm. I've had some experience of his management style. Not saying anything else.

A few years ago I think a number of us were assuming that the Tavistock were doing their best as professionals, and were in a somewhat difficult place, faced with external pressure from Mermaids and having to reason with Internet-addled teenagers.

In the last year it's become clear it's much worse than we imagined - they've been thoroughly internally corrupt for many years. Most of the sensible people have left and it's dominated by gender ideologues.

They're not much better than Mermaids with an NHS badge.

The medical model and the social models of working struggle to work alongside each other and I can clearly see some of the issues in relation to that with this case. In general the NHS finds it difficult to work with Social Care because of this, and we're often perceived as the less important profession (being polite) in that setting. They do not like us questioning, probing or looking at alternative solutions, they see us as less qualified and often do not understand our role. I can absolutely believe that staff were discouraged from speaking to Sonia because of my experiences.

This whole case is mind melting. Thank you so much to everyone involved defending safeguarding.

I realise that is the go-to excuse transactivists make that enables them to dismiss every argument that doesn’t fit their agenda, but this is a health service. Those running it should absolutely have some kind of rational understanding that there’s a need to listen to alternative viewpoints and give them careful consideration. Yet they appear to have been pretty much as dismissive as any Twitter TRA.

Here's an open letter to Dr Polly Carmichael from a former GIDS clinician, Kirsty Entwistle. Published in July 2019 it lists many issues with the service including,

I frequently voiced my concern that colleagues were not seeing abandonment/estrangement by a parent as an indicator of complexity. For me, this was another reason that made me feel so disoriented. In my Clinical Psychology training and in other services the loss of or abandonment by a parent would be something to be explored and the impact understood but I felt that at GIDS this factor was often minimised or dismissed.
^I was also shocked by the complexity of referrals. I read many referrals of children who have been sexually abused and many children have witnessed and/or been subjected to domestic violence.
I also felt that was an overrepresentation of the young people who were living in poverty. I had a young person whose family were living within such extreme financial constraints that he considered it a treat to buy a can of pop. I also had another young person who was living in a very complex and unstable arrangement who arrived to sessions in a poor state of hygiene and said that there wasn’t money for hygiene products. How is it ethical to undertake a gender identity assessment with the view to a medical pathway when there are children and young people do not have their most basic needs met?
In terms of complexity I also had on my caseload several young people who declined to communicate verbally or communicated verbally to a very limited extent. I think that at GIDS verbal communication difficulties are often minimised as transmales being afraid to speak because they have a ‘feminine voice’ but in all of these cases I believe that there was something more complex than that going on^

medium.com/@kirstyentwistle/an-open-letter-to-dr-polly-carmichael-from-a-former-gids-clinician-53c541276b8d

My god, that timeline!!

For people wanting more of the background leading up to the case, here's a post where I linked all Hannah Barnes' Newsnight reports:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4150929-T-rf-Wars-documentary-on-YouTube?msgid=104320809#104320809

Here's David Bell's brilliant Channel 4 interview:

www.channel4.com/news/children-have-been-very-seriously-damaged-by-nhs-gender-clinic-says-former-tavistock-staff-governor

And here are Sue and Marcus Evans talking about what they saw from the inside:

WTF sort of place is this? No-one is allowed to talk and is threatened if they do? seriously? Didn't someone report that the NHS was a hostile place to work and that things improved for those on the front line during Covid but they didn't expect the support to remain.

Any organisation that can 'shut down' complaints or concerns is a very sick organisation (pun intended)

the nerves of steel of these wonderful people standing up and giving testimony. I hope for the sake of the children this get's overhauled to put safeguarding first.

I hope Newsnight covers this whole case.

looking back over all the testimony and DBs timeline (PP) what strikes me is that they not only dissuaded staff from raising concerns with the safeguarding lead, but from raising ANY concerns with ANYONE, including the council. It's extraordinary. hands over ears. don't say anything. don't say anything. Then when DB sent his independent report he was threatened repeatedly. Then when DB advised staff they had a right to speak confidentially, the CEO and chairman et al went 'balistic'. WTF sort of place is this? No-one is allowed to talk and is threatened if they do? seriously? and the way they went about their 'internal review' was a joke.

I've attended safeguarding training led by Sonia and she did mention Jimmy Saville. It was completely appropriate to do so and not misguided in any way. It is difficult to see how it could be interpreted as such. Perhaps their issue goes beyond Jimmy Saville simply being mentioned to something more specific?

The Mail seems to be the only paper currently covering this huge safeguarding story. It's quite prominent on the website.

I'm really, really concerned about the homophobia allegations - that it was widespread, and potentially systemic.

INAL but my interpretation is that a big part of the case is about whether they discouraged / prevented staff from raising concerns with Sonia Appleby the safeguarding lead. Today we saw aggressive cross examination of both Witnesses AS and DB who were raising concerns. This DB timeline might help as the events were talked about in the court.

TIMELINE David Bell (DB) . . .
(Or at least what I can make of it).
Source: Guardian Article.

Feb 2018 10 GIDS staff, (1/3 of staff), brought their worries to David Bell unsolicited, Worries included:

• children seemed rehearsed, not sharing their parents urgency

• senior staff spoke of “straightforward cases”for puberty blockers
• treatment after just two appointments
• Children seen only infrequently thereafter
• inexperienced (and inexpensive) psychologists
• Homophobia towards staff
• 8 year old referred to an endocrinologist for treatment

2018 continues
A book with a DB introduction was removed from the Tavistock’s library.
DB spoke at a conference about de-transition and a member of GIDS’ staff attended, he says to spy on him.
DB was told that he was not allowed to write about, or to talk in public about, anything that wasn’t directly connected to hisemployment,

July 2018 DB met with hospital management to say he’d write a report. They said ok. So DB asks staff for data for the report. Paul Jenkins CEO, sends DB a letter saying that GIDS was very busy and that its staff were not obliged to answer DB.

September 2018 DB sends his report to Paul Jenkins CEO and to Paul Burstow, chairman of the board and they forbade him to send it to the council of governors. DB gets a lawyer who says he must send it or be culpable. So DB sends it to the council and gets a hostile note from Burstow.

October 2018 DB report is discussed at the council, who agree a review of GIDS led by Dinesh Sinha, the trust’s medical director

November 2018 DB received two letters threatening disciplinary action. He was asked to agree not to speak any further to Sonia Appleby, the trust’s director of child safeguarding

Dec? 2018 Sinha’s review was taking place, Bell asked for its terms of reference. He wanted to ensurestaff would be anonymous. Bell wrote to staff at GIDS, reminding them of their right, as NHS workers, to speak confidentially. At this point, he says, the trust “went ballistic… they interfered with my emails so I couldn’t write to them again”.

Feb 2019 Sinha’s review was delivered and Bell was not allowed to see it iniitially / or only given 30 minutes to read its 70 pages (it was later leaked to him in full). “There was still no data. It mentioned intimidation, but no action was [to be] taken. However, it did acknowledge the inappropriate involvement of trans ideology groups in the work of the service.” The report was approved by the board and the council of governors, although one consultant psychotherapist,Marcus Evans, accused the trust of having an “overvalued belief” in GIDS expertise and resigned.

Feb/March? 2019 DB's report was leaked to the press. the trust began to suggest that Bell was unqualified to write such a report and to suggest that the cases in it were hypothetical. (They were not.)

Early 2020 Tavi set up for disciplinary action to be taken against Bell. “All the grounds were in connection with my activities as a whistleblower,”. DB announces retirement.

2020 - 2021 Bell delays retirement due to pandemic, then retires.