Stonewall drop Mermaids?

It could be a massive coincidence. But given the dodginess of Mermaid's general way of operating, it wouldn't be at all surprising if the shit was about to hit the fan!

Or it could just be that there are court cases coming up to do with childhood transition and the legal teams are looking more closely at this. Seeing that the BBC and NHS no longer link (is that correct?) may cause a chain reaction.

Whatever the cause, we know what a shitshow Mermaids is and it wouldn't hurt to archive associations with the charity now so we have evidence of how widespread their support is, without organisations doing due diligence.

Kids company trustees:

Sunetra atkinson/sastry: Worked as a BBC make up artist

Erica Bolton: founding director of an international PR agency specialising in arts and culture

Jane Tyler: former partner at a law firm

Richard handover: former boss of WH Smith

Vince o brien: former chair of British venture capitalist association

Andrew Webster: former HR executive of a pharmaceutical company

Alan yentob: former British television executive.

I can't see a single name on that list who would have an in depth working knowledge of youth services, children's safeguarding, therapeutic provision or anything else that kids company were delivering.

Camilla Batmangheilidjh was of course responsible for operational delivery but who was overseeing her? A board with no understanding or expertise of the sector. How could they possibly oversee what she was delivering without understanding the sector?

If I list a load of pages that link to Mermaids, does someone else have the time to archive them?

Central government

Celebrating LGBT+ History Month - Creating a better place environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2018/02/27/celebrating-lgbt-history-month/

Information for trans and non-binary people seeking fertility treatment | Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority www.hfea.gov.uk/treatments/fertility-preservation/information-for-trans-and-non-binary-people-seeking-fertility-treatment

Local government

Social, emotional and mental health · Enfield Council new.enfield.gov.uk/services/children-and-education/local-offer/social-emotional-and-mental-health/

LGBT+ Sexual Health | Haringey Council www.haringey.gov.uk/social-care-and-health/health/public-health/sexual-health/lgbt-sexual-health

Signposting | LGBT+ support in the borough | Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council
www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk/info/200041/equality_and_diversity/1618/lgbt_support_in_the_borough/5

Gender Reassignment and the law | Protected Characteristics | Melton Borough Council www.melton.gov.uk/info/200041/equality_and_diversity/669/protected_characteristics/3

North East Lincolnshire Council | Self-help menu - North East Lincolnshire Council
www.nelincs.gov.uk/health-and-wellbeing/covid-19-emotional-wellbeing-resources/self-help-menu/

Bullying | The Hub - Waltham Forest Education Hub thehub-beta.walthamforest.gov.uk/bullying_in_schools

MH young person www3.halton.gov.uk/Pages/health/hit/live/mentalhealth/young.aspx

Gender re-assignment equality - Derbyshire County Council derbyshire.gov.uk/council/equalities/gender-re-assignment/gender-re-assignment-equality.aspx

Surrey County Council - Out Lit - Our LGBT collections www.surreycc.gov.uk/libraries/borrow-or-renew/collections-and-reading-lists/out-lit-our-lgbt-virtual-collection

Homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying | Schools schools.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/homophobic-biphobic-and-transphobic-bullying

Where to go for Support – Congleton Town Council www.congleton-tc.gov.uk/discover-congleton/where-to-go-for-support/

Gender reassignment - Bury Council www.bury.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=11633

Support and advice - Eastleigh Borough Council www.eastleigh.gov.uk/young-people/support-and-advice

Metropolitan Borough Council Tameside Services Information Directory LGBT
www.tameside.gov.uk/sid/lgbt

LGBTQ support - West Sussex County Council www.westsussex.gov.uk/education-children-and-families/your-space/support/lgbtq-support/

LGBT+ groups and support services | Hampshire County Council www.hants.gov.uk/community/lgbt-alliance/lgbt-groups

Safeguarding in Education safeguarding.dudley.gov.uk/safeguarding/child/work-with-children-young-people/safeguarding-in-education/

Happy OK Sad
happyoksad.warrington.gov.uk/children-and-young-people.aspx

Lewisham Council - Support for LGBTQ+ residents during COVID-19 lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/coronavirus-covid-19/covid19-help-and-support/support-for-lgbtq-residents

More local gov ones coming up...

Did it start with the BBC or NHS? Maybe it’s just the house of cards effect.

Can anyone please explain what they think is happening in this drama? So Mermaid is suddenly being dropped by loads of people. What happened? How did this come about? A quick google returns just vague news like the law article review news. I don’t understand. Can anyone please explain?

This!

But also governments thinking "great they can do it all for us! For free!" and then don't look a "gift horse" in the mouth.

Twitter now says that Starbucks has removed them from their site (but not social media). Biscuitgate.

Twitter says stonewall have completely dropped all references and the charity have done the same for stonewall. Somethings definitely up.

Sorry for typos.

Tl:dr

Core services for vulnerable that have been outsourced to the third sector as part of 'big society' are unregulated, often delivered by underpaid, untrained staff overseen by inexperienced, equally untrained trustees.

While I'm here I'm going to have a little rant about the charity sector in general.

I've worked for 3 charities and encountered the same problems over and over again:

• inept Trustees with insufficient (or in many cases no) professional experience of the sector they are there to provide oversight of; very often too many stakeholders on the board and not enough experts.

e.g. it's laudable to have parents of children with disabilities on the board of a disability charity but if you only have those people and nobody with a background and real expertise in child safeguarding (for instance) then you will likely create an organisation with a very weak safeguarding culture.

• lack of oversight of the charity sector in general. It is basically an unregulated sector in terms of operational delivery.

The charity commission simply do not have the resources or expertise to understand the myriad different services being delivered and exist fundamentally to check for embezzlement.

I reported the organisation I used to work for to the charity sector as they were fundamentally failing to adhere to safeguarding legislation to keep vulnerable beneficiaries safe and were also failing in their duty of care to staff in providing a safe workplace. The Charity commission never even responded to me (I was paid off on in the end as the organisation bullied my for whistleblowing and I started the tribunal process).

• a tendency to believe that philanthropy is all that's needed; a good heart and good intentions and sod running a professional workplace. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and often well meaning, underpaid staff who are badly trained or not trained at all and not sufficiently supervised by the poorly experienced and trained people above them can create a perfect storm.

I don't think many people really understand their services many services delivered by the third sector working with vulnerable people are really not inspected at all in the way that ofsted inspects schools or the Cqc inspects care provision.

This was exactly the issue with kids company and I'd be unsurprised if mermaids is the same.

I wonder how Sarah Champion's Tweet from Jan 19 will age?

"I have researched & met with Mermaids & was very impressed with their work. Parents & children need support with gender issues, npt suspicion."

If I recall correctly the whistle blowers at the TAVI said something about a certain charity coaching children on what to say to get puberty blockers and synthetic hormones.

I reckon Mermaids, having been useful being run by a mother, is being thrown to the wolves to protect the greater infrastructure

Possible... but personally I like to think it’s more like a house of cards. Mermaids may be the top layer, but the whole edifice is wobbling...

Puuuuuuuulllllll!

God that Kenta bloke is very angry isn't he? His Facebook profile is quite something

Are we certain they've just not updated the link to the new website? I think the new mermaids website was only done this year?

Royal patronage does not like controversy

That's the thing - the whole concept of 'trans kids' is controversial. S Green and mermaids made it mainstream. (Overton window?)

[quote Doyoumind]There is still a link here

www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/lgbt-inclusive-organisations-you-should-know-about[/quote]
Yes. And if you search Trans links and put Leeds in the area Mermaids comes up.

I think the BBC and NHS removing links might have triggered a rethink. Legal departments are continually looking at what's going on and act accordingly. There's been too much bad press here in the UK recently

Just a reminder. Faircop still haven't released the information about the organisation beginning with S and something red?

There was the interference in A level law magazine, so lots of things causing issues for Mermaids, as we become aware of . I think the links to GIDS etc is enough to cause a withdrawal of lots of organisations. Harry and Megan would drop links at a mere hint of controversy and where royals go, even if they're out of the country, the rest follow. Royal patronage does not like controversy.

Is this linked to the high profile TWAW team E.g. jameela jamil who have deleted old posts supporting mermaids? (Was a thread on here yesterday)

Have they all heard something we haven’t?

I suppose a lot of schools were ‘advised’ by them too. Plus that Pudsy Bear charity thing...