GIDS being sued by their safeguarding lead.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

(Text from their crowdfunder)

My Details

My name is Sonia Appleby. I am a qualified social worker (1981); adult psychoanalytic psychotherapist (I992); MSc. in health psychology, (research) and MBA. I have a long career safeguarding and protecting children in social care, health and as a children’s guardian in public and private proceedings.

I am currently the Named Professional for Safeguarding Children and the Safeguarding Children Lead at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. I am therefore still employed by the Trust against which I am bringing my claim.

What is Safeguarding?

In all NHS trusts and organisations there are professionals such as myself, who work with other internal departments and external agencies to ensure there are 'root and branch' systems to keep patients and service users safe. This means responding to patient/service users' personal experiences, also including their environmental, familial, community/peer circumstances and sometimes any of the aforementioned domains could require the intervention of other professionals in different agencies. Safeguarding children and young people also concerns ensuring there is a sufficiently, healthy culture that does not unwittingly contribute to potential harm regarding the people who use and deliver NHS services.

Safeguarding within the Trust

My primary task is to ensure that clinicians protect their patients/service users from avoidable harm and are also able to recognize and appropriately respond to situations where under 18s are in need of safeguarding. My secondary task is challenge practices which are either harmful or could lead to harm. The Trust is commissioned by NHS England to deliver a National Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), which provides services for children and adolescents diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The treatments available also include "puberty blockers".

I have sought to ensure the principle of ''safeguarding children and young people'' is upheld whilst service users are being assessed and treated within the GIDS service.

My Claim

I lodged a whistle-blowing claim in November 2019 at the Central London Employment Tribunal. Since then I have made 2 applications to amend my claim as new information came to light.

In my claim, I allege that because I made "protected disclosures" to my line manager regarding concerns raised by GIDS staff ( that the health or safety of patients was being, had been or was likely to be endangered), I was subjected to detriments.

I allege these detriments are:

i) the Tavistock misused it's own procedures to besmirch me and therefore jeopardize the role of safeguarding within the Trust;

ii) there was an unwritten but mandated directive from the Tavistock management that safeguarding concerns should not be brought to my attention despite being the Trust Safeguarding Children Lead;

iii) and, clinicians were discouraged from reporting safeguarding concerns to me.

I also allege various other detriments.

Further to disclosures made to Newsnight by former staff, BBC Newsnight produced a programme focusing on the allegation that the Trust did not want to report any concerns to me. www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51806962

and you can watch it here

Surely it's quite normal for whistleblowers to go around gathering evidence, without telling the people from whom they are gathering it, that they are going to whistle blow?

Why would you forewarn everyone to start shredding?

@hannahsbee

YG referencing report of independent investigation into SA’s claims. Suggests that some felt SA was a co author ofBell report when she was not

YG - you thought having her name on there was add some credibility didn’t you?

DB - I stand by what I said. I wrote that report. In no way was Sonia a cosignatory, an author, but she did give some help and advice along the way and on what to leave out etc some of which I agreed with, some I didn’t follow. It would be a misunderstanding to think

Her role was greater than that. It’s important to make a distinction between a misunderstanding and a lie and I say on oath that I did not lie.

DB clarifies again that she did not have a substantial role. If Sonia understood anything he wrote as implying that then he is is sorry, but that is a misunderstanding, not a lie.

DB confirms that Anastassis Spiliadis was not one of the 10 who raised their concerns with him.

Wow. YG very directly calling the witnesses, senior respected practitioners, liars.

What sort of scorched earth tactic is this?!

There's certainly no subtlety.

DB - David Bell - witness for SA
SA - Anastassis Spiliadis (AS) witness for SA
EJG - employment judge Goodman
SA - Sonia Appleby
YG - Yvette Genn, counsel for Tavistock
AP - Anya Palmer, counsel for SA
PC - Polly Carmichael
SH - Sally Hodge
GR - Garry Richardson

Discussion about first time DB and AS met. AS raised the SA allegation with him. DB felt it his duty to raise it directly. Subsequently this was raised in transcripts and in a Newsnight programme

DB says that while he had not met AS before, it was in the context of having already heard many concerns about the service. I wrote to PJ to raise them to say I thought it was v serious. The other concern I raised was allegation of being put on puberty blockers after one session

And this not being recorded in the notes

YG - but again you’re taking these things at face value and without talking to Polly Carmichael or sally Hodges

DB - by that time I had received a great deal of intimidation and attempts to silence me by the trust. I was accused of bullying by Paul Jenkins and was instructed not to speak to Sonia. “I was ready coming under a great deal of threat and intimidation”

YG - it’s all other people and not the service leads

I was also surprised by the response i received when I asked for data.

Dr Bell speaks fluent Judge!

DB - David Bell - witness for SA
SA - Anastassis Spiliadis (AS) witness for SA
EJG - employment judge Goodman
SA - Sonia Appleby
YG - Yvette Genn, counsel for Tavistock
AP - Anya Palmer, counsel for SA
PC - Polly Carmichael
SH - Sally Hodge
GR - Garry Richardson
PJ - Paul Jenkins

Goodness, the headlines are going to be quite something tomorrow

I'm really busy with work and struggling to keep up with all of this but would love to get a (brief) broad overview of what's happening. Is anyone able to distill how things are going for me? It's sounding like a bit of a car crash. Thank you.

YG - you were also happy to work on basis of additional second hand accounts provided?
DB doesn’t think this is a fair reflection. It fitted into a pattern I was very very concerned about - that children weren’t being sufficiently looked after

DB says many of his concerns borne out in Judicial review - lack of data etc - and in CQC. And by earlier report written by david Taylor and by and external consultant. “There is a whole history of GIDS not taking things up”
(HB: These reports have been uncovered by NN)

DB says he was told not to send his report to the governors. I took my own legal advice and was told not only could I send it, but that I had a duty to send it

Sinha review was nowhere near an adequate response and there should have been a fully independent, external review.

YG - Your report was shown to be unbalanced and partial and containing unsubstantiated comments and hearsay

@hannahsbee
DB says initially review had asked for nominations of people to come fwd. Gill Rusbridger agreed with me the basis of the review and that people should be able to speak anonymously

YG - the purpose of the review was to hear from all staff, with different view. It was a much faker approach and a more balanced report

DB says people only offered anonymity because of his intervention. YG suggests the opposite - that it put people off.

DB says you can have anonymity and still allow dissemination of those views. I managed to change details to protect people. The Sinha review could have done the same

Your report was shown to be unbalanced and partial and containing unsubstantiated comments and hearsay

Was it? I don't remember that?

DB confirms to judge that ‘threatening letter’ came from Paul Jenkins and it is not in the bundle.

EJG asks about discussion with Rusbridger and email sent to all GIDS staff and whether it’s in the bundle. DB says it was to ensure that staff would be granted anonymity if talking to review.

@Datun

Surely it's quite normal for whistleblowers to go around gathering evidence, without telling the people from whom they are gathering it, that they are going to whistle blow?

Why would you forewarn everyone to start shredding?

Quite. I'm finding the defense's strategy here quite baffling. But then, IANAL.

DB - David Bell - witness for SA
SA - Anastassis Spiliadis (AS) witness for SA
EJG - employment judge Goodman
SA - Sonia Appleby
YG - Yvette Genn, counsel for Tavistock
AP - Anya Palmer, counsel for SA
PC - Polly Carmichael - Director of GIDS
SH - Sally Hodges· Chief Operating Officer for Clinical Services
GR - Garry Richardson - Senior (Principal) Social Worker
Gill Rusbridger - Consultant Social Worker and Head of Social Work
PJ - Paul Jenkins - Chief Executive Officer Tavistock
RS - Rob Senior - Medical Director
DS - Dinesh Sinha – Medical Director and Director of Quality

(unbalanced and partial) Was it? I don't remember that?

I recall similar claims in Tavistock statements when pressed by Newsnight about the reports. Not seen anything from them substantiating that though.

Remember, Tavistock don't do evidence-based anything

DB confirms to judge that ‘threatening letter’ came from Paul Jenkins and it is not in the bundle.

EJG asks about discussion with Rusbridger and email sent to all GIDS staff and whether it’s in the bundle. DB says it was to ensure that staff would be granted anonymity if talking to review.

AP asks if DB can send this email to counsel and for some other correspondence too

Tavistock don't do evidence-based anything

I find that very surprising

I'm getting a bit lost in the hearing - is this stuff currently all about whether there was a culture of poor safeguarding in general at GIDS.

INAL but the impression I get is that this is all about evidence that staff were discouraged or prevented from speaking with Sonia Appleby

End of DB's evidence

I've been looking up Yvette Genn's (YG) legal background.

Give it a year, she could be representing some of the GIDS children against the Tavistock NHS Trust on grounds of medical negligence.

Hannah Barnes @hannahsbee

Hearing adjourned for the day.
Have tried to be as accurate as possible but there will inevitably have been typos along the way.

Thank you Hannah Barnes 💐