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

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.

@FindTheTruth

YG - but you’re not taking great issues and don’t know what actions were taken after you left the service AS - yes YG - will you take it from me that there were quite significant actions taken after this AS - can’t answer that question.

End of YG cross examination

Is it not important that ‘significant actions’ were made. Doesn’t that prove the service was not competent if significant changes were made. Those significant actions were undertaken for a reason.

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

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.

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/

@FindTheTruth

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.

I am gobsmacked at this.

I truly don't know what to say.

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

Thanks FindTheTruth

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

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?

[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]
Bloody hell - I assumed 2005-2006 was a typo! It's horrific that concerns have been raised, and ignored, for so long.

[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

The evidence and the Timeline posted from the Guardian article are just jaw droopingly shocking.
I suspect the Tavi lawyers have gone for the “you are ALL lying” as there is absolutely no actual defence!

Thank you so much for the live posts on this thread.

[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]
Wow. If Dr Taylor’s proposed solutions, had been implemented 2006/7 NONE of this would have happened. It's incomprehensible when you learn that solutions which would have prevented the devastation (for children and professionals), existed in plain English 15 YEARS AGO!!

I should point out that the article linked above I think was first published in The Observer not The Guardian.

Apparently a Dr Nick Temple was CEO during that period, when things could have been brought back from the brink, so to speak.

Thanks all you brilliant women for your knowledge, analysis and research

no doubt there is much more to emerge

no doubt. but how much can an employment tribunal judge actually do? INAL so if anyone with legal expertise could let us know :)

Wow, that Taylor report is jaw-dropping, all the problems were there 15+ years ago.
GIDS is described as an "orphan service" so no one was watching them and they were operating in isolation from other services-you can see how a little empire was being built. He suggests that GIDS should be running alongside services for other complex adolescent mental health services ie eating disorders/body dysmorphia, this was clearly ignored. Many of us here have seen a potential link between these conditions but I suspect it wouldn't suit the narrative of the "trans experts" to consider this as it might have led them to lose power over their super exotic speciality area.

Thanks for this thread, it is incredibly helpful.

The Jimmy Saville issue is very interesting. From the Mail article:

Mrs Appleby states that concerns were raised after she used Jimmy Savile as an example of bad safeguarding practices during training sessions.

She said her line manager, medical director Dr Dinesh Sinha, raised concerns that she was discussing the paedophile and 'linking that to the GIDS service'.

in July 2019 Mrs Appleby was told there was an allegation that she said GIDS was 'another Savile waiting to happen' and that he proposed to put a letter in her file.

'Jimmy Savile is a well-known perpetrator of sexual abuse, meaning that whoever is talking about me talking about Jimmy Savile, does not properly understand what 'talking about Jimmy Savile' means in the context of safeguarding children.

'I do believe that this allegation was made to me because of my protected disclosures and a desire by the Trust, Dr Polly Carmichael, to hamper my ability to operate. It was a full-blown organisational assault on me

'Talking about Jimmy Savile is an absolutely integral part that staff understand what they need to do, particularly as a result of the Lampard inquiry [the probe into Savile allegations] process, that they should know what to do if they think a patient is being harmed by a celebrity/VIP, which is the Jimmy Savile reference.

'It is incongruent to say that I need to 'exercise care' in my language to staff with safeguarding.

'Jimmy Savile has to be discussed in relation to safeguarding. It is that simple. What Dr Sinha has failed to ask himself is 'why would staff at GIDS be so sensitive about the phrase 'Jimmy Savile'?'.'

Mrs Appleby states that concerns were raised after she used Jimmy Savile as an example of bad safeguarding practices during training sessions.

She said her line manager, medical director Dr Dinesh Sinha, raised concerns that she was discussing the paedophile and 'linking that to the GIDS service'.

Isn't that a typical, well noted reaction to shut down discussion? Omg, you think we're all rapists/pedophiles!

Wow, talk about a hostile working environment.

And yes, yes it is Datun

Just posting the link to the mail article.

NHS child gender clinic whistleblower made 'Jimmy Savile' warnings
mol.im/a/9688895

She said her line manager, medical director Dr Dinesh Sinha, raised concerns that she was discussing the paedophile and 'linking that to the GIDS service'.
'Jimmy Savile has to be discussed in relation to safeguarding. It is that simple. What Dr Sinha has failed to ask himself is 'why would staff at GIDS be so sensitive about the phrase 'Jimmy Savile'?'.'

In 2013 Sinha wrote in the HSJ,

One of the key insights of the Francis report was the intransigence of the trust board at the heart of poor decision making, rebuffing efforts and information that deviated from its position. This could be thought of as an organisational “thick skin” that is at risk of developing in response to information from outside the board that challenges its internal understanding.

www.hsj.co.uk/commissioning/lay-members-make-stronger-transparent-ccg-boards/5064089.article

The Francis Report was the result of the inquiry into care failures at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust and identified the need for improvements in the culture of the NHS highlighting the impact that has on the ability of staff to raise concerns.

The report made 290 recommendations, including:

openness, transparency and candour throughout the health care system (including a statutory duty of candour), fundamental standards for health care providers
improved support for compassionate caring and committed care and stronger health care leadership.

“The inquiry chairman, Robert Francis QC, concluded that patients were routinely neglected by a trust that was preoccupied with cost cutting, targets and processes and which lost sight of its fundamental responsibility to provide safe care.”

www.health.org.uk/about-the-francis-inquiry

Dr Dinesh Sinha was appointed to the Tavistock and Portman board as Medical Director in August 2018 and also took up the role of Director of Quality from June 2019.
tavistockandportman.nhs.uk/about-us/governance/board-of-directors/

That’s a very interesting piece, Caorthann, thanks for posting. I’ve listened to a couple of the recent Tavi board meetings and Sinha has been very defensive during them.