Mermaids is frightening as an organisation as it so clearly has a closed culture but is still revered as a beloved institution.
It's is explicitly counter to safeguarding to set up a group of people who are being questioned or vetted. It has never ended well regardless of who the sacred caste are, be it priests, pillars of the community, doctors, Scout leaders, celebrities etc
Closed cultures discourage scrutiny or professional curiosity and instead rely on people's sense of obligation to their employers/colleagues to dismiss safeguarding concerns rather than follow it up. Yet in labeling any concerns as transphobic, Mermaids has done just that.
An organisation with good safeguarding procedures would be able to:
- Identify children who may be at the risk of neglect, abuse, grooming or exploitation and maybe in need of early help.
- Help the children at risk by providing the support they need, or refer in a timely manner to those who have the expertise to help.
- Manage safe recruitment and allegations on adults who may pose a risk to children.
They fail at the first point by failing to recognise that vulnerable children often have confusion over gender identity because of past trauma and instead want to prevent holistic approaches which they call "conversion therapy". I won't comment on their effectiveness at identifying children at risk of grooming.
They fail at the second by referring children to professionals who have been struck off, such as Gender GP. The insistence on only considering an affirmation pathway means children are prevented from accessing help and instead are only steered onto a pathway that leads to irreversible changes that often do not address the root cause of the distress.
They fail at the third because they clearly do not have safe recruitment processes and are not transparent about who is involved in the organisation. They don't have a named safeguarding lead and I would not be confident in their procedures to manage allegations as they do not seem to have keeping children safe as a main guiding principle.
Some risk factors of a closed culture on the other hand:
- Weak/absent management
- Unstable or inexperienced or close-knit staff team
- Professional isolation - no evidence of strong partnership workings or links with safeguarding teams
- A history of dealing with safeguarding referrals poorly
That's leaving aside what Mermaids actually promotes, which is isolation from families, keeping secrets, lowering children's boundaries, failing to keep children safe online and so many other issues.
And all in plain sight. Most of this was cheered on, valued and even championed.
It is shocking that a charity that purports to protect children is set up and operates in a way that utterly prevents it from doing so and instead actively places them in harm's way. The children have been failed.