Mermaids boss ‘forced out’ as staff revolted against her ‘incapable leadership’
Mermaids boss ‘forced out’ as staff revolted against her ‘incapable leadership’
A whistleblower revealed Susie Green, who quit as the charity’s chief executive last week, was accused of ‘shoving her head in the sand’
The Mermaids boss was forced out amid a staff revolt including complaints that she was not transgender, The Telegraph can disclose, as a statutory inquiry is opened into the scandal-hit trans charity.
Susie Green suddenly stood down last week as chief executive of the embattled group after six years, with no interim boss in place and the move shrouded in secrecy.
A whistleblower has revealed disarray and anger within the charity’s Leeds and London offices.
The boss faced a staff backlash over her “incapable” leadership, culminating in a “nail in the coffin” report that trustees received last week.
The internal audit, launched earlier this year by the Social Justice Collective (SJC), a diversity group, is understood to be highly critical of Ms Green’s handling of complaints of racism, safeguarding, the vetting of trustees and her “shoving her head in the sand”.
The charity, the UK’s largest for trans children, has received taxpayer funding and runs training in the NHS, schools and police forces, as well as online forums for gender-distressed children.
While campaigners have long raised concerns about the group’s “unfettered access to children” and support of gender-affirming healthcare, those inside it have never spoken out until now.
Shocked staff were hauled into an “emergency meeting” on Friday with Dr Belinda Bell, the chair of trustees, and told Ms Green was gone and her replacement “needs strong EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) experience, ideally lived experience”, with some staff believing this means being transgender.
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, a Tory peer, said: “The Charity Commission reports to the House of Commons so the legless Mermaids have no escape. They cannot wriggle out now.”
Mermaids’ interim chief executive job advert, on an £80,0000 salary, says Mermaids is “looking for someone who is experienced to lead a culture change piece, is strong on EDI” and an expert in “people management”. Its trustee brief says trustees have “collective and joint responsibilities”.
Mermaids was run by volunteers until 2016 when Ms Green, who took her child to Thailand for a gender reassignment operation, became its first staff member. It has previously been supported by Emma Watson, the actor, and the Duke of Sussex and given National Lottery funding
Comments
Post a Comment