A group of NHS workers have been advised to drop support for transgenderchildren’s charity Mermaids after a recent string of controversies.
Primary care staff employed by Black Country NHS Inegrated Care Board (ICB) have been instructed not to signpost information about the charity to patients amid safeguarding concerns.
Mermaids is being investigated by the Charity Commission following revelations that one of its staff had agreed to send a breast binder to an undercover journalist posing as a teenage girl.
The ICB told staff not to ‘signpost to this charity at this time and remove references to them in any support materials you may have’.
GPs and other staff have been brought up to speed with media coverage about the fallout, The Telegraph reports.
Mermaids has attracted additional scrutiny for weeks following its legal attempt to remove the charity status of the LGB Alliance – a charity set up to uphold gay, lesbian and bisexual rights.
