NHS gender identity clinic whistleblower wins damages
by David Connett, Observer:
Child safeguarding expert awarded £20,000 after bringing claim against Tavistock and Portman trust.
A child safeguarding expert who faced vilification after raising concerns about the safety of children undergoing treatment at a London NHS gender identity clinic has won an employment tribunal case against the hospital trust.
Sonia Appleby, 62, was awarded £20,000 after an employment tribunal ruled the NHS’s Tavistock and Portman trust’s treatment of her damaged her professional reputation and “prevented her from proper work on safeguarding”.
Appleby, an experienced psychoanalytical psychotherapist, was responsible for protecting children at risk from maltreatment.
The tribunal heard evidence she raised concerns about the treatment of increasing numbers of children being referred to the trust’s Gender Identity Development Service (Gids).
The service in Hampstead has been at the heart of a controversy over its treatments, including the provision of drugs known as puberty blockers to children as young as 10.
The tribunal heard that some staff were particularly worried about a private GP, Dr Helen Webberley, who on her own initiative was issuing prescriptions for puberty blocking drugs to young people being assessed by Gids, or who were on the waiting list for assessment. They approached Appleby with concerns that taking hormones before assessment could pose a risk to children.
The tribunal heard evidence that after she raised the concerns, instead of addressing them, the trust management ostracised her and attempted to prevent her from carrying out her safeguarding role, by sidelining her. Appleby said the management’s action amounted to a “full-blown organisational assault”.
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