Exclusive: Trans charity Mermaids to be investigated by Charity Commission

Mermaids is being investigated by the Charity Commission after The Telegraph revealed “red flags” in its dealings with children.

The regulator said it had opened a “regulatory compliance case” after concerns were raised about the trans charity’s “approach to safeguarding young people”.

The charity has been sending potentially dangerous breast binding devices to children behind their parents’ backs and discussing with them how puberty blocking drugs are “totally reversible”.

Mermaids, which receives funding from the taxpayer and runs training sessions for schools, the NHS and police forces, has been contacted by the regulator.

A spokesman for the commission said: “Concerns have been raised with us about Mermaids’ approach to safeguarding young people. We have opened a regulatory compliance case and have written to the trustees. We now await their reply.”

The news was welcomed by campaigners including Transgender Trend, which argues for evidence-based healthcare for children, which said: “At last, parents’ concerns about Mermaids’ promotion of binders and blockers are being heard.”

It came after evidence obtained by The Telegraph showed Mermaids staff agreeing to send a breast binder discreetly to a girl they believed was only 14 after being told repeatedly that her mother would not allow her to use one.

The free binder scheme, which has been running since at least 2019, has seen staff offering the chest-flattening devices to children as young as 13.

A form of ‘self-harm’

Chest binding has been described as a form of “self-harm” because it can cause problems including breathing difficulties, chronic back pain, changes to the spine and broken ribs.

The Metropolitan Police said that whilst “the supply of a breast-binder on its own is not a criminal offence” it would “investigate jointly with social services as potential child abuse” any report of “someone using a breast binder or undergoing the practice of breast ironing.”

It was also revealed that the Mermaids online help centre has been offering advice to users who say that they are as young as 13 that controversial hormone-blocking drugs are safe and “totally reversible”.

In the last month, there were discussions in the charity’s moderated forum for 12 to 15-year-olds on how to raise money to start taking drugs and the best way to take testosterone.

A moderator also publicly congratulated a teenage user for deciding that they were transgender by the age of 13 and deciding that they wanted drugs and “all the surgeries”.

Mothers have said they are “horrified by what young adolescents are exposed to behind their parents’ backs”.

In a previous complaint to the commission, one parent said she was “hugely concerned that conversations with homophobic content” made her son believe being gay was “unacceptable” and “rushed” him into believing he needed to be “medically transitioned”.

The Charity Commission said it was assessing the allegations on Monday and has now confirmed that it has opened a case. This is not a finding of wrongdoing, but is the first step the commission can take in examining potential wrongdoing.

‘A harm reduction position’

Mermaids did not comment on the details of the investigation. In recent years, it has received more than £20,000 in taxpayers’ money from grants and more than £500,000 from the National Lottery.

The organisation’s latest accounts say it has provided sessions for the police, NHS children’s mental health service, hospital trusts, charities and fostering agencies.

The accounts say it gave 59 training sessions at schools, and that participants of other sessions have included GPs, educational psychologists, therapists and paediatric nurses.

In a statement setting out its position on binders after being approached by The Telegraph, Mermaids said it took “a harm reduction position” that providing a binder with safety instructions was better than people using other “unsafe practices” or experiencing dysphoria.

Despite growing evidence about the dangers of puberty-blockers, Mermaids maintained that they “are an internationally recognised, safe, reversible, healthcare option which have been recommended by medical authorities in the UK and internationally for decades”.

A Mermaids spokesman said the organisation had “received the letter from the Charity Commission and will be responding directly… in due course”.

Joanna Cherry KC, an SNP MP, said: “I’m very pleased that the investigation I called for is happening. Recent revelations about advice allegedly given by Mermaids raise major safeguarding issues, particularly in the light of the findings of the Cass interim report, and the allegations of homophobia are very concerning.”