Mermaids chief Susie Green steps down after six years
The chief executive of Mermaids, Susie Green, has left the transgender children’s charity after six years in her post.
Announcing the decision, the charity thanked Ms Green for “building Mermaids into the organisation it is today”.
The chair of trustees said an interim chief executive would be appointed shortly. No explanation was given as to what triggered the announcement.
The news comes after a Telegraph investigation earlier this year revealed the scandal-hit charity was offering to give potentially dangerous chest-flattening devices to 14-year-olds against their parents’ wishes.
Staff with no medical training were also found to have given advice to users, who they believe were as young as 13, that controversial hormone-blocking drugs are safe and “totally reversible”.
In the wake of The Telegraph’s investigation, the Charity Commission launched a “regulatory compliance case” over concerns about the charity’s “approach to safeguarding young people”.
In recent months, the charity has also found itself under intense public scrutiny for other controversies.
One of which was the charity's decision to launch an appeal against the Charity Commission’s awarding of charitable status to LGB Alliance, which has been critical of “gender ideology’’.
The case is understood to be the first time one charity has tried to strip the legal status away from another.
Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Leeds, with an office in London, Mermaids has about 44 staff members and 110 volunteers.
Prior to her appointment as CEO in 2016, Ms Green worked as an IT manager for Citizens Advice from 2002 to 2015.
Ms Green has previously spoken about taking her child to the US in 2017 for puberty blockers when they were aged 12, oestrogen aged 13, and to Thailand for surgery on their sixteenth birthday.
In a statement posted on the charity’s website on Friday night, Mermaid's chair of trustees, Belinda Bell, wrote: “The trustees are very grateful to Susie for everything she has done over the last six years to support trans, non-binary and gender-diverse young people and their families, and to build Mermaids into the organisation it is today.
“We wish her all the best for the future.”
Reacting to the news Ms Green had stepped down, a Charity Commission spokeswoman said: “Mermaids’ trustees have informed us today about the departure of the charity’s CEO. The charity remains subject to a compliance case.”
Since the commission launched its investigation, some organisations have paused their relationships with Mermaids.
The national lottery community fund has suspended future payments and the Department for Education has removed it from its mental health and wellbeing resources for schools.
