Reporting on the situation at WellBN has taken an immense toll on my emotional and psychological health. Hearing the many harrowing accounts of children in deep distress has kept me up at night and I’m left questioning why this is happening. Children without a voice, trapped in bureaucracy so densely wrapped that the Vogons would be proud to call it their own.
The right to be a trans child is being eroded
Trans people stand at the sharp end of the UK government’s relentless assault on minorities, a group whose rights and freedoms are constantly debated by politicians and the media. I see hundreds of anti-trans articles published by major news outlets each year which spin a narrative that trans people are to be feared and ridiculed. Trans children and young people are treated as though they don’t know their own minds. Cis people deciding what they feel ‘is in a child’s best interest’. Except I don’t see this being in the child’s best interest at all, it’s what the adult wants to impose and nothing more. This, more often than not, means a child’s voice is removed and their autonomy denied.
The UK puberty blocker ban is a perfect example of adults with little to no knowledge and understanding of transgender issues (never mind trans healthcare) enforcing a cruel choice onto these children and young people. I have seen parents whose nerves have been shot to pieces as they desperately try to keep their children in receipt of the medication they found to be life saving and life affirming.
Reading cold, impersonal reports didn’t give me a sense of the reality of this experience for those involved. I felt the human stories needed to be told, and I sought to find ways of hearing directly from children and their families. Having been made aware by my sources of concerns about the way NHS Sussex were handling a situation involving trans children and young people, I began my journey of listening there.
Parents affected feel horror and disbelief
Very soon I found parents willing to speak to me directly. It was clear a number of them wanted to share their stories, their children’s stories, and their deep concerns.
The parents I spoke to shared their terror and disbelief at NHS Sussex investigating WellBN. From what I was told, this Brighton based GP practice has transformed their children’s life for the better. They questioned why NHS Sussex was accusing the staff at WellBN of harming their children. To these parents Dr Sam Hall and Dr Laura Marshall-Andrews are viewed as heroes who have gone the extra mile to help ensure their children are happy and healthy. They spoke of both doctors as having a deep understanding of how best to treat their child’s gender incongruence (dysphoria). Yet NHS Sussex insists harm is being done to each child despite revealing no evidence to back up their claims. The real reason for their investigation appears to be something far more sinister – forced detransition.
One parent told me that she was hearing reports of Dr Hillary Cass (of the Cass Review) teaching staff at NHS Sussex on how to detransition trans children. I reached out to NHS Sussex for comment on this and I got no reply, just a cold wall of silence. Silence is how NHS Sussex have conducted their investigation. They have kept the parents firmly in the dark the whole time.
The NHS had to talk to the parents when the issue became public
Until I began reporting on the situation there had been no meetings held between the parents and NHS Sussex, and certainly not NHSE. This left parents feeling scared and vulnerable, as they had no idea what the outcome for their child was going to be.
Very soon after my first article was published (that raised parent concerns) two meetings got scheduled by NHS Sussex to meet with the parents. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. One thing abundantly clear was the relief amongst parents that months of almost complete radio silence by NHS Sussex had been broken.
Online meetings where parents spoke but were they heard?
I thought the online meetings would be private and secure – they were not! I was able to find the email to request access on an NHS Sussex webpage. A link to join the meetings was emailed to me with no questions asked as to who I was.
I understand parents were informed no journalists would be present, but the meeting’s organisers cannot possibly have known this and I was given no official guidance that this was a closed meeting or subject to reporting restrictions.
Each meeting was around two and a half hours of parents asking why their children are being sent to new gender identity clinics. Asking why their children can’t continue the excellent care offered by WellBN. I did not hear anything from the staff in these meetings that satisfied parent questions, only clinical responses that felt more like rehearsed boiler plate responses than meaningful answers. The scared parents were given zero comfort and zero guarantees of the excellent healthcare being continued post investigation.
It was both devastating and heartbreaking to hear mothers and fathers plead to clinical staff. The tears flowed and frustration grew as no hope was given for their suffering children.
An apology for making some parents feel even worse
While I felt it important to document such harrowing experience, and that sharing knowledge of the actions of WellBN is in the public interest, I must issue a full apology to a parent I quoted anonymously without their explicit consent. This was an oversight on my part and one I apologise sincerely for. No harm was intended by it, I just wanted to share the torment some families have expressed to me and which many described in detail in the meeting. I have learnt from the error and will be much more careful in the future.
Giving a voice to these children is my top priority. No child should have their rights and bodily autonomy denied. These children deserve the same high level of care and support as every other child, with no exceptions.
Trans children need ongoing support
NHS Sussex are not offering these children the support and healthcare they want and need. They are depriving them of the care delivered by WellBN, and that parents have told me they consider that care to be excellent. Care that will allow them to thrive into adulthood. This is what I want above all else for these children that have been let down by the system and our society.
Friends of Bylines Network
There has never been a greater need for grassroots journalism that investigates the stories that really matter, holds power to account and champions the voices of everyday citizens. We are proudly powered by volunteers but what we do isn’t free.
STAND WITH US for independent, citizen-led journalism that makes democracy stronger, and you will even get some exclusive benefits.
