news Archives - Mermaids

Mermaids appoints Johanna Hardy as new Chief Executive Officer 

Mermaids, the UK charity supporting transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse children, young people and their families, is delighted to announce the appointment of Johanna Hardy (she/her) as its new Chief Executive Officer. 

Jo will be taking up the role in November 2025, bringing more than 20 years of leadership experience in the charity sector. Her career includes senior roles at Young Minds, Gingerbread, Contact and Mencap, with a strong focus on children, families, mental health and marginalised communities.  

Over the course of her career, Jo has led national helplines, face-to-face family support services, expert online information hubs and inclusive family events. She has extensive expertise in service development, safeguarding, quality assurance, evaluation, fundraising and organisational strategy. She also served as Vice-Chair of the BBC Children in Need grant-making committee for London and the South East. 

Jo’s personal experience campaigning for trans rights alongside her son – who has lived in his authentic gender identity for the past decade – has shaped her commitment to supporting trans, non-binary and gender-diverse young people. A passionate advocate for equity, inclusion and positive mental health, Jo is also an active member of All About Trans and the NEON spokesperson’s network. 

Speaking on her appointment, Jo said: 

“I am hugely excited and inspired at the prospect of joining and leading Mermaids as your next CEO. This role brings together my extensive charity sector expertise with my personal passion and lived experience in campaigning for trans rights as a parent ally. Mermaids is a remarkable charity whose work is needed now more than ever, and I am deeply humbled by the resilience and dedication of everyone involved. I can’t wait to play my part in moving this vital work forward.” 

Chair of Trustees, Hardeep Aiden said: 

“We are thrilled to welcome Jo to Mermaids. Her breadth of leadership experience, combined with her personal commitment to championing trans rights, makes her the ideal person to lead the charity into its next chapter. We look forward to working with Jo to continue delivering vital support for trans, non-binary and gender-diverse children and young people, and their families.” 

For media enquiries, please contact: 
press@mermaidsuk.org.uk 

After leading Mermaids for nearly three years, Lauren Stoner will be leaving the charity on 5th September. Lauren joined the charity on an interim basis in 2022 to guide Mermaids through the Charity Commission’s Statutory Inquiry. We are deeply grateful for Lauren’s expertise, hard work and dedication during that challenging period, and we wish her the very best for the future.

With recruitment now well underway for Mermaids’ next permanent CEO, there will be a short transition period. We are pleased to announce that, with the approval of the Charity Commission, Kathryn Downs, former Chair of Mermaids, has stepped down from her trustee role to become Interim CEO.

We are also delighted to confirm that Hardeep Aiden, a current trustee, has been appointed as the new Chair of Mermaids.

In addition, we are excited to welcome Paula Puxty to the new role of Chief Operating Officer. Paula joins the charity full time from October.

Over the coming weeks, we will be developing a refreshed operational plan for the remainder of the financial year as we ready ourselves for the arrival of a new Chief Executive and the next exciting phase of Mermaids’ work in delivery of our 2024-27 Strategy, supporting trans, non-binary and gender diverse young people and their families across the UK.

We would like to thank our staff, volunteers, supporters and our wider community for their passion and commitment. Your support is vital to ensuring Mermaids can continue to support and empower trans young people and their families, and it is hugely appreciated.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is currently consulting on changes to its Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations. These changes have been made following the Supreme Court Judgment on the definition of sex in the Equality Act 2010.

We’ve teamed up with TransActual and The Equality Network to produce some guidance to help you respond to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s draft code of practice.

We are deeply concerned by this draft and the impact it would have on trans children and young people if implemented as statutory guidance. We are encouraging our communities and allies to respond, even if you only have 10 minutes to do so.

The deadline to respond is 11:59pm on 30 June 2025.

Our joint guide on responding to the consultation

Link to the EHRC consultation

We know the content of the code of practice may be difficult to read. Mermaids’ Support line is open Monday-Friday, 1pm-8:30pm. Freephone: 0808 801 0400. You can access webchat via our website. For crisis support, text ‘Mermaids’ to 85258 (open 24/7).

The Equality Act is world-class legislation that took almost a decade to develop, and has been working well for 14 years.

Under the Act, trans people can legally access single-sex services based on their gender, and services can exclude trans people, whether or not they hold a Gender Recognition Certificate, if it is a proportionate thing to do to achieve a legitimate aim.

We believe the thresholds that the Equality Act sets are a proportionate bar for services to address if they are to use these single sex exemptions. Violence affecting women and girls is a significant concern, including for many LGBTQ+ women.

It is vital that there is sustained and meaningful investment to ensure there are services which meet the full diversity of need across the country.

However, it is not necessary to re-define sex in the Equality Act for service providers to provide a range of services. This is something they do routinely already.

As organisations that provide support to our LGBTQ+ community, we are extremely disappointed at the introduction of emergency legislation to ban the prescription of puberty-suppressing hormones (also known as GnRH analogues) in England, Wales and Scotland.

This legislation has been drafted and will be implemented from 3 June 2024 without a full impact assessment, and we are already seeing the harm and distress this is causing amongst trans young people and their families.

We are reviewing the legislation with experts to understand the implications and will provide factual information for those affected once we have it.

We recommend that any child or young person currently accessing gender-related care outside of the NHS speak with their provider before 3 June 2024 to understand how this may affect them.

If you or a loved one are affected by this news and need support, contact our helpline on 0808 801 0400, email info@mermaidsuk.org.uk or use our webchat. We are here for you.

On Thursday 11 April, we were made aware that the Charity Commission has allegedly liked and reposted gender-critical content on its official X account, including potentially defamatory content about Mermaids.

In response to an email from us, the Commission confirmed that this appears to have been accidental activity during monitoring. We recognise that accidents do happen, however vigilance is required to ensure that these are addressed as soon as possible.

As a public body, the Commission must appear to be scrupulously independent and unbiased across its work, including its activity on social media, and it is disappointing that it has taken approaches by outside parties for these accidents to be resolved.

We welcome the reassurance that the Commission is exploring additional safeguards to prevent a recurrence, however, during a particularly difficult time for the trans community following the release of The Cass Review, we remain concerned at the potential impact of such mistakes on trans children and young people who, instead of being treated with compassion and respect, are seeing their experiences invalidated and questioned across the media and platforms such as X.

We look forward to an apology from the Commission for the potential impacts of these mistakes, and additional assurance for those charities working in areas at the centre of highly politicised discussion that there will be no recurrence.

NHS England has today (12 March 2024) announced that from 1 April they will no longer routinely prescribe puberty blockers. They will be available in the future, but only through a mandatory research trial.

This announcement is deeply disappointing, and a further restriction of support offered to trans children and young people through the NHS, which is failing trans youth. There were virtually no first appointments offered in 2023, with ever-growing waiting lists of over five years.

Those currently prescribed puberty blockers won’t see any changes to their treatment, and this is a pause on prescribing – not a ban. It’s also important to note that puberty blockers can be just one possible part of a young person’s gender journey. However, this news still comes as a blow and will deeply affect our communities.

As well as providing support to children, young people and families, as we have for 29 years, Mermaids will continue to advocate strongly for access to timely, holistic and supportive healthcare for trans youth, including access to puberty blockers for those who need them. Everyone deserves access to healthcare, and to live happy and healthy lives. Trans youth are no exception.

If you need support, please contact our helpline on 0808 801 0400. We are here for you.

Lauren Stoner has been appointed permanent CEO of Mermaids on a two-year fixed term basis.

An experienced charity professional with a background in health and social care, Lauren (she/her) joined the charity as Interim CEO in December 2022 and has successfully steered the organisation through challenging times. Her leadership will see us into our 30th anniversary year in 2025.

On Lauren’s appointment, incoming Chair of Trustees Kathryn Downs (she/her) said: “Lauren has demonstrated impressive leadership, implemented new working practices and, in particular, begun the crucial process of improving the culture at Mermaids.

“Her leadership on EDI matters has been strong and the new strategy for 2024-2027, co-created with our community and all of our people, lays out a path for the future.”

“It’s a pivotal moment for Mermaids,” Kathryn adds. “As the organisation looks to transform itself, I’m honoured to be able to support Lauren and the wider team to deliver some exciting changes.”

Read our 2024-2027 Strategy

Here, Lauren answers questions from Mermaids’ Youth Advisory Panel about Mermaids’ mission, vision and values, our priorities for the year ahead, and our journey towards becoming a trans-led organisation.

What’s the best thing about being CEO of Mermaids?

Honestly, I think I have the best job in the world, so it’s hard to pick the single “best” thing. Over the last year the opportunities to meet young people and families and understand the impact of our work has been a real highlight. I also really value the opportunities we have to work in partnership with other organisations who share our values to respond to transphobic policy and practice and build a more inclusive society for trans children and young people to grow up in.

What’s been the most challenging?

I’ve never worked in an organisation experiencing this level of hostility and external scrutiny, and that is phenomenally taxing for everyone who works and volunteers at Mermaids. I’ve been blown away by the strength and resilience of our people, and the support from our community and allies, which enables us to support children, young people and their families and campaign for better education and healthcare, in the face of this hostility.

What are you most proud of in 2023?

Firstly, the work that we’ve done to support staff wellbeing, including piloting the four-day week, recognising a union and improving the leave we offer to all staff. We will always have more to do in this area, and I’m excited about what we’ve got in the pipeline for 2024.

Secondly, that we went to our community first in developing our strategy, and have developed a strategy for the next three years which will enable us to respond to the changing external environment while setting ourselves up for long term success.

And I’m also really proud that we took the brave step to be one of the first charities in our sector to leave X/Twitter, and that we continue to grow our reach on social media despite this.

What are you most looking forward to in 2024?

Working with young people, our staff, volunteers and other stakeholders, supported by external facilitators, to develop our approach to trans leadership at Mermaids. I’m delighted that we’ve appointed a new chair designate who is herself trans, and that we’ve continued to improve trans representation over the last year, but we have more to do to establish how best we can identify, retain and nurture trans leaders for today and the future at Mermaids.

Can you tell us more about Mermaids’ new mission, vision and values?

I’m really excited that these were co-created across the team, and that they put youth voice at the centre of everything that we do. Our mission sets out the change we want to achieve, and feels relatable and relevant to the work we do. Our vision is how we’re going to get there, and our values are the principles that we will apply to all of our work internally and externally.

What are your priorities going forward?

Fundamentally, to put our strategy into action, establishing us as a resilient, collaborative organisation and getting us ready to celebrate our 30th birthday in 2025. This includes the work I’m most looking forward to around developing our principles for trans leadership, continuing to improve our systems and processes, and to developing new services which best meet the needs of trans children and young people, their families and the professionals who support them today and for the future.

Read our new strategy for 2024-27 here.

Elijah, a member of Mermaids’ Youth Advisory Panel, had the opportunity to give evidence to Mr Victor Madrigal Borloz, the United Nations’ Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), during his visit to the UK.

Victor Madrigal-Borloz visited the UK to listen to a range of stakeholders, including Mermaids, as part of his report into the human rights of LGBT+ people in the UK.

Now that the Independent Expert’s end of mission statement (TW: references to suicide) is released, Elijah recounts his experience and what the day signified for him personally.

As I sat on the train to London, I had to chance to think about the shy anxious person that I used to be. I don’t think I would’ve believed it if you had told me three years ago that I would get the chance to talk about my experience at a meeting which could improve the lives of transgender young people in the UK.

I arrived at Euston on the 9am train, jumped on the tube, then took a short walk down the River Thames. I didn’t know where to begin, there was so much that I could say about what it’s like to be a trans young person in the UK.

Once I was welcomed in the meeting, I felt relaxed and knew my experience was valued. I could speak openly about how I felt and what I had gone through, despite being nervous knowing I may be one of the only trans young people able to speak to the UN Independent Expert.

I was able to talk about how the UK’s education system has made me feel ostracised and the way my trans identity felt incompatible with school. I got to talk about how the politicisation of trans identities is scary. I left the meeting confident that I’d done justice to my experience, while also feeling as though I was carrying the weight of other trans young people with me, including those who are no longer here to tell their story.

Afterwards I took a short walk over Lambeth Bridge heading towards the Tate Britain to grab lunch, looking at the Houses of Parliament perched comfortably on the north bank of the river. Looking at a place where such important decisions about our livelihood are made is always a surreal feeling. In the cafe as I sat down I felt some of the pressure I was carrying lift from my shoulders. I felt that this opportunity to share my experiences as a trans person that day would amount to change for those after me.

Around two weeks later, the report has been published, and includes my concerns about the potentially damaging impact of the Government’s plans to forcibly disclose a student’s gender identity to their parents:

“The organization highlighted specific concerns that such advice may not be guided by the human rights legal requirement of the best interests of the child, if suggesting to forcibly reveal their gender identities to their parents, in light of high rates of transphobic abuse in family environments.”

It is so important for Westminster politicians to acknowledge that what is currently happening to trans people in the UK is causing immense harm, and recognise that many more trans young people, like me, are being forced out of mainstream education.

Transgender young people have the right to not only attend school without fear of bullying or harassment from students or staff, but to be actively embraced by their local community. The Independent Expert’s report reiterated the fact that in the UK this is not currently always the case, but the resilience and vocalness of the UK’s trans community can propel us further despite any barriers we may face.

Want to help shape a world where trans young people can thrive? Sign up to our mailing list to stay in the know about how you can support trans youth and their families.

Mermaids has appointed an interim CEO, who will be joining the charity this week.

Lauren Stoner (she/her) has spent most of her career working in health and social care with a focus on person-centred support, rights, and voice.

Her career to date has focused on fundraising and policy change, ensuring that disabled people and abuse survivors have the right support.

Lauren has also been involved in developing and supporting partnerships with providers, commissioners and others across the statutory, voluntary, and community sector. She lives in Nottingham with her partner and their pet rats.

In a letter to staff, supporters and beneficiaries, Lauren acknowledges the challenges facing the organisation and says she wants to spend her first 100 days getting a clear plan in place to meet these head on.

Dear Mermaids family,

My name is Lauren Stoner, and I’m the new interim CEO of Mermaids.

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself in my own words and tell you a little about my background, why I want to join Mermaids, and how I’ll approach the challenges that lie ahead.

I’m an experienced charity professional, with a background in health and social care, particularly focused on income generation, policy and communications. I’m passionate about co-production, equity and culture and want to build organisations shaped by the people we support, where people can bring their whole selves to work.

Outside of work, I live in Nottingham with my partner and our pet rats. I officiate roller derby, an explicitly trans-inclusive contact sport played on roller skates, and am an enthusiastic quilter and dressmaker.

“Why Mermaids?”, you might be asking. Because young trans people and their families need great support now more than ever, and I want to support the charity to deliver that, now and in the future.

It’s a difficult time for the organisation and for the people we support and there are challenges ahead. In addition to supporting the statutory inquiry, I’ll start by listening to everyone with a stake in what we do and understanding their views, and review that alongside the work that’s already been done.

Key areas for me to focus on are ensuring that we understand our future direction and have the right people, right culture, right systems and processes to enable us to achieve that.

These are all big challenges and change can’t happen overnight, but I’m positive that as a team, and with support of our board, we can achieve our goals. We’ll share our progress and the lessons that we’ve learned openly.

I’m not going to promise to resolve all of those challenges between now and the end of March. Instead, in 100 days’ time, I want to know that we’ve identified the root causes of our challenges, have a clear plan in place and are starting to address them in a prioritised way.

Longer term, I see Mermaids as a trusted source of support and advice for young trans people and those who are questioning their gender identity, and for the people around them including parents and carers, professionals, and anyone else who wants to create a better world for them.

Thank you for putting your trust in me. Now, let’s get to work.

Lauren