An NSPCC whistleblower has quit the charity after claiming it risked “grooming” children with aggressive trans ideology.
Julia Marshall, who had volunteered with the organisation for more than 30 years, warned that it had been “completely captured” by the hardline Stonewall campaign group.
As reported by the Telegraph, the 62-year-old claimed that she and other school volunteers were told to ask primary school-age children their pronouns when they delivered assemblies and workshops. The report continues:
She says that they were also put under pressure to affirm children’s choices of gender, even where it had nothing to do with protecting them against physical and sexual abuse, which is the NSPCC’s founding purpose.
“It was a major red flag,” she said. “I thought how can you not see that this is a safeguarding risk?”
It comes amid a gathering backlash against gender ideology, including the publication of the Cass review this month, which found that the evidence for allowing children to change gender was built on “shaky foundations”.
Her concerns were first raised in 2019 when she noticed that her supervisor in Hertfordshire had begun including her pronouns, “she/her”, in emails. “I had a long conversation with her about it,” Ms Marshall said. “She said we’ve been told that it’s important to show inclusivity.”
Workshops were suspended during the pandemic.
In the summer of 2022, volunteers were asked to undertake refresher training before going back into schools.
Ms Marshall and around 15 others attended a classroom on a university campus in Welwyn Garden City, where she found “a very different NSPCC to the one I’d known”.
“They had a whole session on pronouns and transgender children,” she said. “I was astounded because we were talking about primary school children under 11.
“I said ‘What on earth is going on?’ I really did feel like I was an alien. Everyone was like ‘No this is a thing, this is happening, it’s normal’. I said ‘How can you not see as a charity that this is a safeguarding risk?’ The reaction was ‘Well you’re weird’.”
Following the 2022 training session, Ms Marshall said she tried to debate the issue with her regional and local supervisors but was “blanked”.
“At that stage, I hadn’t seen what [trans advice] was on their website, but then I looked and thought they’d really lost the plot.
“I thought I can’t work for this charity any more. It’s been completely captured by Stonewall.”
Ms Marshall sent a lengthy email to senior NSPCC figures highlighting what she saw as dangerous advice to children on the charity’s website, but says she never received a reply.
Ms Marshall’s account follows a number of scandals at the charity around gender and related issues.
Last year, Childline, which comes under the NSPCC umbrella, was accused of allowing the trans lobby to “hijack” its advice website to promote potentially dangerous treatments behind parents’ backs.
The Charity Commission confirmed last week that it has opened a compliance case against the NSPCC following the allegations.
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