In 2020, Quinn came out as transgender, and said that they use they/them pronouns, with Quinn as their full name.[9] They were permitted to continue playing professional women's football on the basis of their sex (rather than gender identity).[10] They have expressed disappointment with media using their three-word birth name when they came out, stating "it's crucial to write about trans people using their name & pronouns."[11] In July 2021, Quinn became the first out non-binary transgender athlete to compete at the Olympic Games.[12][13]

The Observer

NHS gender identity clinic whistleblower wins damages David Connett Child safeguarding expert awarded £20,000 after bringing claim against Tavistock and Portman trust

A child safeguarding expert who faced vilification after raising concerns about the safety of children undergoing treatment at a London NHS gender identity clinic has won an employment tribunal case against the hospital trust.

Sonia Appleby, 62, was awarded £20,000 after an employment tribunal ruled the NHS’s Tavistock and Portman trust’s treatment of her damaged her professional reputation and “prevented her from proper work on safeguarding”.

Appleby, an experienced psychoanalytical psychotherapist, was responsible for protecting children at risk from maltreatment.

The tribunal heard evidence she raised concerns about the treatment of increasing numbers of children being referred to the trust’s Gender Identity Development Service (Gids).

The service in Hampstead has been at the heart of a controversy over its treatments, including the provision of drugs known as puberty blockers to children as young as 10.

The tribunal heard that some staff were particularly worried about a private GP, Dr Helen Webberley, who on her own initiative was issuing prescriptions for puberty blocking drugs to young people being assessed by Gids, or who were on the waiting list for assessment. They approached Appleby with concerns that taking hormones before assessment could pose a risk to children. Sonia Appleby Sonia Appleby

The tribunal heard evidence that after she raised the concerns, instead of addressing them, the trust management ostracised her and attempted to prevent her from carrying out her safeguarding role, by sidelining her. Appleby said the management’s action amounted to a “full-blown organisational assault”.

She alleged staff were told she had an “agenda”.

Appleby claimed that since then she has been unable to fulfil her role as a named professional for safeguarding children at Tavistock and Portman NHS centre, England’s only gender identity clinic for children.

She had also questioned whether record-keeping was adequate and recommended the trust introduce a manual or policy to assist “clear thinking” about cases and assess whether there was a history of abuse or safeguarding concerns before initiating treatment. She raised further concerns that staff were too overworked to properly consider safeguarding issues.

The trust denied treating Appleby unfairly, claiming that aspects of her disclosures and “the way she made them” affected the way she was treated. It alleged she was “not really concerned about safeguarding or service delivery” and that she had been “accusatory in approach”, the tribunal judgment said.

In its conclusion, the tribunal found that she was subjected to “quasi disciplinary treatment” following her whistleblowing disclosures, which were seen by some managers as “unwarranted interference”.

It concluded that there was “obvious unfairness” in the way Appleby was dealt with by the trust after hearing she was not given any notice ahead of a disciplinary meeting, there was no investigation and she did not have an opportunity to appeal.

Elliot Hammer, who represented Appleby, said on Saturday: “We are very happy the tribunal vindicated Ms Appleby. It is a great win and we are very appreciative of the witnesses that came forward to support her and who gave the evidence that she needed to defend herself.”

One witness, former Tavistock and Portman consultant psychiatrist David Bell, said he had also faced disciplinary threats from the trust when he raised concerns about Gids and child safety.

Bell said, after being shown a copy of the tribunal judgment by the Observer, that it showed the Tavistock and Portman trust became “so caught up in the politicisation of the subject of gender identity it had lost sight of its duty to safeguard children.

“I think the judgment confirms the view that the trust are not capable of dealing objectively with things such as child safeguarding and the treatment of whistleblowers,” he said.

“Instead of properly investigating serious safeguarding issues they tried to suppress them and behaved inappropriately towards the person in charge of safeguarding across the trust as well as a number of other members of staff.

“There are much wider implications for the trust. This evidence casts the trust in a very bad light. You might think [if] the senior medical director or the chief executive of the trust had heard staff were being told not to report serious allegations of safeguarding it would be extremely worrying, and yet very little has been done.”

A spokesperson for the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust said: “The trust is disappointed by the tribunal’s decision and is considering it carefully. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”