FGM resources
On June 1st 2007, the London Safeguarding Children Board published the supplementary child protection protection Safeguarding children at risk of abuse through female genital mutilation. This page has been set up to support LSCBs in implementing this procedure in their area.
Metropolitan Police Female Genital Mutilation Prevention Campaign 2008
The Summer Holidays have been identified as a time when girls are particularly vulnerable to becoming victims of FGM by being flown out to countries which openly practice FGM, or by having the procedure conducted on them at home, utilising the holiday period as recovery time.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has developed Project Azure to tackle this issue, and they are working in conjunction with London Safeguarding Children Board, British Medical Association, AFRUCA, FORWARD, Agency for Culture and Change Management and Crimestoppers for this purpose.
Project Azure is aiming to raise awareness about FGM, particularly in relation to the health implications for the victims and the legal implications for anyone arranging or participating in this practice, and has developed an electronic FGM Training and Briefing pack to be widely disseminated to any agency or voluntary organisation whose staff has contact with children - follow the links below to download this information*:
Summer holidays are for fun - general project info
Summer is for fun - training presentation
General FGM information
2008 Printable poster designed by Young People Speak Out
Printable poster (Somali / English and Arabic)
FGM Prevalence Profile
Contacts and website links
* Paper posters can also be ordered using the contact details below.
The MPS have developed Standard Operating Procedures to assist MPS police officers' investigations and therefore they may not be wholly relevant, but are included below as potentially useful to professionals:
The MPS asks that you support this project by reading this pack and using the training tools within your agency. Any staff member who has contact with children or their families should be included in the training. Please also disseminate this weblink and its attachments as widely as possible to other appropriate sources.
The Project Azure team (DS Clare Chelsom, DC Ken Palmer and DC Jason Morgan) can be contacted at 020 7161 2888 or on scd5mailbox-azure@met.police.uk.
Routine questionning steering group and FGM toolkit
During the London Safeguarding Children Board’s full day FGM conference, a number of delegates raised concerns that routine questioning for FGM was still not common practice in London’s midwifery clinics. We subsequently took this to NHS London and the Department of Health, both of whom gave their backing to an initiative to get this questioning adopted across London. We have now drawn together a steering group to consider this issue - please follow the links below to download the latest notes from this meeting.
London FGM pilot PID
FGM steering group notes - 4 Mar 2008
FGM steering group notes - 31 Jan 2008
FGM steering group notes - 21 Nov 2007
As part of this work, the group have begun work on drawing together resources to make up an FGM toolkit for practitioners - please follow the links below to download the documents currently available:
London FGM toolkit contents
a) FGM - what you need to know (Waltham Forest PCT)
b) FGM clinical guideline (Leeds Teaching Hospital)
b) FGM flowchart (Hammersmith Hospitals)
b) FGM guidelines (Hammersmith Hospitals)
b) RCN Educational Resource (Royal College of Nursing)
d) London Board FGM Procedure (London Safeguarding Children Board)
k) FGM Audit (Chelsea and Westminster)
k) FGM Audit (Queen Charlotte's)
Please contact ian.dean@londoncouncils.gov.uk if you would like to attend future meetings of this group.
A statistical study to estimate the prevalence of female genital mutilation in England and Wales
Please see below to download a copy of "A statistical study to estimate the prevalence of FGM in England and Wales", published by FORWARD 9 October 2007.
A Statistical Study to Estimate the Prevalence of FGM in England and Wales
Female Genital Mutilation: Awareness and management in the UK
The Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery at King’s College London with its partner Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust have spearheaded the development of a FGM module. This new module aims to enable health care practitioners to frame FGM as a women’s health issue and to develop the appropriate skills, sensitivity and cultural competence to address the needs of affected women and girls.
For further information, please download the flyer below or contact Programmes Office, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery, at King’s College London, Waterloo Campus, 57 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8WA.
Tel: 020 7848 4698
Email: nightingale@kcl.ac.uk
Female Genital Mutilation: Awareness and management in the UK
Sharing good practice
- Female genital mutilation, edited by Comfort Momoh - this unique book will assist those who care for women and girls who have had, or are at risk of having female genital mutilation.
- The African Well Women's Clinic - information poster
London Board FGM Conference
Papers from the London Safeguarding Children Board's recent FGM conference (June 1st, 2007), can be downloaded from the link below:
