Recommendation 3

HM Government Not Addressed

Response: It is vital that all professionals with statutory safeguarding responsibilities such as the police, teachers and healthcare professionals have the right training and framework to identify victims and perpetrators of FGM and manage them effectively. The Home Office provides multi-agency statutory guidance on FGM for all professionals alongside a free e-learning module to help them identify and effectively support FGM survivors and those at risk. Healthcare All healthcare staff must complete safeguarding training which includes a focus on FGM at every level within the NHS. Safeguarding Leads within local NHS Trusts, Integrated Care Boards and GP practices are responsible for ensuring practitioners are offering appropriate advice and support, including onward referrals to specialist support services. The mandatory safeguarding training also signposts NHS staff to an e-Learning for Healthcare FGM Module, which is currently being refreshed for publication in 2026. This training will be of particular relevance for health professionals working in areas where patients affected by FGM may be seen more frequently such as General Practice, Women’s Health Hubs, Midwifery, Sexual Health and Sexual Assault Referral Centres. This updated learning has been developed by NHS England and informed by relevant Royal Colleges, clinical experts and incorporates the voice of women affected by FGM. The training provides staff with the skills to consider, recognise and discuss FGM with the women and girls they support, through six areas: • Introduction to female genital mutilation; • Communication skills for FGM consultations; • Legal and safeguarding issues regarding FGM in the UK; • Issues, presentation and management in children and young women; • Issues, presentation and management in women and around pregnancy; and • the psychological impact of FGM. Completion of this e-learning will support health professionals so they can provide sensitive and trauma-informed responses to patients who have been affected by FGM and the confidence to provide clear referral pathways for women in need of specialist FGM services. NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will develop a communications plan to raise awareness of FGM and encourage uptake of the e-learning training among health professionals most likely to be working with patients affected by FGM. This will include dissemination through the NHS Futures Platform, Women’s Health Champions and Women’s Health Leads. Police The College of Policing provides the Authorised Professional Practice on ‘honour’-based abuse setting out guidance for managing cases, including cases of FGM. Alongside this, the new National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Public Protection launched in April 2025 to provide coordinated, national leadership within policing to tackle VAWG and child sexual abuse. Part of their work includes the development of strengthened specialist training for officers across the country ensuring they offer consistent protection for victims and relentlessly pursue these crimes. This includes FGM. Education Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE), the statutory guidance for schools and colleges, makes clear that teachers must personally report to the police cases where they discover that an act of FGM appears to have been carried out. Unless the teacher has good reason not to, they should still consider and discuss any such case with the school or college’s designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy) and involve local authority children’s social care as appropriate. KCSIE provides a useful summary of the FGM mandatory reporting duty, as well as links to the multi-agency statutory guidance on female genital mutilation and the Home Office’s FGM resource pack. Social workers are trained to take appropriate steps to safeguard children, supported by ongoing professional development and government guidance that we keep under review. Working Together to safeguarding children statutory guidance was updated in 2023 and references FGM. We will be reviewing Working Together guidance on a regular basis, and when the time comes, we will look at whether this wording can be strengthened further.