Guidance

Introduction to Manchester FGM Forum

Published 30 July 2014

This guidance was withdrawn on 23 January 2020

This page has been archived as the information is out of date.

Greater Manchester Female Genital Mutilation Forum

The Greater Manchester (GM) FGM forum was commissioned in 2011 by the GM Serious Violent Crime Group to find out the extent of the problem. The group is multi-agency, made up of a wide range of agencies including doctors, midwives, health professionals, local authority staff from adult and children’s services and community safety.

The group firstly commissioned New Economy (GM research unit) to find out the extent of the issue. The make-up of our communities is changing and the areas for concern were Rochdale, Salford and Manchester. New Step for African Community (NESTAC) are working in partnership with us and Salford University, and have obtained funding to provide ‘health drop-ins’ in for African and Asian women in the 3 districts and are badging them as health matters.

The group then developed a protocol and policy which will be available on the GM Children’s Safeguarding Board system TriX so we are using the same information across the County. We wrote an E-learning package and with the support of AGMA (Association of Greater Manchester Authorities) digital team, it was animated and it can be accessed through Virtual College (e-learning provider that 9 of the GM LA’s have bought into). It can also be accessed through the End the Fear website, set up by the 10 LA’s and Greater Manchester Police to raise awareness of domestic abuse issues. On the site go to ‘practitioners’ and then ‘e-learning’.

We have a leaflet in draft for professionals to raise their awareness which will be funded by local authorities and the Police. We have also developed a ‘train the trainer package’ and 20 people from across the county were trained to cascade it. Many boroughs have mapped high risk schools and we are in the process of mapping health services and are hoping to standardize policy.

St Mary’s Manchester sexual health centre provide a service for women who have undergone FGM and who require surgical intervention to enable them to deliver their baby naturally, or to enable them to be sexually active, or to deal with some of the medical complications of FGM. The service was established over 20 years ago by Dr Pam Buck FRCOG. Dr Buck liaised with the local Somali community through one of the Link workers who still works with us.

Salford

Salford has a Violence Against Women strategy to which all partner agencies have committed. This work is carried forward by the Violence Against Women Board, a multi-agency board. The strategy covers all violent and abusive acts, including FGM.

As it is practised in many African, Asian and Muslim communities and as the cultural makeup changes in Salford, we must alert all frontline staff working with girls and young women of the risk of them being taken out of school by their family to have this harmful practice completed.

The Council has mapped all schools in the city to find out in which the most vulnerable children attend and officers are now developing a package for schools. On the 25th November a briefing session will be held for school staff.

Salford Safeguarding Children Unit

Salford has had one case of FGM in the last 12 months. This case was discussed at an Initial Child Protection Case Conference after concerns were raised about a mother’s ability to safeguard her two female children, aged three and five, from FGM. The children were made subject to child protection plans under the category of Physical Abuse.

Multiagency Training Opportunities

A half day basic information FGM seminar was delivered by the lead for FGM and a Named Nurse for Safeguarding as part of the Salford Safeguarding Children’s Board multi-agency training pool. To raise awareness, they offered information and advice on how to safeguard children who are at risk of FGM in Salford.

Since December 2012, FGM seminars have been delivered to a range of multi-agency professionals within Salford.

Oldham

Oldham is running two hour information sharing sessions for multi-agency professionals, as well as responding to requests to deliver specific training in schools.