New guidance to stop FGM

More help is on the way to support professionals encountering Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone said: “I have seen first hand the effect this abhorrent crime can have on women and girls. This government is determined to put an end to it.

“The guidelines published today will help local authorities, charities and communities work together to prevent women and girls being subjected to this terrible abuse, and that those who have already suffered are given the appropriate care and support.”

The new guidelines will help professions most likely to encounter FGM, such as doctors, nurses and teachers identify vulnerable individuals and prevent it from happening.

FGM is a procedure carried out on young girls – usualy between birth and age 15 years – to deliberately alter or injure the female genital organs.

Severe bleeding, problems urinating and childbirth complications are some of the health problems that it can cause.

Around 20,000 children in the UK are estimated to be at serious risk of FGM, which is illegal to practice in the UK.

Survivor of FGM and Manor Gardens Advocate Hagir Ahmed: “I had the experience at the age of five or six. When you are a child you usually don’t remember things at that age but I remember. I remember being at a party and the people holding me down. My legs. My hands. My knees. And then I remember the practitioner with the knife.

“I don’t remember any anaesthetic. I just remember crying, crying and pleading. I was completely shattered, emotionally and physically.”

Guidelines and practical steps that can be taken to protect children have been issued by the government to  Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards, Directors of Children’s Services and Regional Directors of Public Health.