Preventing and Protecting Children from FGM: Challenges,

Dilemmas and Opportunities

Debbie Raymond Tri-Borough Children’s Services

Statutory Responsibilities for Children’s Social Care

• Coordination of multi-agency Safeguarding arrangements for FGM via the LSCB

• Early Help to families to prevent FGM

• Investigating and intervening when a girl is at risk of significant harm.

• Coordinating a support response for girls that have been cut

C u t t i n g a g i r l s s e x u a l o r g a n s b y f o r c e i s s u c h a

p a i n f u l , t r a u m a t i c a n d i r r e v e r s i b l e f o r m o f h a r m , t h a t

p r e v e n t i o n i s t h e o n l y t r u e f o r m o f p r o t e c t i o n . B u t i d e n t i f y i n g w h i c h g i r l s t o w o r k w i t h t o b e

e f f e c t i v e i s a c o m p l e x t a s k

Traditional Pathway for Safeguarding

Agency has a concern about a child

Referral to Children’s Services

Children’s Services decide whether the referral meets the threshold Assessments

Outcome

So we need to think differently…

Partnership approach

Work with families where FGM has been present in

the past

Joint thinking about which families need to be referred

Early Help approach based around

education, holistic support and

empowerment

Prevention

Treating FGM as a form of violence against women and girls means both providing holistic support to survivors and recognising that mothers are not

always empowered to protect their daughters, as much as they might wish to do

Extended Family

Community

Challenges for Children’s Services

• Building professional confidence and sensitivity

• Proportionality of “core” assessment process

• Reputational issues!

• Perceived tension between Early Help approach and identification of cases meeting the significant harm threshold

• Creating the space to do things differently

What works?

• Having a lead/specialist worker who can focus on developing skill and expertise

• A focus on local statistics- background demographic and actual referral rates

• Early partnerships with local voluntary sector organisation that can link you to the community is absolutely critical to success of early intervention work

• Building strong inter-agency partnerships with a shared goal even

• A systemic approach based on curiosity and openness

Safe Certainty

Safe Uncertainty

Unsafe Certainty

Unsafe Uncertainty

Contact

Debbie Raymond

Tri-Borough Children’s Services

Debbie.Raymond@rbkc.gov.uk