Agenda item

Report and presentation of Councillor Gingell, Cabinet Member (Health and Adult Services) and Chair of the Board

The Board considered a report of Councillor Gingell, Cabinet Member (Health and Adult Services) on the issue of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Coventry. The report had also been considered by the City Council’s Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee at their meeting on 8^th October, 2014. A briefing note informing of the Committee’s discussions and recommendations for the Board was attached at Appendix 5 to the report.

Lisa Maycock, Modern Matron for Community Midwifery and Outpatients and Lorna Bass, Maternity Risk Manager, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire attended the meeting for the consideration of this item and informed of the work undertaken by UHCW concerning FGM. DC Gill Squires, Public Protection Sentinel Team, West Midlands Police also attended and informed of her work to raise awareness and prevent FGM being carried out. 

The report provided an outline of what Female Genital Mutilation was; the legislation in relation to FMG; the implications of the practice on women and the outcomes for survivors; the prevalence of FMG and details of local actions so far. It also informed of the national recommendations to eliminate the practice of FMG and set out local recommendations. Detailed information was included in appendices attached to the report.

The report set out the following proposals for action:

a.  A multi-faceted awareness campaign is implemented targeting health, education, social care, voluntary sector, practising communities and other relevant professionals.

b.  Further partnership work between the Council, Coventry University and the Voluntary Sector to effectively engage with communities to ensure the Female Genital Mutilation campaign is successful

c.  The implementation of training programmes across Coventry for professionals and communities.

d.  Coventry should strive to prevent Female Genital Mutilation through Law Enforcement. Professionals and Communities need to continue to support the Police to enforce the law against parents / guardians who permit Female Genital Mutilation and the practitioners who carry it out and prevent women and girls being taken out of UK legal jurisdiction with the intention of carrying out Female Genital Mutilation.

e.  All suspected cases should continue to be referred as part of existing child safeguarding obligations. Information and support should be given to families to protect girls at risk. Better awareness of Female Genital Mutilation and the law amongst professionals should be implemented as part of a specialised training programme.

f.  If a child has already undergone Female Genital Mutilation she should be offered medical help, psychological support and counselling. Action should be taken to protect any female relatives who are at risk and to investigate possible risk to other children in the practicing community

g. Key stakeholders support UHCW in their work to offer women access to a specialist Female Genital Mutilation midwife or consultant through the provision of dedicated clinic time.

h. Community based clinics and primary and secondary care professionals should ask individuals if they have undergone Female Genital Mutilation or if themselves or members of their families are at risk.

i. Data gathered should be shared across all agencies to ensure Coventry has a clear as possible picture of the prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation in Coventry. Share that information systematically: Develop protocols for sharing information about girls at risk of – or girls who have already undergone Female Genital Mutilation with other health and social care agencies, education and the police.

j. Implementation of a Project Manager.

The Board were informed that, at their meeting on 8^th October, Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee had supported the proposals for action detailed in the report and recommended that the Health and Wellbeing Board also accept these proposals. The Committee also requested that consideration to be given to alternative educational approaches for dealing with the issue of Female Genital Mutilation which would encourage local schools to engage in raising pupils’ awareness of FMG.

The Board noted that progress reports would be submitted to future Board meetings as part of the overall ownership of this initiative.

Members of the Board raised a number of issues including:

·  The potential for Voluntary organisations to raise the subject of FGM with their community contacts and support for ‘men only’ sessions

·  The potential for prosecutions and convictions

·  Any other actions that the Safeguarding Boards could undertake

·  The importance of the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub passing appropriate information to the Sentinel Team

·  Additional information about the work with schools.

The Board were informed about the major City Conference to tackle FGM which was taking place on 13^th November, 2014. More than 300 delegates from Coventry and the West Midlands had signed up to attend. 

RESOLVED that the recommendations set out above be approved.