Female Genital Mutilation
(asked on 29th August 2014) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department offers guidance to teachers and staff on addressing cases of female genital mutilation amongst female students.
In April 2014, the Department for Education published the ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ guidance that provided schools with updated information regarding the safeguarding of pupils. The guidance contains information about female genital mutilation as well as a link to other, more detailed multi-agency guidelines. The Secretary of State for Education wrote to all schools in April to draw their attention to the guidance. In addition, the summer term e-mail to all schools reminded them of the need to be particularly vigilant because of the heightened risk during the summer holiday. Schools will be reminded of the guidance again in our ‘Need to Know’ e-mail early in the autumn term.
The Department commissioned the Personal Social Health and Economic Association to produce briefing for schools on FGM and this was published over the summer[1].
Information on the number of cases of female genital mutilation reported by teachers and staff in schools is not collected by the Department. Any reports would be collated by individual local authorities under local safeguarding children arrangements.