In response to new quarterly figures published
today by NHS Digital about the number of identified cases of FGM
in England from July 2019 to September 2019, Cllr Anita
Lower, the Local Government
Association’s FGM lead spokesperson and Chair of the Advisory
Board at the National FGM Centre, which the LGA
runs in partnership with Barnardo’s,
said:
“There have now been 22,500 new cases of FGM
identified in just over four years, which highlights the size of
the challenge facing all agencies seeking an end to this form of
abuse, which is destroying the lives of
children and young people in communities across the
country.
“Social workers have become better at identifying the signs
of FGM and faith and belief-related abuse, but the true incidence
rate is likely to be higher as these crimes are
under-reported.
“The work of the National FGM Centre is vital to help
end FGM and prevent this abuse from happening in the first place,
as well as offering support to victims and those at
risk.
“Councils are determined to tackle the practice of
FGM and work with partner organisations to do everything possible
to protect and support children and young
people.
“To support this goal, the next government needs to
ensure councils have the funding to address the huge demand for
help from children and their families and maximise the
effectiveness of prevention and intervention work.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
-
The NHS
Digital figures show that there were 940 newly
recorded cases of FGM in England from July 2019 to September
2019. There have been 22,500 newly recorded cases of FGM
between Q2 2015 and Q3 2019.
