LGA Governance


Agenda item

Agenda item

Female Genital Mutilation

Minutes:

Lucy Ellender, Advisor, updated the Board on FGM work which had been undertaken since the last meeting of the Board and the final meeting of the FGM Task and Finish Group.  She explained that there were four key stands of work:

 

Creation and publication of ‘FGM: A Councillors Guide’ and the online FGM resource. Guides had now been sent out to councils, and Board members were provided with copies.  The online resource had been visited 260 times to date, and would be regularly updated. 

 

The LGA’s joint bid with Barnardo’s to the Department for Education’s Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme for the development of a specialist FGM service would be submitted by 10 December and considered by the DfE’s Investment Board in mid-January.  The Board would be informed of the outcome of the bid in due course, and it was hoped to establish the service as a multi-agency centre of excellence.  

 

Lobbying on the Serious Crime Bill to make it an offence to encourage or promote FGM. An amendment around this topic was moved at the Bill’s Report stage, but unfortunately was rejected.  Following this the amendment was under consideration by a leading barrister who had also produced a supporting briefing which set out why the amendment was needed. 

 

An audit of referrals to local authority Children’s Services departments of cases where a child was thought to be at risk of FGM had been undertaken over the summer.  Responses had been received from 98 councils to date, and further work would be done to draw conclusions from the work. 

 

The Chair of the FGM Task and Finish Panel highlighted the FGM councillors guide as a great success.  The Chair asked that the  model motion on FGM used by Coventry be circulated again so it  could be used by councillors at their own local authorities to raise awareness of the issue. 

 

Action:

 

That the Board be provided details of where to access the LGA’s FGM online resource.

That the Board be updated on the outcome of the bid to the DfE regarding the development of a multi-agency FGM centre of excellence. 

The officers explore the possibility of creating a model of community engagement.

 

Decision:

 

Members noted the report. 

 

Supporting documents: