Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on ensuring coordination between NHS trusts and Local Safeguarding Children Boards after the decision was taken to disband the specialist team focused on female genital mutilation.

Throughout the previous female genital mutilation (FGM) Prevention Programme, the focus of protecting young girls from FGM remained on local National Health Service trusts, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and Local Safeguarding Children Boards and other partners to develop appropriate local arrangements to deliver the improvements themselves.

Governance and monitoring/planning was built into the Programme framework since its launch in 2014, including plans to conclude the Programme and discussions and arrangements for the work to be taken forward after April 2018. Over the four years since the launch, regular discussions took place between Departmental officials and NHS England, who worked closely with regional safeguarding teams across England, and these teams will be carrying on the work to tackle FGM across the NHS in England.

The Programme held a number of transition events, both regionally and nationally, and communicated with all key stakeholders including Local Safeguarding Children Boards, to strengthen the focus on local progress and coordination. Regional safeguarding teams will now oversee this work.

NHS England and its partners remain committed to tackling FGM and ensuring that all respective staff understand that this important element of safeguarding work remains as business as usual. All partners involved will continue to protect and support young girls potentially at risk from FGM, which is a completely unnecessary medical and highly physically and mentally damaging procedure.