Posted: 6th July 2017
WiRE Member Bal Kaur Howard, who is Suffolk-based and delivers FGM safeguarding training to public sector workers, has been working with Suffolk Healthcare providers to identify victims. A recent report in The East Anglian Daily Times highlighted her work which recorded, five women and girls between March and January in the Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area identified for the first time as having undergone the procedure; while 10 new cases were recorded in the North East Essex CCG area.
Jan Ingle, a spokeswoman for Ipswich Hospital, said heath care staff had developed a “much deeper understanding” of FGM by taking part in training and education.
Mrs Howard said the reporting numbers were “promising” as they showed frontline workers were becoming more aware of what signs to look out for, but she thinks more needs to be done.
She added: “The more professionals we can train the more reporting will increase, which is a good thing because we can get to understand the true scale of the problem.”
Read the full article HERE
