FGM helpline makes dozens of referrals to agencies

The charity said the helpline has received 153 calls over the past seven months, many from midwives, doctors and teachers, about suspected cases of FGM.

Around 40 per cent of these cases have been referred to local police forces or children’s services departments, with the remaining 60 per cent being offered specialist advice.

Just over one in five referrals have been made following calls from parents, carers or other relatives.

The NSPCC’s FGM helpline practitioner Kamaljit Thandi said: “FGM is a hidden crime and the fact that teachers, health professionals, parents and other adults in communities where FGM takes place are contacting the NSPCC’s helpline is another step towards bringing this abuse into the open.

“Although we are encouraged by the number of calls we are receiving we believe this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The helpline was set up after the NSPCC discovered that more than 1,700 victims of FGM, some as young as seven, had been referred to six specialist clinics over the past two years.

FGM is practised as an initiation ritual in some African, Asian and Middle Eastern communities and has been illegal in the UK since 1985. In some cases it can be life threatening and can leave young victims in pain and with physical and psychological scars.

There have been no prosecutions of FGM in the UK, but a number of suspected cases are being investigated by the Crown Prosecution Service with the country’s first FGM trial thought to be just weeks away.