We recently spoke with Claire George, Head of Peterborough’s Pupil Referral Service about how their use of ECINS helped them to gather evidence that was instrumental in leading to the safeguarding of a child at risk of FGM. 



Case Study

The Problem:

A school we are working with through the behaviour panel processes came to us as Lead for Safeguarding and Prevent for Education.  They had made a referral to Childrens Social Care about a child they felt potentially was at risk of Female Genital Mutilation but didn’t feel the referral was being taken seriously.

The Solution:

We were able to work with the school to use the intelligence and information sharing that we already had through our ECINS work with them and support them to not only challenge the decision and the plan of action for that particular case but actually to escalate it.

A second challenge speeded up the process for a police officer to attend to the child’s house urgently.  The child wasn’t present as they were already on the plane but the police were able to speak to the mother on the telephone and make it extremely clear to her that FGM is an offence in this country and were that child to be returned and harmed in any way that there would be serious consequences.

My belief is that as a direct result of these actions that the child was returned unharmed and is safe.