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Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) includes all procedures involving total or partial removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It's also known as ‘female circumcision’ or ‘cutting, and by other terms such as sunna, gudniin, halalays, tahur, megrez and khitan, among others. FGM has no health benefits, and no religious texts require girls to be ‘cut’, however FGM is carried out under the banners of culture and religion within families and communities in the mistaken belief that it benefits the girl in some way, eg. preserve/prove her virginity as a preparation for marriage.

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Practices vary across communities with girls/women being ‘cut’ at any time from two days after birth, before puberty, during pregnancy, or following delivery of their first child. The most prevalent age group is 0-15 years,and some recent reports suggest that the age range is getting younger.

In addition to general safeguarding duties, since October 2015 all registered health and social care professionals and qualified teachers have a personal professional duty to report FGM in girls under 18years; professional registration can be affected by non-compliance with this duty. 

To report call 101, record information and reference number , update safeguarding lead

KEY FACTORS TO LOOK OUT FOR:The family belongs to a community which practices FGM, are making plans to go on holiday / requested extended leave from school.

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IS EVERYONE'S BUSINESS!!

All voluntary, community and faith organisations need to understand their safeguarding roles and responsibilities (alongside those of other organisations and services) to help keep children and young people safe from abuse and neglect, and promote their wellbeing.

There is a range of help and support for voluntary, community and faith organisations working in Wolverhampton from Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council. This includes safeguarding support which you can access as follows:

1. Specific support for faith groups

• There are over 250 faith groups in Wolverhampton which you can find details for all of these on the Wolverhampton Faith Map
• To access this support, please contact Pavitter Kaur Mainn - (Faith Engagement Worker) by email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or phone: 07538 105780

2. Individual and group support for any voluntary or community organisation

Hidden Harm is defined by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs as:- “Parental problem drug use and its actual and potential effects on children”

We estimate there are between 250,000 and 350,000 children of problem drug users in the UK – about one for every problem drug user. Parental problem drug use can and does cause serious harm to children at every age from conception to adulthood. Reducing the harm to children from parental problem drug use should become a maincobjective of policy and practice. Effective treatment of the parent can have major benefits for the child. By working together, services can take many practical steps to protect and improve the health and well-being of affected children. The number of affected children is only likely to decrease when the number of problem drug users decrease ( Hidden Harm Multi Agency Guidance 2013).

All professionals who come into contact with families where substance misuse is an issue have a responsibility to ensure that children in these circumstances are identified as early as possible and are given appropriate intervention, support and protection:- “Early Intervention breaks the all too common cycle in which people who grow up with dysfunctional behaviours and lifestyles transmit them to their children, who, in turn, transmit them to their grandchildren. Early Intervention offers a real chance to break this destructive pattern and of raising children to become good parents and carers in turn” (Allen 2011)

It is essential that all professionals involved work in partnership, exchange relevant information, share knowledge and expertise in order to safeguard children effectively.

Summary of Key Messages

To achieve the best outcomes for children and young people; to promote their welfare and safeguard them from harm, agencies need to work together. Children and young people’s needs and circumstances can be complex and it is only by agencies coming together and working collaboratively that we can achieve a holistic assessment of the child or young person within their family and community and ensure that they receive the services that they need.

Effective inter-agency working is dependent upon effective information sharing whether a child or young person needs some additional support (early intervention) or whether there are concerns that they are at risk of significant harm (safeguarding).

Click here for Information Sharing Guidance 2018

 

THE SEVEN GOLDEN RULES OF INFORMATION SHARING

Wolverhampton has now adopted the NEW West Midlands Regional Safeguarding Children procedures.

These cover:

• ​Statutory Child Protection Procedures - which would be the same wherever you are in England (Level A procedures)
• Regional Safeguarding Guidance - which apply across the whole of the West Midlands area (Level B procedures)
• Local Area Specific Safeguarding Information and Procedures - developed in Wolverhampton, and containing local contacts, processes and structures (Level C procedures)

 

To access the NEW Safeguarding Children procedures:

1. firstly, click on the image below or copy http://westmidlands.procedures.org.uk into your browser address bar
2. next  click on 'Wolverhampton' in the drop down list under the left hand menu -  this makes sure you are shown Wolverhampton's local (Level C) procedures
3. finally, click on 'contents' in either the top menu bar or the side menu

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National statutory guidance

Early Years Foundation Stage statutory guidance 2019

Female Genital Mutilation - Statutory Guidance 

One of the most important roles for any volunteer or employee is to be able to recognise abuse or neglect in the course of their everyday work. Sometimes, the signs are very obvious such as broken bones or cuts and bruises. However, sometimes the signs are a lot less easy to spot.

All adults working with children and young people need to be alert to signs of abuse or neglect and know how to respond appropriately (including knowing who in their organisation to share their concerns with and where appropraite, knowing how to ask relevant non-leading questions to see if there is a reasonable and consistent explanation for the signs observed).

Recognising Neglect

• Constant hunger - inc. scavenging for food
• Poor personal hygiene - inc being unwashed, body odour
• Poor state of clothing - poor fitting or inappropriate shoes, clothes too small, no suitable outdoor clothing
• Frequent lateness or non-attendance at school, etc
• Untreated injuries/medical problems

 

Recognising Physical Abuse

• Unexplained injuries or burns, particularly if they are recurrent
• Improbable excuses given to explain injuries
• Refusal to discuss injuries
• Untreated injuries
• Fear of parents being contacted
• Arms and legs kept covered – even in hot weather
• Fear of medical help

 

Recognising Emotional Abuse

• Over-reaction to mistakes
  Sudden speech disorders
  Neurotic behaviour e.g. rocking, hair-twisting, thumb sucking
  Self mutilation
  Extremes of passivity or aggression

 

Recognising Sexual Abuse

• Vivid details of sexual activity
• Compulsive masturbation
• Sexual drawings
• Sexualised play with explicit acts
• Soreness of genitalia or bottom

Once the abuse has been recognised, all staff need to know how to raise their concerns withn itheir organisations through their named safeguarding lead, and with Children's Social Care via the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub on 01902 555392.

 

Safer Recruitment:

All organisations engaging people in 'Regulated Activities' must have robust and transparent recruitment procedures in place to ensure children, young people and vulnerable adults are safeguarded and they should be familiar with the Local Safeguarding Children Board policies and procedures.

Before recruiting staff (whether paid or unpaid), the following should be considered:

 The application process should include the organisations commitment to safeguarding in for example the Job Description and any other documentation;

Thorough checks should be made of an applicant's identity, work history and references including any gaps in time;

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Child sexual exploitation can be hard to identify and a change in behaviour in a young person may often seem like normal teenage behaviour. But for some, these could be the signs of something far more serious.

It’s not always easy to know what young people are up to and abusers can be very clever in their manipulations.

A young person may feel they are in a loving relationship, while perpetrators will often seek to break the bond between the child and their family.

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Do you know a child being looked after by someone who is not a close relative?
If you do this is known as private fostering. Private fostering is defined as:

"when a child or young person under 16 years old (or 18 if they have a disability) is looked after by someone who is not a parent, close relative, guardian or person with parental responsibility for 28 days or more without the involvement of City of Wolverhampton Council."

Close relatives are defined as:

• Brothers and sisters     
• Aunts and uncles
• Grandparents
• Step-parents

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There are four recognised categories of child abuse: Physical Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Neglect and Sexual Abuse.

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Physical Abuse When an adult, child or young person deliberately hurts a child, such as hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning, drowning or suffocating.

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Key to our approach to supporting children and young people in Wolverhampton is a commitment to early help through a range of evidence based interventions. Early Help is a collaborative approach not a service and should not be confused with the Council's Early Intervention Service. Early Help and our Think Family approach go hand-in-hand.

 

Thresholds of Need and Support in Wolverhampton

This sets out the role and processes around universal support, single-agency Early Help, multi-agency Early Help, and support from specialist services. It also gives indications of the level of need that can be managed by each level of support.

The Thresholds document encourages conversations between practitioners both within their agency, amongst colleagues in Teams Around the Family (TAF), and with colleagues from agencies offering different levels of support.

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Child sexual exploitation is a form of child sexual abuse. It occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into sexual activity (a) in exchange for something the victim needs or wants, and/or (b) for the financial advantage or increased status of the perpetrator or facilitator. The victim may have been sexually exploited even if the sexual activity appears consensual. Child sexual exploitation does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology.

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CSE Screening Tools and other resources to support work on CSE

Publications / Resources

Petch CSE 12 and under screening tool

CSE 13 and over screening tool

NWG CSE RA TOOL

CSE Pathway Guidance

CSE Pathway

Partnership Information Report

Wolverhampton's Multi-Agency CSE strategy 2019 - 2020

West Mids Met CSE Regional Framework

Tackling CSE West Midlands Q1 Assessment 2016

See Me, Hear Me - West Midlands CSE website and resources

CSE Social Media Library

Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation - A Resource Pack for Councils

CSE Disruption Toolkit

Guidance on adopting a Victim-Centred Approach

Seen & Heard e-learning resource

Common sexting codes and Secret sexting codes

Criminal and Civil Partnership Disruption Options for Perpetrators of Child and Adult Victims of Exploitation

Put simply, modern slavery or human trafficking is the movement of a person from one place to another (this could be country to country, town to town, or even as simple as one room in a building to another) into conditions of exploitation, using deception, coercion, abuse of power or the abuse of the person’s vulnerability. Even if a victim consents and is willing to be moved, trafficking could still be taking place.

It involves either the threat of harm or actual harm to the person themselves or their family.

It affects:

• both women / girls and men / boys
• UK nationals
• people trafficked from overseas

It includes forced labour, domestic servitude and human trafficking, debt bondage (or baonded labour), descent-based slavery, child slavery and forced or early marriage. See https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/ for more information.

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Signs to look out for and things to think about

• Secrets– If someone online asks you to keep secrets, think about why they would want you to do this? If it is because they don’ t want other people knowing about them being in contact with you, ask yourself why? Real friends wouldn’ t mind your parents /carers knowing that you are chatting to them.
• Attention & flattery - someone you don’ t know other than online, says lots of really nice things about you and how you look on your profile page. If someone starts doing this ask yourself – what do they really want?
• Sexy pictures– You might be told everyone does it, but ask yourself why do they really want a picture or film of me? What will they do with it? Will they share it with someone I don’ t know? Remember if you share a photo via the internet it can be shared with anyone without your knowledge or permission. If you are unsure don’t press send! Pictures and film can be used to threaten you and make you send more pictures or do other things that you are uncomfortable with. Don’ t share anything you wouldn’ t want your friends and family to see.
• Sexy talk– someone talking sexy or ‘ dirty’ with you; about what sexual things that they might like you to do, or that they might say they would like to do to or with you. Be careful if someone is very flirty with you or tries to get you to talk about sex or look at pornography – ask yourself, why are they doing this?
• Private chats– the person you have been talking to might ask you to start having private chat so that no-one else can see what you are talking about. If someone asks you to do this, ask yourself why do they need to talk privately with you?

If you are under 18 and an explicit or nude image of you has been shared online, Childline can confidentially help you to get it removed, click here for more information

It’s always a really good idea to talk to someone that you trust like a parent / carer, family member, youth worker or teacher.

If you would like to talk to someone in confidence you can contact:

• Childline - You can call them free on 0800 1111 and this number won’ t appear on a telephone bill. Available 24 hours a day by phone or on the internet http://www.childline.org.uk/
• Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre the national site that looks after children and young people's online safety. Anyone can report any online activty or sites which make them feel uncomfortable or worried, or if they are worried about someone they are chatting to online.
  

 Other really good video and written information can be found at:

• Thinkuknow
• Childnet

 

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Hello, we are the B-Safe Team.

The B-Safe Team is Wolverhampton's Junior Safeguarding Children Board, made up of local young people who get involved with safeguarding activities and decisions across the city.

The board enables the voice of Wolverhampton’ s young people to be heard and reflected in safeguarding business and activities, empowering young people to contribute to the processes and methods to keep them safe, a nd to increase awareness of safeguarding amongst parents and professionals.

The B-Safe Team has been finding out about issues that matter to young people in this city around staying safe, such as extremism and terrorism, bullying, drugs and alcohol, violence in relationships and mental health.