Female Genital Mutilation Awareness, Level 1

What it covers

What female genital mutilation is, the four types, and why it is a crime here, and abroad for UK nationals and residents. Who is at risk, what a practice notices at the desk and in the consulting room, and how FGM shows up years later as something else. The mandatory reporting duty for regulated staff, the safeguarding route for everyone else, and how to ask, record and refer.

Who it is for

Everyone who works in the practice: reception and administration, practice managers, healthcare assistants, nurses, pharmacists, GPs and trainees. The mandatory reporting duty is taught for the regulated staff.

By the end you will be able to

• Say what FGM is, name the four types, and state where the law reaches.
• Recognise the risk factors and the signs a practice is most likely to meet.
• Know who carries the mandatory reporting duty, what starts it, and where it goes.
• Separate that personal duty from the practice's own safeguarding response.
• Ask about FGM without blame, in her words and with a proper interpreter.
• Record it, flag a girl at risk, and refer a woman for care.

Modules

1. FGM and who is at risk
2. Spotting it in the practice
3. The duty to report
4. Asking, recording and caring

Your practice safeguarding lead and the local children's safeguarding pathway apply alongside this course, and they come first in any real case.

Content mapped to the mandatory reporting duty in the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 and to the multi-agency statutory guidance on female genital mutilation. Law named: Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, section 5B.

Sources

• Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 (contents, sections 1 to 5C)
• Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, section 5B: duty to notify police of female genital mutilation
• Mandatory reporting of female genital mutilation: procedural information, accessible version (Home Office and Department for Education, updated 22 January 2020)
• Multi-agency statutory guidance on female genital mutilation, accessible version (Home Office, Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Education)
• FGM safeguarding and risk assessment: quick guide for health professionals (Department of Health, January 2017)
• Female genital mutilation (FGM) protection orders, FGM700 (Ministry of Justice)
• GP mythbuster 80: Female genital mutilation (FGM) (Care Quality Commission, updated 23 December 2022)
• Female genital mutilation (FGM) (NHS.UK)
• National FGM Support Clinics (NHS.UK)
• Female genital mutilation fact sheet (World Health Organization)
• Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) e-learning programme (elearning for healthcare)
• Female Genital Mutilation - Information Sharing, FGM-IS (NHS England Digital)
• Female Genital Mutilation Datasets, the FGM Enhanced Dataset, DAPB2026 (NHS England Digital)
• Female genital mutilation information sharing (NHS England)
• Female Genital Mutilation Enhanced Data Set, DAPB2026 (NHS England standards directory)
• FGM Information Sharing Service: how the indicator is stored and shared (NHS Digital)

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GPAtlas is not accredited, verified or endorsed by Skills for Health or NHS England. Acceptance of this training is at the discretion of your employer, who remains responsible for confirming it meets local requirements. Your employer may require more frequent refreshers than the guidance period; the practice's own policy applies. Some pictures and films in our courses, and the film narration, are made with AI tools. We check every one for accuracy before we publish it.