Concerned about a child?
In an emergency, contact the police on 999.
If you think there has been a crime but it is not an emergency, call the police on 101.
If you are concerned that a child is being abused or neglected, you can:
Children's Safeguarding Board
We are members of the Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership.
Female Genital Mutilation risk
FGM is the practice of removing part or all of the external female genitalia, by cutting with a blade, for non-medical reasons. It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children.
This highly distressing act is usually performed by a non-medically trained person, often a female elder in a community, often with rudimentary instruments and no anaesthetic. It is highly distressing, can cause severe long term physical and psychological issues including bleeding, infection and even death.
Everyone has a duty to safeguard children. The issue of FGM requires services to be vigilant to the signs that a girl may be at risk of this extremely damaging and illegal act.
The Berkshire Procedures online for FGM is here. This provides clear pathways of what to do if you are worried.
It is vital that front line staff in all domains are vigilant to girls who may be from communities who practice FGM (see the 
world map of prevalence [323KB] ) and any potential risk posed where an extended family holiday to their homeland is planned. The list of countries on this map is not exhaustive. It is important that we are open minded.
