Lasting Support Attends FGM Summit

Last week Lasting Support attended the government’s first dedicated FGM Summit in a decade. This momumental event brought together government, victim-survivors and third-sector organisations to better protect women and girls from FGM. Atendees included Sema Gornall, Payzee Mahmod, Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Alex Davies-Jones, Solicitor General Ellie Reeves KC MP and Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips.

The recommendations that came out of that summit included:

• The Home Office is to review the FGM mandatory reporting duty to ensure it is as strong and effective as possible and support professionals working with children to follow clear guidance on when and how to act.
• New national practice guidelines for FGM Protection Orders will be developed to identify girls at risk of being taken abroad for FGM.
• The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and National Police Chiefs’ Council will refresh their joint protocol on FGM to ensure investigators and prosecutors are better equipped to build strong cases from the outset.
• The CPS will also develop a new training module for prosecutors to strengthen capability and expertise on FGM.

These reccomendations ensure that we strengthen already existing protections around FGM survivors and to ensure that this pratice does not harm another woman or girl.

Our founder and CEO Warda Mohamed had the honour of giving evidence in a closed session with Ministers and Heads of Government Departments. Her evidence came from experience of the work she conducts through Lasting Support, encountered every day with the women and girls we work with as well as personal experience.

Warda Mohamed said:

“When I was younger, these protections did not exist. I was told it didn’t matter, that nobody cared enough to intervene and help me. In 2026, I sat in a room with the most powerful people in this movement, representatives from every relevant government department who not only listened but acted.”