It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 victims of FGM in the UK. There has been a great deal of press and political interest recently about the lack of a prosecution under UK legislation. In the past months, we've seen two ministerial roundtables on the issue drawing together the Department for Health, the Department for Education, the Home Office, the Department for International Development and the Crown Prosecution Service to tackle this problem. The chief social worker for children is also holding discussions with local authorities to focus on this issue.

Despite all this interest, referrals to social care remain scarce and most local authorities have, since 2005, undertaken very few section 47 child protection investigations involving allegations of FGM.

The main reason for this is that FGM does not fit easily into the UK child protection system. The system is reactive and relies on cases being referred rather than proactively identifying children potentially at risk. Put simply, referrals about FGM are not forthcoming from agencies that would typically report cases of suspected child abuse, as they are not aware that anything has happened. And victims rarely disclose what has happened, as the perpetrators tend to be family members and family pressure to accept this form of child abuse is immense.

The Home Office recently funded a campaign to raise awareness of a national FGM helpline, run by the NSPCC. Since June 2013 this has only received about 200 calls, many of which were from professionals seeking information as opposed to referring a case. This again highlights the lack of potential referrals through the usual means. Often, the first time professionals are aware that a woman has been a victim of FGM is when the woman is pregnant and presents at an antenatal appointment. It is clear that social workers need a new referral pathway to identify and protect victims.

Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB) has been working with the London mayor's office for policing and crime, the Metropolitan police, the Royal College of Midwives, NHS England and the NGOs Imkaan, Forward, Equality Now and the NSPCC to devise a project that will address the lack of child protection investigations and prosecutions. The proposed project will run for two years in up to six London boroughs.

Our starting point is to work with the maternity service data. Health services know which mothers have themselves been victims; they also know which of these victims have daughters. The fact that a mother was a victim makes it much more likely that the daughter will be too, making them a potentially at-risk group.

At this point the work for social workers, alongside health staff, begins. This will require dedicated resources and the development of a new referral pathway. The knowledge health staff have about their clients will be the starting point to inform the risk assessment. Social workers and health staff will undertake this assessment of the potential victims looking at both protective and aggravating factors. All families falling within this cohort will receive literature detailing the appalling long-term physical and mental health impact of FGM. They will also be clearly told the law regarding it, and the penalties for allowing or enabling a child to undergo it.

The risk assessment process will be developed with the local authorities as part of this project. This is a key outcome of the pilot project, as obviously not all victims of FGM will put their daughters through this abuse.

Once the most children most at risk are identified, social workers will work directly with the family to minimise the risk but also to escalate if they believe FGM is likely to occur or has occurred. At this point police, and possibly the Crown Prosecution Service, will become involved. If it is thought that the crime has occurred, a child protection medical may be requested, or if it is believed that the child will be taken out of the UK to undergo FGM, the family will be flagged with the Border Agency. Where evidence indicates this, legal action might be taken to prevent the child from travelling. If the child does travel, the child protection investigation will begin once she is back in the UK.

It may be, however, that the present law is still an obstacle to a successful prosecution. The reliance on the victim as witness is a major barrier, and this must be addressed. But we believe that an increase in section 47 investigations, and the provision of a model for how social workers can intervene, will help to protect potential victims of FGM.

Andy Elvin is the chief executive officer of CFAB, which you can follow on Twitter: @CFABUK

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This article was amended on 11 June 2014. It originally stated that the FGM helpline run by the NSPCC was funded by the Home Office. In fact it is funded by the NSPCC. This has now been corrected.