APPENDIX 83
Memorandum submitted by Lancashire County
Council
Thank you for your letter dated 12 March
2008 addressed to Mr Trinick. Mr Trinick has asked me to respond
on his behalf as he is on annual leave.
I enclose a copy of a letter sent to
Mr Nigel Burke, Director for Children and Learners at Government
Office North West (GONW) earlier this month in relation to Forced
Marriage and Children "Missing" Education.
It maybe helpful for you to know that
Lancashire has a school population of 150,000 children and young
people, so the figure of 149 pupils missing education needs to
be seen in context. It may also be helpful to know that less than
10% of those 149 children and young people come from ethnic minority
backgrounds.
In respect of Forced Marriage as you
will see from the letter to Mr Burke dated 27 February 2008, Lancashire
are taking this matter seriously and you will see evidence of
this from the work the Strategy Consultation Planning Group has
done. The Lancashire Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) will also
be monitoring and overseeing the work of this group.
It would be helpful if you could advise
us of the timescale for any submission to the home affairs committees'
current inquiry into Domestic Violence and Forced Marriage as
clearly the information we would want to submit would depend on
the deliberations of the Strategy Consultation Planning Group.
I hope this information is helpful and
hope this is sufficient for your needs.
Dear Nigel
TACKLING FORCED MARRIAGE—ENGAGEMENT
WITH SCHOOLS
Thank you for your letter dated 21 February
2008. I am now in a position to offer the following response.
In relation to points 1-6 the Local Authority
unfortunately are unable to answer these questions at present.
The Local Authority would however be in a position to approach
the 15 secondary schools with the highest numbers of young people
from relevant ethnic minority groups in two weeks time to find
the answer to the questions if this would be appropriate? At present
the Local Authority are not aware that forced marriages have been
as strong an issue in Lancashire as elsewhere in the Country,
but would certainly look into this further if required.
In relation to question 7, I can offer
the following response. The issue of forced marriage is covered
in Chapter 6 (paragraph -78) of Lancashire Safeguarding Children
Procedures (Protecting children in specific circumstances) and
it also contains an electronic link to the document produced by
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2004—Young people
and Vulnerable Adults facing Forced Marriage, Practice Guide for
Social Workers.
There is currently a consultation group
looking at the Forced Marriage and Honour based violence strategy
led by the CPS and Lancashire Constabulary and at the last meeting
of the Strategy Consultation Planning Group held on 25 January
2008 they considered what work could be commenced immediately
and decided as follows:
1. Updated training packages on FM/HBV
have been developed by Mussurut Zia. They are suited to any audience.
Ways of organising delivery to an increased number of police officers
and other agencies to be explored; also increasing the number
of trainers.
2. Police developing a process map
to assist officers.
3. Posters and other information material
to be obtained from Forced Marriage Unit/Home Office and displayed
in schools, youth centres, etc.
4. Legal training package to be delivered
to specialist prosecutors.
5. Draft document explaining what
religions actually say about forced marriage/HBV to be prepared
and submitted to appropriate persons/bodies for comments.
On the conclusion of this consultation
and review of the strategy the Lancashire Safeguarding Children
Board (LSCB) will need to agree a way, via the quality assurance
and performance sub-group, of measuring the outcomes of any changes
in policy and practice.
I hope this information is of assistance
and I apologise that the Authority can not provide any further
information to the first six questions at this time, but if you
could let me know if you would like us to look further into these
questions in two weeks time, the Authority will be in a better
position to respond to you.
20 March 2008
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