KCSIE 2026 Annex A covers this under the heading "'Honour' or faith-based abuse (including female genital mutilation and forced marriage)". Working Together 2026 uses "'honour'-based abuse". Both use the abbreviation HBA, and both say it should be handled and escalated as abuse regardless of the motivation. You may also see "honour-based violence" (HBV), an older term.
What makes HBA different is that it often involves a wider family or community network, and there may be several perpetrators. KCSIE asks staff to be aware of this dynamic when deciding what safeguarding action to take. The usual step of talking to parents may raise the risk to the child, so the DSL should think carefully before contacting family members, and can take advice from children's social care or the police.
If staff are worried a child is at risk of HBA or has suffered it, they speak to the DSL, who uses local safeguarding procedures with the police and children's social care.
FGM is the exception. Where a teacher discovers that FGM appears to have been carried out on a girl under 18, the teacher must report it to the police personally, under a legal duty.
Annex A also points to the Forced Marriage Unit, and to the national action plan on abuse linked to faith or belief, for concerns such as accusations of witchcraft or possession.