Agenda item

The Board gave consideration to the Oldham Safeguarding Adults Board (OSAB) 2019/20 Annual Report and priorities for 2020/21, the OSAB being a statutory partnership set up to safeguard adults at risk of experiencing abuse, neglect or exploitation and which had duties to produce a Strategic Plan; to publish an Annual Report; and to undertake a Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR) where it believes someone has experienced harm as a result of abuse, neglect or exploitation.

Over the past year the OSAB had introduced a series of measures designed to remodel adult safeguarding arrangements across Oldham, looking to strengthen and improve multi-agency working through a combination of new safeguarding structures, greater alignment with the Children’s Safeguarding Partnership (CSP) and integrating safeguarding structures across Community Health and Social Care.  The 2019/20 Annual Report was the first under these new arrangements and reflected the OSAB’s ambition to develop a more outward facing role to ensure that there is ‘no wrong door’ to reporting safeguarding concerns and that the work of the OSAB is publicly accountable. 

The Annual Report provided information on the number and type of safeguarding concerns reported during 2019/20, setting out the actions taken to ensure that lessons learnt from the SARs have be used to change front line practice and improve the way services work.  The Board’s specific attention was drawn to the following matters from the 2019/20 period -

·         1,580 safeguarding referrals were made and, of these, 556 became the subject of a formal safeguarding Enquiry. The number of referrals had almost doubled in the last two years, possibly due to a combination of improvements in data recording and campaigns encouraging people to report safeguarding concerns;

·         1,543 safeguarding referrals and enquiries were dealt with and closed, an increase over the 960 in the previous year.  Of the cases closed, 48% were complex cases involving people who lacked capacity to make their own decisions. The breakdown by sex, age and ethnicity suggested that White British women aged between 18 and 64 were more likely to be the subject of a reported safeguarding concern compared to any other group;

·         an increase in the number of safeguarding concerns relating to self-neglect, acts of omission and domestic abuse had been seen.  Some of the increase in domestic abuse cases coincided with the start of the Covid-19 lockdown where those living with an abusive partner may have experienced an escalation in abuse, coupled with restricted access to community contacts and professional support; and

·         five SARs had been conducted, compared to two in 2018/19. In each case, the OASB adopted the recommendations of the independent reviewer and overseen changes designed to prevent similar cases happening again. These changes had also been informed by ‘Making Safeguarding Personal’ conversations with local people who had first hand experience of safeguarding issues.

For 2020/21, the ambitions for Oldham’s new safeguarding arrangements included an effective ‘all age’ safeguarding offer and progress had been made over the past year to align the work of the OSAB with the SCP.  The ongoing impact of the Covid presented challenges for adult safeguarding with lockdown restrictions and social isolation creating conditions for new safeguarding concerns to emerge as well as escalating existing safeguarding issues.  A trend in Safeguarding Adult Review referrals for people experiencing neglect or abuse compounded by the first wave of Covid-19 restrictions could already be seen and the OSAB was prioritising the sharing of lessons from these cases as quickly as possible to inform current and future waves of restrictions.

In response to a query, it was confirmed that multi-agency work and communications between organisations had continued over the Covid period, the developing extent of greater partnership working over the period being advised.

The near doubling of safeguarding referrals over two years was noted and the capacity to investigate these referrals and to support those at risk was queried.  It was acknowledged that the ‘no wrong door’ approach would generate increased recorded demand, but the partnership approach meant that issues reported under safeguarding need not necessarily be dealt with by the organisation initially contacted.  The operational team would be dealing with safeguarding issues among other work, but Duty Managers kept the overall position under review.  With regard to the increase in referrals, it was noted that the proportion of referrals leading to full Investigations had not risen proportionately and assurance sought that this was not due to capacity issues.  The Board was assured that all safeguarding referrals raised were considered and addressed, and that those proceeding to full Investigations were considered against Care Act provisions.  Where cases did not meet Care Act criteria, the service would look to see trends in reporting and look to develop targeted preventative solutions.

With regard to communications and the reported greater use of websites, the need to ensure that other means of accessing information and services were robust enough was suggested.  A Member commented that there was a need to further promote the Helpline service which, it was suggested, was considered by some in the community as being for Covid-related issues only.  Further to a query as to the helpfulness of the Community Hubs in generating safeguarding referrals, it was advised that while there was little evidence at this time, some referrals had come through this route and it was acknowledged that proactive links between the Hubs, community services and safeguarding to provide preventative measures was key.

With specific regard to incidents of domestic violence which were known to have increased during lockdown, the experience of families in need of emergency accommodation was queried in terms of emergency accommodation availability and capacity.  It was advised that part of the persons protection plan would include inputs from Children’s Services in instances where children were involved, would look at the availability of community support, and would involve other agencies such as housing, the police, and probation as necessary.

RESOLVED that the Oldham Safeguarding Adults Board 2019/20 Annual Report, including the plans for keeping people safe in the future, be noted.