Agenda item

The Committee gave consideration to the Oldham Safeguarding Chidren Partnership (OSCP) Annual Report 1^st April 2020- 31^st March 2021.

The Independent Chair of the Oldham Safeguarding Partnership, Dr Henri Giller, provided an overview of the report and the Strategic Plan Statement.

It was reported that the 2020-21 business year had been challenging for the OSCP and had been tested by the challenges of Covid-19 during the second year of the new arrangements with the Council, Greater Manchester Police and the NHS via the CCG.

The impact of Covid on children and families in Oldham had been disproportionate due to the levels of poverty and inequality that affect the Borough. Lockdown had reduced the visibility of children and gathering intelligence was difficult.

The partnership responded well to the pandemic by, identifying and responding to new levels of demand particularly with respect to harm to infants, increases in levels of domestic abuse affecting children and meeting children’s mental health and wellbeing needs.

The arrangements were also enhanced to enable reflection and learning of good safeguarding practice on a co-ordinated cross agency basis, in addition examining current practices and looking at the arena of transition from Children’s Services to Adult Services.

During the pandemic partners had picked up issues early in relation to an upturn in abuse and neglect if infants under two years old , which had become a national issue and issues in relation to abuse and neglect through schools and enhanced work was undertaken with schools. A response was also developed in relation to complex safeguarding with arrangements in Oldham being found to be robust and some of the best in the region, during an external audit

Despite the challenges the partners had continued forward with the strategic priorities, launching the new complex safeguarding hub, restructuring the partnership to ensure maximum effectiveness and introducing a new model of quality assurance in the form of a learning hub. 

The Partnership had developed six strategic aims;

·         Excellent practice is the norm across all practitioners in Oldham.

·         Partner agencies hold one another to account effectively

·         There is an early identification of new safeguarding issues

·         Learning is promoted and embedded

·         Information is shared effectively.

·         The public feel confident that children are protected.

The new safeguarding arrangements required that provision was included for the scrutiny by an independent person of the effectiveness of the arrangements and p.28 of the report provided the scrutiny of the Independent Chait of the Oldham Partnership of the second working year of the new arrangements as per the criteria proposed by Sir Alan Wood paragraph 69 of the Wood report. The scrutiny was RAG rated and he Chair concluded that in the short period of time the new arrangements had been in place were robust.

Th Strategic Plan for 2021-2024 was provided at p. 31-40 of the report and contained the strategic aims, principles, priorities and the Oldham Safeguarding Business Plan April 2021- March 2022.

Members welcomed the report as a representation of the work undertaken during the report year and the work the Council needed to undertake.

Members asked if work was being undertaken with schools in relation to complex safeguarding and were advised that the Council was a pioneer in raising awareness with schools and a large programme of work was being undertaken with educational setting using lessons, videos and theatre groups.

Members enquired as to the status of the amber rated criteria from the Independent Chair Review/Scrutiny.

1.    Workforce – Significant investment had taken place but work was still to be done in developing a social work academy across Children’s and adults and developing a skills base across the partnership for each element. The pandemic had significantly interrupted the active strategies to enhance the quality and quantity of the workforce.

2.    Identification of vulnerable children in need of early help – This was an ongoing goal and activity and information sharing between the statutory partners was operationalised during the reporting period. This had proven robust and effective.

3.    The resource framework – There was not parity of financial contributions from statutory partners and this provided an imbalance particularly in relation to the Greater Manchester Police contribution. The Independent Chairs across the region had written to the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime to address this issue, to date no response had been received.

Members asked about the Independent Assurance Review and the level of detail provided within the report and were advised that due timeline of the report March 2021 and the absence of any detail due to the publication of the report later in 2021 a more comprehensive response would be provided once the review was published.

RESOLVED – That:

1.    The Oldham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Annual Report be noted.

2.    A copy of the GM external audit of complex safeguarding be provided to Members of the committee.