Agenda item

a.    Oldham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership 2021/22 Annual Report

b.    Oldham safeguarding Adults Board 2021/22 Annual Report

The Committee received the annual reports 2021/22 in respect of the Safeguarding Partnership which brought together both the Oldham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership (OSCP) and the Oldham Safeguarding Adult Board (OSAB). The report was presented by Dr Henri Giller, the independent chair of both the OSCP and OSAB.

The Partnership and Board were responsible for leading the safeguarding arrangements in Oldham. They do this by bringing together the three Statutory Safeguarding Partners (the Police, Integrated Care Partnership and Local Authority) to work in close collaboration with relevant agencies to ensure that children, young people and adults are safeguarded and

supported to live free from harm and abuse.

As part of the OSAB’s statutory duties and the annual business cycle for the Safeguarding Partnership, the OSCP and OSAB each produce an Annual Report setting out the safeguarding concerns it has dealt with over the last year, along with the actions it has taken to help keep children, young people and adults safe in Oldham. The reports are designed to ensure that the local safeguarding arrangements and actions are transparent, open to public scrutiny and fit for purpose. The Annual Reports are also designed to capture the views and experiences of children, young people and adults in Oldham and highlight how learning from serious safeguarding incidents are changing and improving the way services work to safeguards families and adults at risk in Oldham.

The OSCP and OSAB 2021/22 Annual Reports were therefore presented for the Committee’s consideration and comment.

In terms of the OSCP, Dr Giller reported that 2021/22 had been a challenging one for the Oldham Safeguarding Children Partnership in the light of the continuation of the Covid-19 pandemic. As with the previous year the impact of Covid on children and families in Oldham had been disproportionate due to the levels of poverty and inequality that affected the borough. The Partnership, mindful of its need to develop more responsive strategies for safeguarding children and young people in the borough, engaged in: Improving the offer to children and families facing domestic abuse Prioritising the identification and response to abuse caused by parental neglect Improving agency responses to complex and contextual safeguarding, including criminal and sexual exploitation Seeking the views of young people on access to and the effectiveness of current mental health services and how they might be improved The Partnership was committed to change and improvement in safeguarding in the light of the lessons of the past two years. Aside from the legacy of the pandemic, the Partnership also commissioned in this period an independent review into historic allegations of sexual abuse in the borough and learning from this will be picked up once the report has been produced in the forthcoming year.

The OSAB’s annual report for 2021/22 illustrated that significant developments that were made by the local partnership to meet the continuing challenges of safeguarding and to adapt working practices to the meet the complexity of current safeguarding needs. The evidence of significant safeguarding challenge could be seen throughout the report, especially in terms of - social isolation, compromised mental capacity, dual diagnosis of mental and physical vulnerability, living conditions threatened by violence (such as with domestic abuse) and homelessness. Moreover, this evidence had been recurrent both the safeguarding adult reviews and in the learning reviews. The response to these messages from partners had been clear and decisive – insofar that relevant agencies were required to listen to people’s experiences of the challenge of safeguarding, challenge traditional working practice, work more closely and interchangeably to ensure that services were responsive and seamless. The Tiered Risk Assessment and Management (TRAM) Protocol, the progress of the Board’s training programme and the closer collaborative working with people with a dual diagnosis are all good examples of this willingness of partners to creatively change.

Members of the Committee considered both reports in detail commenting on the demand for services (for both children and adults), the number and frequency of referrals, the impact of the ‘cost-of-living crisis’ on service delivery. The Committee also sought clarification on the provision of services for those who were in the ‘16 – 18-year-old’ age bracket and were transitioning from services provided by OSCP to OSAB?

Resolved:

1.    That the 2021/22 annual reports, in respect of the Safeguarding Partnership, for the Oldham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership and the Oldham Safeguarding Adult Board be noted and welcomed.

2.      That Members request that the 2022/23 Annual Reports be presented to the Committee in approximately 12 months.