Agenda item

To receive and discuss the Oldham Safeguarding Adults Board: Annual Report 2022-23 (with supporting Single-Agency Statements and Business Plan 2023-2024).

The Independent Chair of the Oldham Safeguarding Adults Board (OAB), Dr Henri Giller presented the Board’s Annual Report. Dr Giller explained that OSAB was a statutory partnership set up to safeguard adults at risk of experiencing abuse, neglect or exploitation. As part of its statutory duties the Board was required to produce an Annual Report setting out the safeguarding concerns it has dealt over the last year, as well as a Business Plan setting out future ambitions and actions to help keep people safe in Oldham. The purpose of the report therefore was to share the Board’s agreed 2022-23 Annual Report and 2022-24 Business Plan with members for their consideration.

In considering the report,Members of the Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Board were asked to consider and comment on the Oldham Safeguarding Adults Board 2022-23 Annual Report and 2023-24 Business Plan.

The role of the OSAB was to assure itself that organisations and agencies across Oldham were working together to protect and enable adults to live safely. This meant helping people to make decisions about the risks they face in their own lives as well as protecting those who lack the capacity to make these decisions.

The Board’s three main statutory duties were to:

•                    Produce a Strategic Business Plan setting out the changes the Board wants to achieve and how organisations will work together.

•                    Publish an Annual Report setting out the safeguarding concerns it has dealt with in the last year as well as plans to keep people safe in the future.

•                    Undertake a Safeguarding Adult Review in line with Section 44 of the Care Act where it believes someone has experienced harm because of abuse, neglect or exploitation.

The Board’s 2022-23 Annual Report provided information on the number and type of safeguarding concerns reported in Oldham along with the actions taken to adopt learning from the Safeguarding Adult Reviews. Central to this had been the collection and sharing of first-hand experiences by adults ‘at risk’ and family members who have experience of safeguarding issues and services in Oldham.

In summary, a total of 2175 safeguarding referrals were made in 2022-23 and of these referrals 430 became the subject of a formal Safeguarding Enquiry. Data showed that the number of referrals received more than doubled compared to the number received in 2018-19 and increased by 16% compared to 2021-22. Some of this increase was due to safeguarding awareness campaigns designed to encourage the residents of Oldham to report their safeguarding concerns and training provided to professionals in Oldham about making safeguarding referrals and the criteria for formal enquiries. However, whilst the number of overall referrals had increased, the number of serious safeguarding enquiries had remained relatively consistent over the last four years.

A total of four Safeguarding Adult Reviews were completed in 2022-23, which was double the number completed the previous year. Common themes emerging from Safeguarding Adult Reviews involved the multi-agency management of risk; Complex and Contextual Safeguarding including cuckooing, financial abuse, and exploitation; and safeguarding transitions.

The Board’s Business Plan has been shaped by the partner agencies and based on the key learning themes emerging from Safeguarding Adult Reviews, Audits and operational work. As a result, the Business Plan set out a challenging programme of work, designed to prevent and reduce future safeguarding incidents and implement an effective ‘all age’ safeguarding offer. The Business Plan was designed to focus on action and is being actively promoted and shared across agencies to highlight the aims of the Board and promote the wide range of resources and information available through the Board’s website and fortnightly joint children’s and adults safeguarding bulletins.

Members of the Scrutiny Board considered the Annual Report in some detail and asked various questions thereon. It was suggested that the Director of Adults Social Care be requested to facilitate a scrutiny Board member’s workshop event on the issues raised by Members of the Scrutiny Board, on this matter, in early 2024.

Resolved:

1.    That the Scrutiny Board commends and endorses the Oldham Safeguarding Adults Board’s Annual Report for 2022-23 and requests that the Board submit its next Annual Report, covering 2023-24, to the Board in approximately 12 months.

2.    That the Director of Adults Social Care be requested to facilitate a scrutiny Board member’s workshop event on the issues raised by Member’s of the Scrutiny Board, on this matter, in early 2024.