Safeguarding Annual Audit
The Assistant Director Wellbeing & Housing and the Safeguarding Officer will give a presentation detailing the annual Safeguarding Audit.
Recommendation
The meeting is recommended:
1.1 To consider and endorse the audit prior to its submission to Oxfordshire County Council.
Additional documents:
Decision:
Resolved
(1) That, having given due consideration, the Safeguarding Annual Audit be endorsed prior to its submission to Oxfordshire County Council.
(2) That the importance of Members completing Safeguarding training be noted and the Safeguarding Officer and Democratic and Elections Officers be requested to liaise with Group Leaders regarding Members who have not completed Safeguarding training.
Minutes:
The Chairman welcomed the Assistant Director Wellbeing and Housing and the Safeguarding Officer to give a presentation detailing the annual Safeguarding Audit and work of the Safeguarding team.
The Safeguarding Officer explained that the self-assessment audit had to be completed annually and that it was a joint piece of work with the Safeguarding Children and Adults Board. This was due to be submitted to the Boards in December 2022 and a peer review would take place in February 2023.
The Safeguarding Officer reported that last year, the main focus for and improvement was increasing awareness amongst staff of safeguarding measures.
Wallet cards had been produced and distributed to Members and officers that worked out in the community, that outlined what they should do in the event of a safeguarding related issue.
Mandatory Safeguarding training for staff was provided online via the iHasco platform, to make sure that every employee was competent and could recognise signs of abuse. There had been a rise in reports made on the internal reporting mechanism ‘See It Report It’ which could be linked to the increase in training. All new staff inductions also included a section on safeguarding.
The Safeguarding Officer explained that the online training was also available for Members and asked the Committee for suggestions regarding the best way of increasing Member take up. It was proposed by Councillor Sean Woodcock and seconded by Councillor Sandy Dallimore that Group Leaders be advised of training levels within their respective groups.
The Committee thanked the Safeguarding team for their work collecting the data and identifying the priorities in a difficulty area.
Resolved
(1) That, having given due consideration, the Safeguarding Annual Audit be endorsed prior to its submission to Oxfordshire County Council.
(2) That the importance of Members completing Safeguarding training be noted and the Safeguarding Officer and Democratic and Elections Officers be requested to liaise with Group Leaders regarding Members who have not completed Safeguarding training.