Oldham Safeguarding Children Partnership (OSCP)

Oldham Safeguarding Partnership has been developed by Oldham Council, Greater Manchester Police and the ICB Greater Manchester - Oldham to ensure that all children and young people in the area get the safeguarding and protection they need in order to help them to thrive. 

The partnership will provide leadership and accountability for the promotion of children and young peoples’ well-being and the prevention and protection from harm. The partnership will promote a child-centred approach to safeguarding, listening to children, empowering families and, where needed, providing services that are professional, evidenced-based and effective. The partners will continuously strive to improve and challenge each other to learn the lessons from daily practice.

Safeguarding is everyone’s business and Oldham Safeguarding Partnership will provide lead responsibility in demonstrating what this means for all people and professionals living and working in the local community.

Our vision 

The vision of the partnership is: “For everyone to work together to ensure that all children and young people are safe and feel safe within their homes, schools and communities,”

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

2. Partner agencies hold one another to account effectively

3. There is early identification of new safeguarding issues

4. Learning is promoted and embedded

5. Information is shared effectively

6. The public feel confident that children are protected

A message from our Independent Scrutineer – Vicky Buchanan

The Role of the Independent Scrutineer

I am pleased to be able to introduce as Oldham's Independent Scrutineer. The national statutory safeguarding guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 brought forward a number of key changes to the roles and responsibilities of key senior partners aimed at emphasising their shared responsibility for effective safeguarding arrangements in their area. These changes, roles and responsibilities are set out in the first two chapters of the guidance.

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026

In order to enhance those responsibilities further and to provide a critical friend and independent voice the role of Independent Scrutineer is also introduced. This should build on existing quality assurance systems across the partnership and within individual partner agencies and in Buckinghamshire we are now underway with our first annual scrutiny plan

My observations as the Independent Scrutineer will be formally reported to the Lead Safeguarding Partners and to the broader partnership and will be included in the partnership annual report.