Voluntary and Community Sector
Oxfordshire has a strong and diverse third sector working with children, young people and families. This includes voluntary, community, faith and not-for-profit organisations. The OSCB works closely with Oxfordshire’s Voluntary and Community Sector Board Member Representatives and Children and Young People’s Forum to ensure third sector engagement on the Board and its subgroups.
Meet your VCS Board Member Representatives
Susie Besant
Susie is the CEO and co-founder of OneEighty, a charity with over 9-years of experience supporting vulnerable young people (aged 4-18), with an outcomes-driven, therapeutic model, underpinned by CBT and DBT strategies. Prior to co-founding the charity in 2011, Susie spent nearly two-years within Oxfordshire’s Youth Offending Service where she carried out prevention and intervention work, in addition to conducting research around the links between young people’s engagement in criminal activity following disengagement with education.
Susie works to enable the voluntary sector to actively participate in the business of the Safeguarding Board, please do contact Susie if you have any queries, comments or proposals.
susie.besant@one-eighty.org.uk
Sabiene North
Sabiene joined the Be Free Young Carers (BFYC) team in March 2020 as our Fundraiser and Events Coordinator, before taking over as CEO in 2022. Sabiene brings a wealth of skills with her from previous roles in her 22 year career in Wealth Management. Sabiene is passionate about improving young carers’ well-being and opportunities, though the provision of recreational, emotional and social support. BFYC enables Oxfordshire’s young carers to achieve their full potential by delivering a far-reaching developmental and emotional support network of people and resources in their daily lives, their schools and communities. Safeguarding of Oxfordshire’s children and young people are a priority.
Concerned about a child
What to do if you have concerns about a child?
Multi-agency guidance and tools
VCS Safeguarding Policy and Checklist
In collaboration with colleagues from OCVA, Oxfordshire Youth, Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council, the OSCB has created a draft safeguarding policy template and checklist specific to the Voluntary and Community Sector. These documents are an example of best practice, which can be adapted by third sector groups.
Template-for-VCS-Safeguarding-and-Child-Protection-Policy-May-2023.docx
Safeguarding Self-Assessment 2022:
Everyone has a responsibility to ensure that they and all staff that they employ understand their safeguarding responsibilities. This safeguarding self-assessment template was developed with representatives from the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG), Public Health, Oxfordshire County Council’s Joint Commissioning Team and the OSCB, specifically for commissioned services and smaller organisations. This joint assessment covers both safeguarding children and adults with care and support needs.
This Safeguarding Self-Assessment will:
- support you to meet your safeguarding responsibilities
- help you to assess the quality of your safeguarding practice
- help you to ensure that any gaps in safeguarding are identified and that prompt action is taken to address these areas
- support you to further develop areas of safeguarding best practice
The completed assessment should be returned to the lead contact in your commissioning organisation as part of their on-going contract management / quality monitoring process.
Record Retention and Information Sharing
The NSPCC has published guidelines on child protection records retention and storage. The guidelines cover the storage of child protection records, retention periods, recording concerns about adult behaviour, disclosure and barring check, and the destruction of child protection records.
NSPCC: Child protection records retention and storage guidance
Information sharing is crucial to safeguarding children, please see below for guidance on information sharing and General Data Protection Regulations 2016 (GDPR)
OSCB 7 Golden Rules for Information Sharing
Children and Young People’s Forum (CYPF)
Initiated in early 2015, the CYPF forum creates a space for all voluntary organisations who work with children and young people to come together to form stronger relationships and a collective voice of influence. The forum is organised by Oxfordshire Youth and focusses on best practice and current issues.
For more information on the forum, please see 
Training
Please follow this link to the OSCB Training Policy to access information regarding training offered by the OSCB
Please click on Training/Booking system to register for or book your place on our online courses.
In addition to OSCB online training, there is a range of online domestic abuse training available via the Reducing the Risk website
News & Updates
If you would like us to share news and / or updates from your organisation via our news page, Twitter or publications, please email us at oscb@oxfordshire.gov.uk
VCS Webpage
Your VCS Board Members are seeking your views on the OSCB website, and in particular the VCS page, and for suggestions/recommendations for any enhancements through a focus group in Summer 2021.