Voluntary and Community Sector
Meet your VCS Board Member Representatives
Romy Briant
Romy has worked across Oxfordshire’s voluntary and community sector in a range of voluntary, professional, management and trustee roles. Romy has a social work (child protection) background, experience of developing and supporting a variety of community projects with a focus on inclusion and a long standing interest in child development and family dynamics. Currently, she is founding trustee and chair of Reducing the Risk of Domestic Abuse, VCS representative on the Oxfordshire Partnership and has an advisory role with OCVA.
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.
Romy and Susie work together to enable the voluntary sector to actively participate in the business of the Safeguarding Board, please do contact them if you have any queries, comments or proposals.
Concerned about a child
What to do if you have immediate concerns about a child?
If you have non-immediate concerns for a child, need support or guidance with an Early Help Assessment or TAF, or wish to complete a No Names Consultation please contact the Locality and Community Support Service.
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.
Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy Template for the VCS – updated 2019
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
In light of the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak the OSCB all face to face courses are cancelled until further notice. Follow the link to OSCB Temporary Guidance on Training Requirements to access information regarding alternative provision during this time.
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 and Updates
OSCB Safeguarding Newsletter
Our Safeguarding Newsletter is currently published 3 times a year in Spring, Summer and Autumn/Winter. To subscribe to the newsetter, please email oscb@oxfordshire.gov.uk.
To share safeguarding news, updates or learning from your organisation in the next edition, and/or any feedback on the content or layout, please email Carole.Kinnell@Oxfordshire.gov.uk
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. In the meantime VCS members are welcome to send any comments to Romy Briant or Susie Besant.
