The Oxfordshire Council's People Overview & Scrutiny Committee convened on 18 September 2025, to discuss adult social care and safeguarding. The committee reviewed the Oxfordshire Adults Safeguarding Board Annual Report 2024-25, and received an update on the Age Well programme, which supports older people in Oxfordshire. The committee agreed to note both reports and consider making recommendations to the cabinet based on them.

Oxfordshire Adults Safeguarding Board Annual Report

The committee reviewed the Oxfordshire Adults Safeguarding Board's (OSAB) annual report for 2024-25. The OSAB's member organisations collaborate to protect adults with care and support needs from abuse and neglect. Dr Jayne Chidgey-Clark, Independent Chair of Oxfordshire Safeguarding Adults Board, and Steve Turner, Strategic Partnerships Manager – Adult Social Services, presented the report alongside Karen Fuller, Director of Adult Social Services.

The report highlighted the OSAB's four key priorities:

• Improving frontline practice
• Enhancing prevention and engagement
• Strengthening quality assurance
• Learning from experience

The report noted a rise in safeguarding concerns being reported, which the board considered to be a sign of increased awareness and reporting. The report also highlighted the importance of professional curiosity, flexible working with hard-to-reach individuals, and improved information sharing and coordination between agencies.

The report detailed a number of actions taken by partner organisations to implement the OSAB's strategy, including:

• Oxfordshire County Council's adult safeguarding team improved response times and consistency.
• NHS health partners collaborated to improve referrals, training, and information sharing.
• Thames Valley Police established a new Harm Reduction Unit (HRU) focusing on vulnerable adults.
• Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service incorporated safeguarding checks into their Safe and Well visits.
• District and city councils improved safeguarding in housing and community safety.
• Healthwatch Oxfordshire ensured the voice of service users remained in focus.
• Voluntary sector partners acted as a bridge to the community and delivered outreach and empowerment activities.

The report also included findings from Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) and Homelessness Mortality Reviews (HMRs), which identified key learning themes such as the quality of frontline practice, working with difficult to engage individuals, information sharing and coordination, timeliness of interventions, hoarding and self-neglect, and mental capacity and consent.

The report concluded by highlighting the need to improve frontline awareness of lessons and resources, establish a formal risk register, deepen partnership with the Children's Safeguarding Partnership, and focus on prevention and early intervention.

Age Well Update

The committee received an update on the Age Well programme, which supports older people in Oxfordshire. Karen Fuller, Director of Adult Social Services, Ian Bottomley, Deputy Director of Integrated Commissioning Health, Education and Social Care (HESC), and Isabel Rockingham, Interim Head of Joint Commissioning – Age Well, presented the update.

The Age Well priorities in the Oxfordshire Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2024-2030 focus on:

• Supporting older residents to remain independent and healthy for longer, while ensuring they are treated with dignity and are fully valued.
• Fostering strong social relationships and building capacity within communities to reduce levels of isolation and loneliness.

The update highlighted a number of programmes and services that support older people in Oxfordshire, including:

• The Dementia Support Service, delivered by Dementia Oxfordshire, which works with people with dementia and their carers in the community, providing support and education.
• Stay Strong and Steady, a falls prevention community exercise and education programme for adults aged 65 years and older who have fallen or are at risk of falling.
• The Home First D2A model, which enables people who have had a stay in hospital to continue their recovery in their own home.
• Live Well Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire's online directory of groups, health, care and community services and activities.
• The Community Micro-Enterprise (CME) Development service, provided by Community Catalysts, which supports local people to set up small businesses providing care and support to other local people.
• The Community Links Service, commissioned from Age UK Oxfordshire, which gives residents local information and connects them into their community.
• Carers Oxfordshire, which supports unpaid carers over 18 years old in the community.

The update also included case studies on Local Area Coordination and Community Capacity Grants. Local Area Coordination is an approach which supports people of all ages and families in their community, without needing a referral, needs thresholds or time limits. The Community Capacity Grants were launched in 2022 to build on and strengthen grass roots organisations in their communities.

Committee Work Programme

The committee reviewed its forward work plan¹ and recommendation tracker².