New deal for safety board chief

The man who heads the board looking after children’s safety in Oldham has been re-appointed for another three-year term.

Jim Leivers has been the independent chairman of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board for three years.

The board, which has a budget of £353,000 for 2009/10, is a statutory body set up under the Government’s Children’s Act.

Oldham’s Safeguarding and Review Team of councillors says Mr Leivers’s performance as chairman has been “exemplary.”

His role costs £7,800 a year as he is paid only on a sessional basis. One of the board’s high profile areas is the Messenger Project, where police, social workers and the Barnardo’s charity work to protect vulnerable young people at risk of sexual exploitation.