A Joint Area Review (JAR) is a new kind of inspection that covers all publicly funded services for children and young people in the local area.  This includes those that are directly managed or commissioned by the council as well as services provided by all aspects of health, youth justice and voluntary services.

 

The aim of the inspection is to focus on things that matter locally and to drive self-improvement for Peterborough City Council and its partners.

 

The JAR has two purposes firstly to describe what life is like for children and young people growing up in Peterborough and, secondly, to evaluate how well all services taken together, improve the well being of children and young people in Peterborough.

 

The JAR will also look at the leadership and management services for children and young people and how well these services work together to improve outcomes for them.

 

The official inspection date runs from 2 - 12 May 2006 with the final report of this inspection being published on 2 October 2006.  After the report has been published Peterborough City Council has 70 working days to publish an action plan to show how it proposes to implement the findings of the review. 

 

The emphasis on the JAR inspection is that rather than asking Peterborough City Council the questions, the inspectors will be asking the children and young people, parents/carers, members, officers and partners of Peterborough what experiences they have had using our services.

 

What is involved in a Joint Area Review?

Peterborough City Council have had to provide details of over 100 children and young people that have either been looked after on the child protection register, in need, or been referred to social services by another professional agency department, but did not meet the threshold criteria for services.  Out of these 100 cases the inspection team will select 10 for further research.

 

The inspection team have already selected 600 children and young people from 24 schools (12 primary and 12 secondary) across Peterborough to take part in the 'Tellus' survey.  They have been selected on the basis of age and the location of their school or college.  The survey is web based and none of the children and young people involved are asked to give their names, but their views will form the inquiries to be pursued. 

 

In addition to this Peterborough City Council have had to nominate three neighbourhoods with certain characteristics from which the review team will select one to study.  This will allow inspectors to gather first-hand evidence of the views and experiences of how local services contribute to improving outcomes for children and young people, as well as exploring how local services work together.

 

The council also have to provide a self assessment about how we are contributing to outcomes for children and young people.

 

Joint Area Review Action Plan

 

Introduction (54 KB, 7 pages)

Recommendations 1 - 4 (75 KB, 12 pages)

Recommendations 5 - 7 (84 KB, 13 pages)

Recommendations 8 - 11 (87 KB, 16 pages

Recommendations 12 - 14 (65 KB, 10 pages

If you have a question about the Joint Area Review, simply email us