Joint Area Review (JAR)
The Corporate Performance Assessment (CPS) took place in May 2007. Part of this assessment was the Children's Services first Joint Area Review (JAR). A Joint Area Review seeks to identify what services are doing, how much they are doing of it and the impact they are having on enabling children and young people to achieve better outcomes. The JAR will focus on the five core outcomes of Every Child Matters (Be Healthy, Stay Safe, Enjoy and Achieve, Make a Positive Contribution, Achieve Economic Well-being) and the quality and management of services.
Alongside the JAR there was also an inspection of Hampshire County Council Youth Service and Wessex Youth Offending team. The aim of Children’s Services was to achieve the best possible Area Review grade whilst staying focused on service delivery and continuing to improve the outcomes for children and young people.
Service reviews are a positive learning experience that enables us to strengthen our partnership approach to achieving outcomes, to celebrate the good practice of our practitioners and to identify what we need to do to improve services and agree improvement action.
The JAR covers all services for children and young people provided within a local authority area. This includes Primary Care Trusts, District Councils, Connexions, Voluntary Sector organisations, schools, further education and sixth forms, the Learning and Skills Council, adult services, employers, parents and carers and children and young people.
The Director of Children’s Services – John Coughlan, holds overall responsibility for the JAR. Alison Alexander, Head of Performance and Planning was the lead on the preparation work leading to the inspection in May.
Final version of the JAR report, published 14 August 2007 
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