What is the Joint Area Review?
The Joint Area Review (JAR) covered all the organisations that provide services for children and young people in Hampshire such as Primary Care Trusts, County Council services, District Councils, schools, Connexions, Learning and Skills Council, voluntary and community sector organisations and employers. It assessed the performance of those services against the outcomes of Every Child Matters, identifying what services are doing and to what level, and the impact they are having on children and young people. The inspections also found out what parents, children and young people themselves think about services. The inspection was overseen by a steering group with representatives from the organisations that were also being inspected.
What does this mean for our partners?
Both assessments were to:
• assess the quality of services that the County Council and its partners provide to its community
• emphasise partnership and community leadership
• provide an opportunity for the service providers of Hampshire to assess how well they operate together
This was an unique opportunity to lay the foundations of an outstanding partnership for the future. The recent whitepaper on local government indicates that this is the way assessments will be done in the future – with more and more emphasis on assessing how a community is served by all its partners working together. This became an opportunity to understand how well we support each other and how we can improve.
Latest review results can be found on the JAR results page