Joint Area Review is Good

The Joint Area Review has judged services for children and young people in Hampshire to be consistently ‘good’ with some ‘outstanding’ features.  This gives an overall score of three (out of four) which feeds into the Council’s overall Corporate Assessment. The final version of the JAR report was published August 14.

The Joint Area Review (JAR)  was a major inspection of the services provided for vulnerable children and young people across Hampshire, not just those provided by the County Council, but including all Partner organisations. It focussed on how we work together across health, the district councils, the voluntary sector and other organisations to look after and provide services for children and young people in Hampshire.  The JAR took place in parallel with our Corporate Assessment and an Enhanced Inspection of the Youth Service.  There was also an inspection of Wessex Youth Offending Team.

John Coughlan, Director of Children’s Services says: “This is great news and a fair result for Hampshire. I am acutely aware of some of the serious challenges some areas of service face and I am fiercely determined that we should address those challenges and further improve the outcomes for our most vulnerable children. But I know what we provide and achieve now is already good, largely because of our exceptional workforce. I just want it to be better and this result gives us the right platform to improve with confidence”.

The County Council and partners will celebrate this achievement, but more importantly now need to put our energy and commitment into a robust improvement plan to address the recommendations from the JAR and to build on this achievement.