Joint Area Review of Children Services in Kent 2008

The final report for Kent's Joint Area Review was published on 3rd June 2008. For more information about the results of the JAR please click here

Joint Area Reviews (JARs) gather evidence during on-site fieldwork investigations into the contributions local services make to improving outcomes for some of the most  vulnerable groups of children and young people, and those groups of children and young people who are not doing well enough or who are at risk of underachieving. They also follow up areas of weakness identified in the annual performance assessment.

Kent's Joint Area Review was carried out at the same time as the Audit Commission’s Corporate Assessment inspection and was also aligned with the inspection of youth offending teams undertaken by HMI of Probation.

As Kent County Council's Youth Service had not been inspected since 2005, an Enhanced Youth Inspection (EYI) also occurred at the same time as the above programmes of inspection activity.

The fieldwork activity was carried out from January 28th 2008 for a period of two weeks. The JAR process involved a range of inspectorates and assessed the performance of all agencies in delivering the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda across Kent, addressing two key questions: 

• What is it like to be a child or young person living in Kent? 
• How effectively do services and agencies work together to improve outcomes for children and young people, with a particular focus on vulnerable groups?

For further information, please view the JAR Action Plan.

If you have any further questions, please contact 01622 694179 and someone will be able to assist you.