What is a JAR?

The work on the integrated inspection of children's services was prompted by the proposals set out in the Every Child Matters green paper and now reflected in the Children Act 2004. Integrated inspection is a driver of improvement and a key part of the effort to rationalise planning, accountability and performance management.

The delivery of local change programmes will be monitored through annual performance assessment and joint area reviews (JARs). The assessments will look at the ways services are working together locally to improve outcomes.

JARs will start to take place from September 2005. They will assess the quality of services and make judgements about how well services work together to improve the well-being of children and young people. The aim is for services to be better integrated and greater than the sum of their parts.

JARs will provide the means to analyse the effectiveness of local cooperation and integration. As part of the strategy to give young people a direct voice in the provision of services that affect them, the inspectorates will seek their views when conducting JARs.