Every Child Matters

Joint Area Reviews (JARs) have been introduced under the Children’s Act, which provides the legislative framework for delivering the Government's ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda.

JARs (every three years) and Annual Performance Assessments (APAs) are a new departure in the inspection and assessment of Children and Young People's Services.  Judgements on the contribution of the public sector collectively to delivering ’Key Outcomes’ will be made for the first time.  An assessment of each Council’s performance in providing Social Care is already made annually, but in future there will also be a Unified Annual Performance Assessment (APA) that covers Education Services.

JARs aim to judge the contribution that services make to the wellbeing of children and young people.  Wellbeing is defined in terms of the 5 outcomes of being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being. 

The first JAR will commence in September 2005. The JAR will take place alongside, and will feed into, a Corporate Performance Assessment (CPA) of all Herefordshire Council services that is also undertaken by external inspectors.  The reports will be published in due course.