Details about our new joint child safeguarding inspections have been published today.
The new Joint Targeted Area Inspections of services for vulnerable children and young people (JTAI) will launch this year, involving CQC, Ofsted, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP).
From February, all four inspectorates will jointly assess how local authorities, the police, health, probation and youth offending services are working together in an area to identify, support and protect vulnerable children and young people.
The new short inspections will allow inspectorates to be more responsive, targeting specific areas of interest and concern. They will also identify areas for improvement and highlight good practice from which others can learn.
Each inspection will include a ‘deep dive’ element, with the first set, to be completed by Summer 2016, focusing on children at risk of sexual exploitation and those missing from home, school or care. Future areas of focus will be decided considering the views of stakeholders.
We will publish a report on each of the six inspections with an overview report to be published at the end of the work.
The new approach was consulted on in July 2015 and over 200 responses were received from those working in the children’s social care, health, police, probation and youth offending services. The inspections were successfully piloted in December last year.
The framework that outlines how we will be carrying out these inspections and inspection guidance:
- Joint Targeted Area Inspections: Inspection framework and guidance
- JTAI inspection guidance: Child sexual exploitation and children missing from home, care or education
The press release, 'Joint targeted area inspections to be launched this year', is hosted on Ofsted’s website.
The work will sit alongside our on-going inspection programme on children looked after and safeguarding.