Joint Targeted Area Inspections are set to continue – but without probation input, it has been announced.
Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) have announced that their programme of joint targeted area inspections will restart.
Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s National Director for Social Care, said: “Restarting our JTAIs is a significant milestone. Joint inspections play such an important role in identifying areas for improvement and sharing good practice about how local agencies work together to help and protect children.”
From April 2022, the inspectorates will carry out two types of JTAI:
- An evaluation of the multi-agency response to identification of initial need and risk (or the ‘front door’ of child protection).
- A focus on a particular theme or cohort of children, the first of which will focus on the multi-agency response to the criminal exploitation of children.
New guidance will be published each year when the focus of future thematic JTAIs is announced.
These new frameworks build on the joint inspection methodology used in Solihull in January 2022, and are more focused to allow the inspectorates to deliver inspections with less burden on local safeguarding partnerships.
Yvette Stanley added: “The new joint inspections of the ‘front door’ of child protection will give us an even stronger understanding of how multi-agency safeguarding arrangements allow local leaders and professionals to work together to identify and respond to children at risk of harm. And the thematic inspections will provide a clear insight into how areas respond to the specific risks children face, starting with child criminal exploitation.”
