The JAR inspectors will be looking for evidence as to how professionals across different agencies are working together effectively to deliver the Borough’s priorities.
Oldham’s priorities for improving outcomes for children and young people in the Borough are called The Oldham Six.
The Oldham Six are:
These priorities are available as a fold out Oldham Six card. If you would like a hard copy please contact jar@oldham.gov.uk.
These priorities drive the work of the Oldham's Children's Trust and the Children and Young People Plan. Every local area is required to have a Children and Young People Plan which covers all services provided to children, young people and families.
Our new Children and Young People Plan 2008-2008 ‘Changing for Children in Oldham’ embeds the new arrangements for Oldham's Children’s Trust. As part of the refresh process, we have undertaken a number of tasks, including:
Our priorities for action over the next three years will clearly map to the existing Oldham Six, and will ensure the services provided to children, young people and their families are and will continue to meet their needs, can be tailored to individual circumstances, are fit for the 21st century and will enable us to achieve the best possible outcomes and life chances for all our children and young people.
Joint Area Reviews are carried out by a multi-disciplinary team of professionals drawn from a number of Government inspectorates including:
In Oldham, the JAR inspection team will be led by Elaine Clinton. The Deputy Lead Inspector will be Mary Varley. Both are from Ofsted. Other members of the review team that will visit Oldham will be drawn from Ofsted (including education, social care and adult learning specialists), the Healthcare Commission, the Audit Commission and possibly Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons. Find out more about the inspectors by reading their pen portraits.
Oldham’s Corporate Assessment inspection team will be led by Sarah Diggle from the Audit Commission.
Other members of the team will include a team member, a peer member, a peer officer and a project support officer.
One inspector from the Audit Commission will be a joint team member for both the Joint Area Review and the Council’s Corporate Assessment to assist in ensuring coherence and consistency in the sharing of evidence, and the coverage of key corporate areas, management processes, resource deployment and value for money.
The inspection team will make graded judgements of Oldham’s services for children and young people based on their findings. These will include:
They will also provide a grade for service management and judge the capacity for improvement.
In the inspectors’ report we will be given one of the following grades:
| Grade | Service Descriptors | Capacity to improve descriptors |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | A service that delivers well above minimum requirements for users | Excellent/ outstanding |
| 3 | A service that consistently delivers above minimum requirements for users | Good |
| 2 | A service that delivers only minimum requirements for users | Adequate |
| 1 | A service that does not deliver minimum requirements for users | Inadequate |
The inspectors will also investigate in detail several areas or services specific to Oldham where they feel we may need to improve.