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Inspection of children's services
The Children Act 2004 requires local authorities to coordinate all the services provided by statutory, voluntary or private providers for children and young people aged 0-19 as part of an integrated children's service.
New arrangements have been put in place to deliver co-ordinated inspections of services provided to children and young people by local children and young people's trusts.
Annual Performance Assessment 2008
Children’s services have maintained high ratings in this year’s performance assessment.
The Annual Performance Assessment (APA) is a desk based inspection that rates the performance of services for children and young people provided by local authorities and partner agencies from the Children and Young People’s Trust.
Derbyshire is again rated ‘good’ for the overall effectiveness of children’s services and in each outcome area.
Derbyshire is rated as outstanding for “Capacity to improve, including the management of services for children and young people”
| Assessment judgement area | APA grade |
| Overall effectiveness of children's services | 3 |
| Being healthy | 3 |
| Staying safe | 3 |
| Enjoying and achieving | 3 |
| Making a positive contribution | 3 |
| Achieving economic well-being | 3 |
| Capacity to improve, including the management of services for children and young people | 4 |
Inspectors make judgements based on the following scale:
4: outstanding/excellent
3: good
2: adequate
1: inadequate
Joint Area Reviews (JAR) of children's services
Over the three years from September 2005, all council services for children and young people, and the wide range of services from other agencies and organisations, will be subject to a joint area review (JAR). Review teams are multi-disciplinary and normally have inspectors from at least four inspectorates or commissions.
Derbyshire hosted a Joint Area Review during 2007.
The main findings of the review are as follows:
safeguarding of children and young people is good and is well supported by strong partnership working and a good range of preventative services.
services and most outcomes for looked after children and young people and those leaving care are good
services and support for children and young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are adequate, with some good features.
the impact of local services on improving health inequalities is adequate.
service management is good
capacity to improve is outstanding
Related documents
The following document is in Portable Document Format (PDF). You can download the PDF software for free from the Adobe website (opens in a new window)
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