JTAI

Joint Targeted Area Inspection (JTAI) – Guidance for Professionals

In 2016, the Government introduced a new series of multi-agency inspections called Joint Targeted Area Inspections of services for vulnerable children and young people (JTAI).

The inspections are undertaken by the following inspectorates: Ofsted, Care Quality Commission (CQC), Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP).

The inspectorates 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.

These shorter inspections 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.

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.

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.

JTAI’s 2017-2020

Thematic inspection reports published for the period were:

• ‘Feeling heard’: partner agencies working together to make a difference for children with mental ill health  December 2020 
• Joint inspections of child exploitation 25 February 2020 
• The multi-agency response to child sexual abuse in the family environment 4 February 2020
• Growing up neglected: a multi-agency response to older children 6 July 2018 
• The multi-agency response to children living with domestic abuse: prevent, protect and repair 19 September 2017

In March 2020, the child safeguarding review panel published Safeguarding children at risk from criminal exploitation A national review into adolescent deaths or serious harm where criminal exploitation was a factor. The review sets out recommendations and findings for government and local safeguarding partners to protect children at risk of criminal exploitation.
It is a qualitative study of 21 cases from 17 local areas regarding children who died or experienced serious harm where criminal exploitation was a factor. You can read the report here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safeguarding-children-at-risk-from-criminal-exploitation 

JTAI’s 2022

Following the cancellation of inspections during 2020-2021 due to Covid, the inspectorates have announced a restart to the JTAI programme from April 2022. 

The focus of this year’s inspections will be on the following themes:

• One type will evaluate the multi-agency response to identification of initial need and risk (or the ‘front door’ of child protection).
• The other type will look at a particular theme or cohort of children, the first of which will focus on the multi-agency response to the criminal exploitation of children.

Full details of the methodology employed for each inspection can be found here: JTAI_Frameworks