A boy's hand thrust forward towards the camera

7 Point Briefing: Joint Targeted Area Inspection: Children who are victims of Domestic Abuse

1. Background – What is a Joint Targeted Area Inspection (JTAI)?

JTAIs are an inspection of multi-agency arrangements for evaluating the services for vulnerable children and young people on a particular theme.

  • It is conducted jointly between Ofsted, Care Quality Commission (CQC), His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service (HMIC&FRS) and His Majesty’s Inspectorate Probation (HMIP).
  • Each JTAI has a specific focus on a theme. New themes are announced every six months. The theme for this JTAI will be Children who are victims of Domestic Abuse.

2. Who carries out the JTAI Inspection?

JTAI’s are carried out by the following inspectorates:

  • Ofsted
  • Care Quality Commission (CQC)
  • His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC)
  • His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP)

All four inspectorates will jointly assess how well the local authority, police, health, probation and youth offending services work together to identify, support and protect vulnerable children.

3. When will the JTAI Inspection take place?

  • There is no advance notice of an inspection – it can take place at any time.
  • There will be a notification period for the local partnership of nine working days before the inspectors come on site.

4. What information will the inspectors use?

  • During the 10 working days before the inspectors are on site, the inspectors will be provided with:
    • child-level data
    • a list of children relevant for the deep dive theme of Domestic Abuse
    • case file documents
    • a multi-agency audit
    • other information to support the inspection.
  • The inspection will triangulate evidence from:
    • case sampling and tracking
    • children and families experiences and views
    • observing practice
    • talking to front-line practitioners and their managers
    • gathering information from across the agencies.

5. How has the partnership (CYSCP) prepared for the inspection?

  • City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership (CYSCP) have formed a multi-agency JTAI Inspection Preparation group who are leading on the coordination of our preparation. We are using this as an opportunity to better understand how well we are doing together for this vulnerable group of children and young people.
  • Named representatives from the three statutory partners, Independent Care Board (ICB) [Health], Police, and City of York Council represent and lead on all aspects of the preparation and Inspection work on behalf of each individual agencies.
  • Practice audits have been completed each time the new JTAI theme is announced (six monthly).
  • Documentary evidence is collected and quality assured and saved in a multi-agency shared filing system ready for submission once we are notified of the inspection.
  • A CYSCP Joint Targeted Area Inspection Practice Guidance has been produced.
  • Briefing sessions for multi-agency professionals will take place.

6. How do I find out about the outcome?

  • At the end of the inspection (Week 3), the Inspection team will meet with the senior leaders of the CYSCP to share their key findings verbally.
  • By the end of Week 9, the inspectors findings will be written up in a letter addressed to the senior leaders in the local partnership.
  • The findings will be in the form of a narrative rather than graded judgements and will include strengths and areas for development.

7. Where can I find further information?