Our recent report, Catholic Education and the 14-19 Changes, made a number of important recommendations about area inspections, notably that they should do more to examine and promote institutions’ development of the whole student, and how this contributes to enabling them to fulfil their potential as individuals and members of society.

We hope that these recommendations will be addressed by the new system of Children’s Services Joint Area Reviews (JARs) which are replacing area inspections from September. JARs will have a wider role than area inspections, examining how well services work together to improve the well-bring of children and young people towards the five outcomes established by Every Child Matters. All 150 children’s services authority areas will be inspected in a JAR by December 2008.

Ofsted, together with the other government inspectorates which are involved in JARs, have published detailed information about how the new inspections will work. A copy can be downloaded from Ofsted’s website at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/index.cfm?fuseaction=pubs.summary&id=3963

For further information about the CES report, please contact Peter Walsh, pwalsh@cesew.org.uk, 0207 901 4854.
Copies of the report can be obtained by downloading this order form http://www.cesew.org.uk/publications/ed_changes_form.pdf