Civil servants moving to Waterfront Whitehall?

Thursday 05 March 2015

Jersey’s legion of civil servants could be on the move to a new home after the Treasury Minister said taxpayers could save millions if States staff were working in one building instead of 23 different sites.

In an interview in the March edition of the free monthly business magazine Connect, which is out now, Senator Alan Maclean says that having more staff in one site would boost efficiency, co-operation and productivity.

Although he refused to pick out a location, the reality is that a building big enough to house that many staff would be at the Waterfront, or the existing General Hospital site in Gloucester Street if the Health department vacate it as part of the plan for a new hospital building.

There are thousands of States staff who couldn’t work in one central office building because they work with patients at the hospital, or as teachers in the Island’s schools, or as manual workers on sites around the Island, but there are thousands more working in offices at locations including Cyril Le Marquand House, the Education department in St Saviour, the TTS and Planning offices at South Hill, the Health department’s offices at the General Hospital and more.

In the new edition of Connect, Senator Maclean said: “At the moment we operate out of something like 23 different locations. If the States were to consolidate into one building, as an example – that’s something any large private sector organisation would consider.

“The public sector, with the number of people that we employ, has to be a leader in productivity growth and working in one building would, without doubt, change the culture and change working practices and drive those efficiencies.

“If we were going to invest in one thing, I would invest in an office building. And I would move the whole lot.

“I have no doubt that there could be significant savings in terms of the work that the public sector. That would be an investment and it would be interesting to see the view of the Fiscal Policy Panel, if it was presented with a business case to support that.”