Select a region
Cliff Chipperfield is a man that wears many hats. He spent 35 years in the Education Department before retiring last Christmas, starting as maths teacher and finishing as a director, responsible for many areas including special needs and inclusion. But retirement wasn't the end of his activities.
This new chapter is proving to be very enjoyable and busy for Cliff, who is now President of Jersey Reds, a Director for the charity Every Child Our Future and a Trustee with the Bosdet Foundation.
He put himself on pause for a second to share the five things he would like to see changed or developed in Jersey, inspired by his experiences...
The charity Every Child Our Future works in partnership with States schools to support seven and eight-year-olds with their reading. This is currently achieved by providing over 500 corporate and community volunteers to go into schools to listen and read with the boys and girls. In addition, the charity funds two specialist teachers who work directly with identified children five times each week.
Pictured: The vision of Every Child Our Future is to support the States, and the Education Department, in the creation of a Literacy Centre.
The vision of Every Child Our Future is to support the States, and the Education Department, in the creation of a Literacy Centre. The purpose of this would be to work with parents of pre-school children, to work alongside schools with pupils of all ages and to support adults in our community with literacy needs. Literacy is the key to the future of our community and economy and it requires a fully funded provision accessible to all.
I would like to see an improvement in the use of technology across the States of Jersey. I recently imported a vehicle into the island. This required visits to Customs, DVS and Environment. The first thing I would say is that the customer service and quality of information was excellent across all three of these departments.
Pictured: Sharing data between States departments would save hours in filling forms.
However, what frustrated me was the number of times I had to fill in forms requiring the same information. I am aware that in these GDPR days, everyone has to be super careful with the use of data but surely I can give permission to the States of Jersey for my data to be used across all of their departments? This would include Health, Tax, Social Security, Passport Office, Education etc. All I would want to see in place is a secure network across all departments that saves employees and the public hours of form filling!
I would start this ‘change’ by stating that the foster parents in Jersey are an amazing group of people who do an outstanding service for some children in our community. I believe that the number of children who require a foster placement is in excess to the number of places available in the Island. I also believe that there are Jersey boys and girls placed off-island with professional foster parents in the UK. I understand that sometimes this is necessary.
Pictured: "I think that it is time for Jersey to also have professional foster parents," says Cliff.
However, I think that it is time for Jersey to also have professional foster parents. These would be adults who are trained and supported to provide an essential service to children within our community. The advantages for the children would be access to family and friends and maintaining their place in a Jersey school and it would cost a great deal less than a UK placement.
The recent election campaign saw a very smart piece of work by Jersey Sport. They invited all candidates to attend a presentation and then asked them to ‘sign up’ to support their work. I was pleased to see that a large number of the successful candidates did recognise the importance of sport in our community and stated their intent for the future.
Pictured: Cliff hopes that politicians will give sports the full political and financial support it requires.
The change I would like to see is our politicians actually delivering on pre-election promises. Of all the politicians that signed up to support Jersey Sport, I have only heard one of them state any intent to get on with the work since the election. Sport is an essential ingredient for a successful community in many ways. I hope that the leadership is provided to put in place a cohesive plan that receives the full political and financial support it requires.
I have been involved in Jersey sport for many years. Obviously a lot of that time has been spent at Jersey Rugby Club, but I have also worked with the Island Games and Jersey Touch. The Island Games allowed me insight into many other sports within our community and the many hundreds of volunteers who work to ensure their sport thrives.
Pictured: Different sports facilities provide the same function around the island.
One thing that struck me whilst visiting the different venues across the Island was the number of ‘facilities’ providing the same function. However, because of the design of each of these sporting facilities their use was limited to one sport.
The areas that particularly came to mind were those involved with football, athletics, rugby, hockey and cricket. A lot of the land and facilities are owned either by the States or the sport itself. A number of these facilities, for a number of reasons, are only used at certain times of the year.
Pictured: Cliff would love to see a provision for year-round facilities across many sports.
I would think that there is a good case for an audit for the needs of each sport, the kind of surface required and an analysis of use. I would love to see one provision in Jersey which provides excellent facilities across many sports and is accessible all year round. Another opportunity for political and government leadership.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Bailiwick Express.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.