Plans for new 'Victim Support Centre' at Heathfield site

Monday 19 July 2021

Plans are being developed to build a centre for victims of crime, including a new Sexual Assault Referral Centre, on the site of the old Heathfield Children's Home, with an aim to complete work by 2023.

Speaking in a Scrutiny Hearing on Friday, Home Affairs Minister Deputy Gregory Guida said that the centre would be newly built and purpose-made as part of an "ambitious" multi-agency project.

Explaining why the department had picked the site as the new location for the Sexual Assault Referral Centre - which currently is located at Dewberry House - the Minister said: "We studied, I think, nine different sites when we started looking at an alternative, and there were two possibilities, one was in town and one was outside, and we thought that the extra commute would be offset by the privacy of having it outside of town."

However, he went on to clarify that "instead of just relocating the existing facilities, we’ve decided to redevelop it into something much much larger, so the plan now is to have a Victim Support Centre" as well as "a Child House", which he said would use the Icelandic model of Barnahus, a child-centric approach.

Pictured: Home Affairs Minister Deputy Gregory Guida said that the site was chosen as the benefits of being private outweighed the inconvenience of a commute.

He summarised: "It’s a much much more ambitious project, and it’s a multi-agency project as well that we’re developing."

Outgoing Director General of Justice and Home Affairs, Julian Blazeby, said that this 'multi-agency' approach would give victims the opportunities to access all support from one location, and prevent them from retelling traumatic experiences to different services.

"It will cover medical advocacy, therapeutic services as well as obviously police and social care, and included within that is a centralised Victims Hub," he said.

"All victims of crime will be able to access support and services from this one location, which will be the first time we’ve put 'Jersey Victims First' into a hub type approach."

Pictured: Home Affairs Director General Julian Blazeby said the centre would cover medical advocacy, therapeutic services, and police and social care.

He added: "There may be signposting within that centre to other services that won’t necessarily all be there, but certainly the main core will be present and be able to in effect be a one-stop shop which will prevent [people] having to repeat their traumatic experience to multiple agencies in different locations at different times."

He also said that funding has been allocated within the Government Plan.

Though the Director General acknowledged that the project, has "got to go through the normal process of consultation and planning", he said that "we should hopefully be live and ready to go in 2023."