UK experts to carry out independent review of children's services

Monday 05 March 2018

The UK children's services regulator is being brought in to check up on how Jersey is performing.

The Jersey Care Commission says its co-opted the services of Ofsted so that the inspection is "led by independent experts, with no direct involvement in the delivery of care or support to children and young people in Jersey."

An inspection was ordered by the Chief Minister following deficiencies highlighted by Francis Oldham QC in the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry. She was concerned children in the care system were not always getting the quality of care and support they need, leaving some "at risk."

The announcement comes shortly after the new States CEO,Charlie Parker, was given overall responsibility for children's services and an associated budget of over £18million in Jersey, following concerns that change wasn't happening quickly enough after the Care Inquiry, and that children were still at risk, although it wasn't made clear exactly where the problems were.

Mr Parker later used a Chamber of Commerce speech to warn that there were around 300 children in the island's schools who came from families not able to give them breakfast in the morning or buy uniforms, and he said that number was increasing. He also said about half that number weren't even properly taught to use the toilet. 

Mr Parker spoke of children arriving at school with evidence of being bitten by rats at home: "Skills are at the heart of a lot of what we've got to do, but skills start very early. Skills actually start with life chances, and if I'm being honest, we are not investing in the right levels if we are just concentrating straight away on the Further and Higher Education Sectors. Of course we need to do that, but we've also got to look at those life chances from very early on when you come into school.

"We've got to have more ambition, but it has to start at the beginning and unfortunately some of what's going on at the start of that food chain is really sub-optimal. We cannot have kids in that situation. At the end of the day when kids come to school covered in rat bites, we have a problem and we need to deal with that."

Pictured: Charlie Parker speaking to the Chamber of Commerce. (Gary Grimshaw)

According to the Chair of the Jersey Care Commission, Glenn Houston, the commission's partnership with Ofsted means the inspection should be truly independent.

Lisa Pascoe, Deputy Director of Social Care Policy, said: "This inspection will focus on the quality and impact of work on the island to ensure that children are helped, protected and cared for. We will set out clearly what is going well and where more attention is needed."

The inspection will be concluded by August and the outcome will be published by the Care Commission.

The Care Commission is also preparing to implement a rolling programme of inspections of residential services for children and young people in 2018, which is hoped to address a gap in the regulatory framework for children's services in the island.