Jersey civil servants and one of the key architects of the island’s Covid-era strategy are now helping Sark – one of the world’s smallest democracies – map out its future.
Future Sark will set out to understand what locals, businesses and other organisations think needs improving in Sark and create a “framework” for future politicians and others to use.
It’s a “Sark-sized” version of a similar programme Jersey ran in 2017, called Future Jersey, which Sark’s most-senior politician said Jersey’s government still regularly references.
Conseiller John Guille, Policy and Finance (P&F) Chair, told Express Jersey had “generously” offered Sark administrative support from civil servants who had been through a similar process.
When Chief Pleas first became aware of the impact of Future Jersey, the idea “really struck a chord, as it almost exactly fitted the bill for what we wanted to do”, Conseiller Guille said.
“Jersey’s civil service planning department is a couple of hundred people, and they gave us some good contacts, especially [Director for Housing and Environment] Dr Louise Magris – she’s been especially helpful.”
The project’s total cost has been capped at £30,000, in part because of the support from Jersey.
Lessons learned
Nearly 100 people turned up to the public launch of Future Sark, which is being run by political consultancy Question Factory.
Question Factory’s Steve Skelton, Jersey’s former Director of Strategy and Innovation during the pandemic years, worked on Future Jersey and is now spearheading Sark’s slimmed-down version.
One of the biggest lessons he took out of his experience in Jersey was the need to make sure Future Sark was the right “size”, especially given Sark’s small population – 562 at the 2023 census.
Such a tiny island could not sustain a “data department”, like a larger jurisdiction might, so it needed cost-effective “indicators” to help Sark residents know if things were “heading in the right direction”.