There are currently 24 children from the Island in care in the UK, some because they require specialist attention but others because there are simply not enough carers to look after them locally. In May last year there were a total of 89 ‘looked-after’ Jersey children.
Deborah McMillan started her job as the Island’s first Children’s Commissioner on 8 January and has so far met more than 50 groups, bodies and individuals in an effort to build up a clear picture of the issues affecting children and young people in Jersey today.
Top of her priority list is working to reduce the need for looked-after children to be sent away from the Island because of local shortages.
And she added that simply recruiting more foster carers would not be enough to solve the problem.
Her comments come just four months after the issue was raised in the Royal Court during a case in which two brothers from Jersey were sent to separate homes in the UK because of a shortage of foster carers locally, particularly those able to take on children aged nine and above.
‘We have 24 children off-Island at the moment. Some of them need to be off-Island, but others are there because we don’t have enough foster carers here,’ she said.
‘It is symptomatic of a system that isn’t working very well,’ she said. ‘When I first took on the role of director of children’s services in Wales, there were 40 children [from the area in care] in England. Now it [Wales] is not an island, but the complexities are similar. [For] Those are children with Welsh as their first language, for example, it is a complete cultural change. I worked hard to bring those children back.
‘But it is bigger than just having foster carers. The number of children from Jersey in the UK is not a surprise, but it is symptomatic of a whole range of other issues that need addressing, and that does include policy change – particularly around benefits and help.’
Asked if she was confident that she had the political backing and the funding to get the job done, Mrs McMillan added: ‘I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t feel there was a commitment and the resources to be able to carry out my role and do it well.’
Mrs McMillan, who was present in the States this week for the in-committee debate on the response to the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry, also wants to support all Jersey schools to become recognised as respecting the rights of children under Unicef’s Rights Respecting Schools scheme, an award which requires schools to meet certain criteria to ensure that students feel safe, nurtured and in control of their future.
And later this month she and her team plan to launch a consultation with the Island’s children and young people to find out their concerns. The information will then be used to help shape the priorities for the office, which is also working with a panel of young people.
