SKILLED Ukrainian settlers who came to the Island to flee the war could help fill recruitment gaps within the Health Department, the minister has said.
Deputy Karen Wilson acknowledged that there were significant difficulties in recruiting staff due to the lack of accommodation and the high cost of living in Jersey.
However, she said her department had been looking at new avenues to fill vacancies and that policies were being put in place to ensure staff retention once they arrived in Jersey.
Speaking during a Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel hearing yesterday, Deputy Wilson said: ‘We are trying to recruit from a very unique small pool of people. Clearly the main recruitment pool is the UK but we have also explored some areas around international recruitment as well.
‘I was recently talking to colleagues at the Jersey Care Federation – some of the community service, the charitable sector, is also struggling – and we talked about whether we might be able to do some joined-up work to build capacity right across the system.
‘There has been a recent suggestion perhaps that some of the people who have settled here from Ukraine might also have some skills to offer as well.
‘So I think we are looking at all the avenues we possibly can to recruit people.’
Earlier this month, it was reported that the bill for locum doctors in Jersey was forecast to be over £6 million this year – almost £2.5 million higher than five years ago – in order to fill gaps in the Island’s health service and hospital rotas as the sector struggles to recruit.
In September, Deputy Wilson confirmed that there were around 400 full-time-equivalent vacancies within her department – a rate of around 15% – and that recruiting from India, attending UK jobs fairs and delivering key-worker accommodation were among the measures being used to deal with the ‘unacceptable’ vacancy rates.
Speaking during the Scrutiny hearing, Deputy Wilson said that the accommodation packages on offer to persuade people to relocate were often not attractive enough.
‘We have got to think more about what it is we do around our recruitment packages when we have got them to help retain some of them,’ she said.
‘When they come to Jersey the offer of accommodation is a two-bedroom flat – with three children, say, that is not an attractive proposition and I think we do need to work hard on that.’
Panel member Deputy Beatriz Porée asked the minister about whether 100 units of key worker accommodation – due to be available soon – would be exclusive to health staff.
Deputy Wilson said: ‘There are also some claims on that accommodation from the Children’s Services as well.
‘I don’t want to draw distinction between health and Children’s Services – these are key workers and I think we have got to make sure that when we are doing our recruitment processes that we are aligned so that we are not in competition with one another for accommodation.’
The panel was chaired by Deputy Geoff Southern, who was sitting alongside Deputies Porée, Andy Howell and Barbara Ward.
