JERSEY does not have enough places for children in care, and those it has are not always good enough, a lawyer has said, after it was revealed that eight places are due to be lost in the coming months.
The comment comes as the Royal Court blocked a plan by the Children’s Minister to send vulnerable siblings to the UK, where the minister had suggested a placement at a specialist facility.
Commissioner Thompson said it was “clear” that the mother loved the children and was trying to get help herself.
He said: “She also provided to us a detailed handwritten letter. This letter was heartfelt and very moving; it was more than just a plea not to send [the children] away but confirmed to us that she wanted the best [for them].”
The court said there was no good reason to send them to the UK.
The case revealed that three children’s homes were due to close “in the coming months” despite the years-long shortage of local residential care spaces.
One of them was due to close in August because it was near the site of the new hospital and deemed “inappropriate”. This meant Jersey is due to lose eight places, while the secure unit at Greenfields is due to be transformed into a “specialist campus”.
Greenfields has been criticised for its “cell-like” bedrooms and the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry Panel said it should be demolished.
Jersey has 60 children in care, the court heard. Commissioner Thompson told the minister that struggling with resources was not a reason to send children to the UK. He said: “The Island’s commitment to putting children first requires the minister and children’s services to provide placements and ensure that it has adequate resources to do so.
“We accept that this may not be easy, but the fact that something is difficult is not a reason to send children away or back to a home that is not yet safe without something more.”
The Island has been struggling with space in residential care for a number of years. In 2017, a campaign to recruit a carer specifically for a nine-year-old boy yielded no results and he was placed in a home in the UK.
Advocate Darry Robinson – who was not involved in the case but has dealt with similar ones – said the Island did not have enough places available “and the places aren’t good enough for some children”.
He said: “I think there needs to be provision to keep Jersey children in Jersey.
“We need a therapeutic unit over here for children who require therapy in that sort of setting, rather than sending them over to the UK, in my view.”
With only “a few” places available in Jersey, “I think it’s about the inability of those residential placements to cater to the needs of children who have therapeutic requirements,” he said.
Plans to transform Greenfields into a therapeutic facility were “a step in the right direction”, he said.
The Children’s Service declined to comment on the specific case but admitted “longstanding challenges with regard to the availability of residential care for children in Jersey”.
They said decisions on children’s care were “very finely balanced” and added: “It is essential that we find homes for children which meet their needs. Some children have specialist needs which cannot be met through care arrangements in Jersey.
“The Children’s Services reform/improvement plan provides a framework to address these challenges by creating additional capacity in children’s homes over the next five years.”
