I LIKE your Deputy Sam Mézec, because he looks like an engaging soul. Earnest, committed and out there when circumstances or opportunity arise. That’s not meant to be snippy, by the way. He and Reform Jersey have a lot to achieve – or prove, as you prefer – so a bit of energy and a few headlines are definitely required.
He had them the other day too when he pledged that there could be ‘no more excuses’ for the repeated and historic failures Jersey has been responsible for when it comes to looking after its children.
That said, launching a ‘Pledge to Jersey’s Children and Young People’ on the back of yet another damning indictment, this time from the Jersey Care Commission, comes across as a bit gimmicky and, frankly, rather pointless.
After all, who in public office wouldn’t be committed to the best interests of young, vulnerable Islanders?
So rather more meaningful is his personal commitment as Children’s Minister to deliver ‘whole-system change’ to ensure that, from now on, Jersey’s youngsters are treated properly. And I hope he doesn’t come to regret making it.
Read the Ofsted report into children’s social work services and you’ll see that the problem has, thankfully, moved on from historic abuse to providing the best environment for those needing help or at risk of harm.
In other words, it’s largely a leadership and management issue compounded by staff turnover (and the reasons for that) plus the way the States of Jersey tends to operate in silos unmindful – at best – of the problems and priorities of other departments.
As Ofsted says, ‘Without substantial development to infrastructure and corporate support, improving services for children will be very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.’
What the report highlights in its measured language is pretty much the complete breakdown of a department in its ability to discharge its responsibilities or even recognise and implement the improvements required.
Some of this is pretty basic: properly supervising staff, managing what they do to ensure proper outcomes and dealing with poor or inadequate performance.
‘The impact of this is that performance information is inaccurate and that vital information is missing. This means that leaders do not have an accurate line of sight to practice, and important information is missing from children’s files. The lack of a quality assurance framework or systematic approach to auditing social work practice is serious,’ the report says.
While there have been some improvements, the underlying issue Deputy Mézec has accepted responsibility for is turning around a department that’s been in freefall at the same time as it hasn’t been able to rely on help and support from other States departments and/or ministers.
Looking at this, you can see the underlying difficulties are much graver: why didn’t the civil service leadership recognise it had a failed section on its hands, in such a sensitive area, and do something about it?
The root cause is that the public sector is nowhere near as good as we’ve been led to believe – although there are some notable exceptions – and politicians by and large have been pretty useless at improving matters.
That’s why, through States chief executive Charlie Parker, there’s yet another attempt at establishing a civil service and public sector that is truly and demonstrably fit for purpose.
Mr Google hasn’t been especially helpful in setting out Deputy Mézec’s change management credentials, instead rather suggesting his recent experiences have solely been as a States Member.
Again, this isn’t to be snarky but to sympathise with Deputies for the very real and difficult problems we expect them to confront on our behalf.
I, for instance, might be a great reformer fizzing with radical policies to improve people’s lives but did I enter politics to oversee the rebuilding of a department, ensure improvement milestones are reached and strongarm ministerial colleagues and their chief officers into making sure the procedural and systemic improvements public and external reviewers demand are actually delivered?
Look at this in a slightly different way. Unless you’re a professional outsider comfortable running teams in often trying circumstances, you’re pretty much reliant on what’s fed to you in terms of reform achievability, improved staff performance and support from colleagues elsewhere.
In other words, the civil service machine that put you into this child-care crisis in the first place is also supposed to get you out of it by the time of the next make-or-break external review. And that’s at the same time as you’re also going to be assessed on how well you’ve persuaded other ministers to make their priorities and those of their teams align with yours.
These things are achievable – for the sake of Island children and the reputation of Jersey they have to be – but they’re not easy, which is why even the Improvement Board introduced in 2014 has been judged a failure.
In short, Deputy Mézec’s promise to deliver whole-system, change will be a career-defining moment for him. One way or another.
