By Dr Carmel Corrigan
Parenting. To parent. It is relatively recent that the noun “parent” became a verb in common English language. My parents would have had no idea what people meant if they had been asked about their “parenting” skills or approach, and I am not sure that I would have known much more.
Now, it feels like these words have become not only commonplace but often hostile, as in “a failure to parent” or “poor parenting skills”, as well as, conveniently, an opportunity to hand over responsibility for our children when used together with the word “corporate”.
Bringing children up to become reasonably well-adjusted adults is the hard work of parenting. This can be difficult even if you have had a good experience with your own parents. It can be more difficult still if you have not had the benefit of what is commonly known as a “good home”, the kind where parents at least like and respect each other, are aware of all of the social duties they bear and raise their children accordingly, lovingly, while allowing them to develop along with the world around them.
However difficult parenting is, corporate parenting raises both responsibilities and expectations to a higher level. To be very clear, corporate parents are the state agencies and officials with responsibility for children who are or have been in care. They are not responsible for children living at home with their families when they are out of sight of their parents, such as when they are in school or on the sports field or walking down King Street. No, those children are still the responsibility of their parents.
Corporate parents are, however, responsible for the wellbeing and interests of some of the most vulnerable children in Jersey. These are the children who come from families where parenting capacity and skill is not what we would want or expect for our children. In some cases, they come from families where abuse – physical, sexual, psychological or emotional – has been visited upon the children (and often the parents too). Sometimes these are the children whose level of need is so great that their own parents simply cannot provide for them.
These children rely on corporate parents to provide for them.
The corporate parents, as provided for in the Children and Young People (Jersey) Law, 2022, include a multitude of actors including the Chief Minister, government departments, the parishes, the States of Jersey Police and the Probation and Aftercare Service, nurseries and schools, and a list of government-funded organisations and services.
It is easy to think that, with such expertise around the table and arrangements in place, vulnerable children would be very well provided for. Sadly, it has been brought to my attention that this is currently not always the case. There are, in fact, very serious sufficiency issues facing the provision of care placements in Jersey for children who may need to come into care.
There is a reported shortage of foster and residential places. Secure care for those few children who need it is limited. All parts of the system are experiencing a shortage of well-trained and experienced staff. From a child rights perspective, this signals not only the limitation of children’s rights but potentially outright breaches under international human rights law.
The Improvement Plan for children’s social care is ambitious and has the potential to considerably improve both sufficiency and effectiveness of services. Nonetheless, it is a long-term plan, parts of which have been agreed by the Council of Ministers, many of whom are corporate parents, in principle only.
I have raised the current pressures on the system and concerns about the current sufficiency of care places at the highest levels and, while I have been assured that no child will be left in an unsafe home environment, there has been very limited evidence of action to address the issues that we are facing here and now. Where are children who need the highest quality of safeguarding and corporate parenting today to go when there are no care places for them and, even if physical accommodation can be found, there are no staff to run them?
Parenting children is hard. Corporate parenting is just as difficult, if not more so. At a time when the government is seeking planning permission to erect a plaque in the Royal Square by way of recognising and apologising for previous failures to care for children, surely the continued failure to provide for vulnerable children requires immediate and concerted government action?
When parents are seen failing in their “parenting” responsibilities we are, and should be, quick to identify these and act in the best interests of the child. It is only reasonable that we hold corporate parents to the same standard. At the top of this ladder is the Government of Jersey, particularly the Council of Ministers, as they hold and control the resources – money, property and control of a key worker strategy – to ensure that Jersey has a robust and sufficient care and corporate parenting system that protects children from serious harm. Acknowledging past mistakes and failures with public symbols is to be welcomed on behalf of all those who have previously suffered. Unless Jersey wants to see more of these, the government will need to act both now and well into the future.
