8 Pledges to Put Children First

States Members and leaders of the public service have signed a Pledge to Jersey’s Children and Young People that will hold the government, legislators and public service to account for improving the care and upholding the rights of every child in the island.

"These eight Pledges are more than 'nice words' – this is how we are going to hold ourselves to account. It sets a standard which we can hold one another to, to ensure we are delivering on our commitment to put Jersey's children first, irrespective of what our specific role is in the governance of this Island". Senator Sam Mézec, Children's Minister.

Pledge 1: Listen to children and young people

We will listen directly to children and young people and involve them in how we design, deliver and review our services.

Updates on Pledge 1:

• the Government directly involved and listened to children and young people in the design of the new Children and Young People's Plan for Jersey 
• ​more than 150 primary and secondary school students and their teachers were engaged and presented with a copy of the Pledge to Put Children and Young People First at a workshop hosted by Jersey’s Children’s Minister
• Jersey’s Children’s Minister published an independent report, Listen Louder which gives an honest and hard-hitting insight into the views of some people with experience of care and what it means to them to ‘be heard'
• a new Children’s Rights Officer has been appointed to work with care-experienced children and young people
• the Youth Enquiry Service, known as the YES project, had an increase in young people seeking free counselling, advice and information in 2018
• ​​all primary and secondary schools in Jersey are offered support to become ‘Rights Respecting Schools’
• Jersey appointed the first Children's Commissioner 
• Jersey Cares commissioned to engage with looked after children and care experienced individuals
• the Education Minister leads anti-bullying student ambassador award scheme in schools 
• Jersey's Children's Minister announced plans to hold the first annual Children's Day on 3 July 2020, as part of the Government's response to the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry.
• Jersey's Children's Rights Officer led a group of young people and care-experienced adults on a visit to a national care conference in Liverpool
• A young woman who has shown 'outstanding commitment' to putting young people first and ensuring their voices are heard has been chosen as this year’s new Youth Ambassador.

Pledge 2: Support families that need extra help

We will provide integrated support for families that need extra help caring for their children.

Updates on Pledge 2:

• Education Minister, Senator Tracey Vallois established a new Policy Development Board to focus on Early Years Early Years Policy Development Board
• Jersey’s Children First is being developed along with an Early Help "Right Help, Right Time" strategy for children, young people and families
  
• Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness campaigns launched to educate people about Child Sexual Exploitation CSE, how to spot it and how to get help
• a new draft law has been lodged to extend family-friendly employment rights
• ​the Children, Young People, Education and Skills Department is seeking service providers to increase the range and capacity of support to children eligible for short breaks
  
• children in Jersey benefit from a newly refurbished Child Development and Therapy Centre, after major refurbishment work at the William Knott Centre
• a new positive parenting programme called Triple P is rolled out in Jersey schools to support families and prevent – as well as resolve – behavioural and emotional problems in children and teenagers
• a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) is being developed for Vulnerable Families in the Children's Services Improvement Plan
• the first ever Government Plan for Jersey has been launched which brings to life the strategic priority to put children first. The Government Plan 2020-23  proposes a range of detailed, costed initiatives
• new family-friendly employment rights will be given to parents in Jersey. The States Assembly voted 38-6 to approve the plans, which would see the amount of leave for new parents to increase to 52 weeks, with six weeks full pay
• a pilot scheme to create a new card for young carers is being developed in a bid to provide extra support and tackle some of the difficulties that young carers say that they have experienced
• the number of islanders seeking to foster or adopt a child has doubled in the last year, following a campaign launched by the Government of Jersey
• ​a new prison initiative to encourage stronger family interaction and promote the wellbeing of children with parents in custody begins

Pledge 3: Provide children in care with a safe, loving secure home

We will provide all children in our care with access to a safe, loving, secure home environment.

Update on Pledge 3:

• Corporate Parenting and Sufficiency Strategy is being developed as part of the Children's Legislation Programme 
• Jersey's Children First ensures everyone who works with children and their families must understand their basic responsibility to ask questions when they think or believe that a child/young person is not okay and to do something about it
• a new Fostering and Adoption Strategy is being developed to try to recruit more foster carers in Jersey
• a ground-breaking PANTS campaign to help keep children safe from abuse was launched in Jersey in April 2018
• the number of islanders seeking to foster or adopt a child has doubled in the last year, following a campaign launched by the Government of Jersey
• the Minister for Children and Housing, Senator Sam Mézec, has lodged the draft Children and Education (Amendment) (Jersey) Law to end the use of physical punishment in Jersey.
• Online safety campaign targets teachers, parents and young people
• A number of initiatives organised in Jersey for care leavers as part of National Care Leavers’ Week

Pledge 4: Expand Early Help

We will expand, join up and target our early help offer to ensure that children and young people get the support they need when they need it, to prevent risk and issues from escalating.

Update on Pledge 4:

• a new programme called Right Help Right Time is being developed. The objective of the Right Help, Right Time project is to design and deliver a multi-agency Early Help offer to provide more targeted early intervention and prevention services
• Jersey’s Children First is a standard practice model adopted across agencies, services and settings in the public, community and voluntary sectors in Jersey. It is designed for all those working with children from pre-birth to 19 with emerging or known additional or complex needs/disabilities, including Looked-After Children and those in need of protection and it is  the vehicle for delivering the four outcomes of the Children’s Plan for Jersey
• workshops to help support parents and young people during the holidays are designed to help them to learn new skills that will help with family life issues
• a free and confidential support service has seen an increase in the number of young people seeking counselling and advice since it moved closer to the centre of St Helier
• ​The Minister for Education, Senator Tracey Vallois, has established a new Policy Development Board to focus on Early Years that will include addressing a new system of funding for nursery places.

Pledge 5: Recruit and retain professional workforce

We will work together to recruit and retain a child-centred stable, highly professional workforce.

Update on Pledge 5:

• Jersey’s Government has launched one of the largest recruitment campaigns for social workers. Let’s Be Honest is an international and local recruitment campaign to build a more permanent and highly-skilled workforce of social workers
• a new social work degree course is being introduced in Jersey under a new partnership with a world-class university in a bid to build a highly skilled workforce of social workers and end the Island’s reliance on temporary and agency staff
• departments from across the States have worked with Andium Homes on the key worker accommodation initiative, which reflects the Council of Ministers’ ambitions to reduce income inequality, improve the standard of living and Put Children First
• all places have been filled on Jersey's first social work degree course BA (Hons) Social Work (Jersey) degree

• successful campaign to recruit permanent social workers - hundreds enquire and 22 social workers have been recruited to permanent positions

• the Government of Jersey's 'Let's be Honest' social worker recruitment campaign has been recognised at the highest levels by the recruitment marketing profession at an awards ceremony in London

• permanent appointment of a new Director of Children's Safeguarding and Care

Pledge 6: Make it easier to share data and information

We will make it easier for data and insight across organisations to be shared so that, when assessing how best to meet their needs, we look at children's and young people's lives as a whole.

Update on Pledge 6:

• Jersey Children's First supports a more seamless transition between services. It aligns processes so they are less confusing for children, young people and their families and the diverse children’s workforce
  
• the Integration project will help us share data across the States of Jersey in a controlled, reliable and repeatable manner
• as part of the programme of legislative change following the Jersey Care Inquiry, Ministers have agreed to a new law being developed that will place an obligation on them and officials to show how they have considered the impact on Children's Rights as they develop future government policy and legislation

Pledge 7: Ensure sufficient funding is available

We will ensure that sufficient funding is available to be effective and that any regulatory and legislative changes needed will be progressed swiftly.

Update on Pledge 7:

• Financial summaries of the cost of responding to the Care Inquiry are published
• Grant funding is available to industry sectors for initiatives which will help address skills and training gaps in order to strengthen local skills.
• unspent budgets fund onging projects
• The first ever Government Plan for Jersey has been launched which brings to life the strategic priority to put children first. The Government Plan 2020-23 proposes a range of detailed, costed initiatives

• An independent review of school funding is to be carried out, following approval of a £250,000 contingency bid by the Treasury Minister
• Nutritious meals to be trialled in primary schools using up to £200,000 of contingency funding.
• Les Quennevais Sports Centre has been identified as the preferred site for a new skatepark that will become the hub of urban sports in Jersey.

Pledge 8: Publish clear standards and be held account for achieving them

We will work together to ensure that we set and publish clear standards and be held publicly to account for achieving them.

Update on Pledge 8:

• the Children's Service's Improvement Plan and its phases have been published
• the Jersey Children's Services Improvement Plan,Phase 2 document reflects a further set of actions that build upon the first phase of improvement in response to the Ofsted inspection report (June 2018) and the Care Commission’s report "Making a Difference; Driving Improvement"
• the Children's Minister has published Listen Louder, which gives an honest and hard-hitting insight into the views of some people with experience of care and what it means to them to ‘be heard'
• The Government of Jersey has published the Youth Justice Review, which emerged from a recommendation by the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry
• the full details of how the Government is responding to delivering the recommendations made by the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry have been published on gov.je
• the actions of progress made since the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry have been published
• the Common Strategic Policy sets out ministers high-level ambitions for Jersey and contains five strategic priorities where ministers will focus their efforts for the next four years.

Who has signed the Pledge

A list of States members and senior civil servants who have signed the pledge:

Senators

Lyndon Farnham
Sarah Ferguson
Ian Gorst
John Le Fondré
Sam Mézec
Kristina Moore
Steve Pallett
Tracey Vallois

Constables

Richard Buchanan
Simon Crowcroft
Mike Jackson
John Le Bailly
John Le Maistre
Philip Le Sueur
Deidre Mezbourian
Len Norman
Karen Shenton-Stone
Christopher Taylor
Richard Vibert

Deputies

Carina Alves
Lindsay Ash
Louise Doublet
Inna Gardiner
Gregory Guida
Mike Higgins
Rowland Huelin
David Johnson
Carolyn Labey
Russel Labey
Mary Le Hegarat 
Kevin Lewis
Jeremy Maçon
Judy Martin
Kirsten Morel
Susie Pinel
Trevor Pointon
Hugh Raymond
Richard Renouf
Richard Rondel
Geoff Southern
Montfort Tadier
Graham Truscott
Rob Ward
Scott Wickenden
John Young

Senior Leaders

Charlie Parker
Mark Rogers
Tom Walker
Julian Blazeby
Richard Bell
Ian Burns
John Rogers
Caroline Landon
Stephen Hardwick
Kate Nutt
Richard Corrigan