Education Department
Ministerial Decision Report
Contingency Funding Request – Investment in initiatives that support vulnerable children (Early Help Approach and Young Enquiry Service)
Section 1: Introduction
The MTFP2, as adopted by the States Assembly, included the allocation of £1.65million per year from central contingencies for initiatives that support vulnerable children. (£4,950,000 in total over the period from 2017 to 2019).
As set out in MTFP2, that allocation is to support delivery of initiatives that include outstanding recommendations from key reports (e.g.: Williamson, Care Inquiry and Serious Case Reviews), where it is anticipated that those initiatives may feature in the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry recommendations (IJCI). The IJCI is due to be published in December 2016.
Further to the decision of the States Assembly, the Council of Minister agreed on 9th November 2016, the release of a proportion of the allocated contingency monies to support the delivery of nine different initiatives. Those initiatives, as set out in Section 2 below, include Early Help Approach and the Young Enquiry Service.
The cost of nine initiatives agreed by the Council of Minister does not represent the total contingency allocation (see Section 4 below). The Council of Ministers therefore also agreed to delegate to the Chief Minster the decision to request the Treasury and Resources Minister to release the remaining contingency allocation at some point in the future. Prior to making that request, the Chief Minister will consult with CAVA Ministers[1] about the initiatives to be funded from the remaining allocation.
The nine initiatives agreed to date are all time critical, hence the decision to agree their funding ahead of the Chief Minister requesting release of all the contingency allocation.
Section 2: Overview of agreed initiatives
A summary of the nine initiatives agreed by the Council of Ministers is set out below.
1. Early Help Approach (Education Department)
A holistic assessment of the children and family, focusing on strengths and needs, completed with the family. It ensures that families tell their story only once and enables practitioners from different agencies to deliver a co-ordinated multi-agency response to needs. The focus is on early intervention. |
Recommendation | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Total |
Bull / SIP / SCR | £85,000 | £85,000 | £85,000 | £255,000 |
2. Children’s Change Programme (Community and Constitutional Affairs Department)
Ensure capacity to drive and deliver change across the children’s agenda (SoJ services + external providers). Includes developing and co-ordinating response to IJCI; strategic planning; developing of appropriate legislative base in order to protect vulnerable children and enhance their life chances. |
Recommendation | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Total |
IJCI / Williamson | £168,850 | £185,900 | £185,900 | £540,650 |
3. Additional staffing for Public Protection Unit – PPU (Police)
Enable SoJP to recruit new child abuse investigators. Since 2010, PPU staffing has remained static at 6 investigators and demand now outstrips capacity (31cases in 2011 to 85 in 2015) |
Recommendation | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Total |
IJCI/Op Whistle | £120,000 | £120,000 | £120,000 | £360,000 |
4: Development of Sexual Assault Referral Centre (Police)
Jersey currently lacks a SARC. SARC’s provide holistic service to victims of rape or sexual assault, irrespective of age, on the journey to recovery by providing an immediate health and care response with access to criminal justice services, safeguarding services and integrated follow up (erg: Victim Crisis Therapist; Service Co-ordinator; Medical Forensic examination & storage (non CJS); utilities & running costs). |
Recommendation | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Total |
SCR/IJCI | £130,000 | £150,000 | £150,000 | £430,000 |
5 – 8 Development of Young Enquiry Service – YES (Education Department)
To support development of services provided to particular cohorts of vulnerable or potentially vulnerable young people. To include: 1 counsellor to support young people to deal with trauma and stress; 0.5 youth worker to support young carers; 0.5 youth worker to support young people to explore issues relating to sexuality and gender; 1 youth worker to focus on Adolescent to parent violence and abuse (APVA) and child sexual exploitation. |
Recommendation | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Total |
ED/ SCR | £180,000 | £180,000 | £180,000 | £540,000 |
9: Enhanced MASH resourcing (Health and Social Services Department)
MASH is the mechanism via which Jersey identifies and responds to children who are in need or at risk. In order for the MASH to make timely, effective decisions it must receive good data and information from services. Additional funding is required to allow information to be gather from across the various systems used in primary and secondary health care and provide an analysis to support decision-making. |
Recommendation | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Total |
| £40,000 | £47,500 | £47,500 | £135,000 |
Section 3: Early Help Approach (Education Department)
The purpose of this funding is to provide a holistic assessment of children and family, focusing on strengths and needs, completed with the family. It will ensure that families tell their story only once and enable practitioners from different agencies to deliver a co-ordinated multi-agency response to needs. The focus is on early intervention.
The early help approach is suitable for use for children and young people from pre-birth to 18 years. It is designed to help a range of practitioners from different agencies [such as schools, those working in early years, health professionals including Family Nursing and Home Care, Education Support Services, the Youth Service and the voluntary and Community Sector, e.g. Brighter Futures and the NSPCC] understand the strengths and needs of a child and family and support a co-ordinated multi-agency response to those needs when required. It is about early intervention, supporting professionals to work with families before needs become so great or problems so entrenched that statutory services such as social workers have to become involved.
The Early Help Approach consists of:
- An Early Help Assessment. This is a holistic assessment of the child/ren and family, focusing on strengths and needs, completed with the family. It ensures that families tell their story only once and enables information to be shared with other agencies and services as needed and with appropriate consent
- Team around the Child and Family, those services that can offer support to the family come together in a meeting which the family are encouraged to be part of. A shared Team around the child and family plan is developed, with actions and timescales clearly defined. This plan is reviewed as needed.
- Lead Worker, at the Team around the child and family meeting a lead worker is identified who acts as a single point of contact for the family and professional and will organise future meetings
The Education Department, with the agreement of the Council of Ministers, is requesting the Treasury and Resources Minister to approve the non-recurring budget transfer for Early Help Approach of up to £85,000 annually in 2017-2019 from central contingency to the Education Department revenue head of expenditure.
Section 3: Young Enquiry Service (Education Department)
The purpose of this funding is to support development of services provided to particular cohorts of vulnerable or potentially vulnerable young people.
This consists of:
Counsellor
- More counselling appointments available at different times of the day and evening, for clients aged 14 to 25 years, to meet the need for appointments after school / college, evenings or during days off;
- Reduced waiting times for appointments;
- Offering group sessions for clients when relevant who are facing similar issues as this is more efficient and effective use of time;
- Delivery of requested Assertiveness and Anger Management courses that could be developed;
- Ability to see clients outside of the YES premises (i.e. schools) which is not possible currently due to the limited amount of time the staff have during the week.
Young Carers
- Providing opportunities for young carers to take a break from their caring responsibilities, spend time with other young carers and share experiences;
- Providing opportunities for young carers to learn more about their parent’s illness or disability;
- Liaising with schools so that teachers can better support their students;
- Providing advice and emotional support through the YES project counselling and drop- in service;
- Supporting young carers to use local services such as sports clubs, support groups, and health centres;
- Liaising with schools so that teachers can better support their students;
- All outcomes being recorded on the Youth Service Management Information System;
- Youth Service levels of engagement / Development Journey used for all young people;
- Early help initiated to support family.
Youth Worker – Sexuality and Gender
- Providing opportunities for LGBTQ young people to spend time with other LGBTQ young people and share experiences;
- Providing opportunities for LGBTQ young people to learn more about issues they are facing such as sexual health, positive relationships, how to tell your parents your “gay”, not being Sexually exploited;
- Liaising with schools so that teachers can better support their students;
- Providing advice and emotional support through the YES project counselling and drop-in service;
- Liaising with schools so that teachers can better support their students;
- All outcomes being recorded on the Youth Service Management Information System;
- Youth Service levels of engagement / Development Journey used for all young people.
Youth Worker CSE / APVA
- Young people who have been targeted will be provided with opportunities to explore risk taking in the hope that any risk will be reduced.
- Young people will be educated and more aware of a variety of issues/topics that are or may be relevant in their lives (mental health, domestic abuse, drugs and alcohol, NPS, C.S.E etc.)
- Young people will be supported to overcome issues in their lives through the YES project, counselling and drop in service.
- Multi-agency working - Partnerships with skilled professionals will increase to meet young people’s needs.
- Liaising with schools so that teachers can better support their students
- All outcomes being recorded on the Youth Service Management Information System
- Youth Service levels of engagement / Development Journey used for all young people
The Education Department, with the agreement of the Council of Ministers, is requesting the Treasury and Resources Minister to approve the non-recurring budget transfer for the Young Enquiry Service of up to £180,000 annually in 2017-2019 from central contingency to the Education Department revenue head of expenditure.
Section 4: Financial implications
The MTFP2, as adopted by the States Assembly, included the allocation of £1.65million per year from central contingencies for initiatives that support vulnerable children (£1.65million per year totals £4,950,000 over the period from 2017 to 2019).
The financial and resource implications of Early Help Approach and the Young Enquiry Service are set out in the in Table 1. The financial and resource implications of all nine initiatives, as agreed by the Council of Ministers on 9 November and as listed in Section 2 above, are set out in Table 2.
Table 1:
Early Help Approach
| £ required | Description of costs | New headcount required (over and above departmental allocation) |
2017 | £85,000 | Staffing, overhead and project costs | 1 Fte |
2018 | £85,000 | Staffing, overhead and project costs | 1 Fte |
2019 | £85,000 | Staffing, overhead and project costs | 1 Fte |
Total | £255,000 | | |
Early Help Approach
| £ required | Description of costs | New headcount required (over and above departmental allocation) |
2017 | £180,000 | Staffing, overhead and project costs | 3 Fte |
2018 | £180,000 | Staffing, overhead and project costs | 3 Fte |
2019 | £180,000 | Staffing, overhead and project costs | 3 Fte |
Total | £540,000 | | |
Table 2:
Projects agreed to date
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Total over three-year period |
Projects agreed by COM on 9 November | £723,850 | £768,400 | £768,400 | £2,260,650 |
Total MTFP allocation over three year period | £4,950,000 |
Remaining allocation from central contingencies | £2,689,350 |
In addition to agreeing the nine initiatives set out in Section 2, the Council of Ministers also agreed to delegate to the Chief Minister the decision to request the Treasury and Resources Minister to fund other initiatives from the remaining contingency allocation (£ £2,689,350 in total). The Council agreed that, prior to making that request to the Treasury and Resources Minister, the Chief Minister should:
- consult with CAVA Ministers[2] about the initiatives to be funded from the remaining contingency allocation and
- review those initiatives against the IJCI recommendation, where required.
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