Care memorial (FOI)

Request

With regard to the controversial £200k Care Memorial for the Weighbridge which the Children's Minister has decided to go ahead with despite objections from a Petition containing thousands of islanders signatures. I would like to know

A

How much money has been spent on this project to date, and

B

If the project is ever dropped whether the monies spent can ever be replenished?

Response

A

The Care Memorial is the first of the four elements of the Legacy Project recommended by the Citizens Panel and accepted by the Council of Ministers:

1. Memorial

2. Jersey Children’s Day

3. Help and support for victims / survivors and their families

4. An emblem.

These recommendations, together with a description of the initial process which was followed, have previously been published in Jersey Citizens Panel 2018 Final Report, available at the following link:

Jersey Citizens Panel 2018 report

It is not possible to allocate the costs of progressing individual elements of the Legacy Project within the total cost of the Citizens Panel process.

The cost of the Citizens Panel process to the end of May 2019 was released in response to the following FOI request:

Care Inquiry Citizen’s Panel (FOI) 27 June 2019

Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

The cost of the Citizens Panel process from June 2019 to the end of October 2020 was: £42,485.

These figures above do not include any funds allocated / spent by the Department for Children, Young People Education and Skills (CYPES) for the planning and delivery of Jersey Children’s Day, which is the second element of the Citizens Panel’s Legacy Project.

B

Following the publication of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry report in 2017 it has been the policy of the Council of Ministers to implement the Inquiry’s recommendations. This includes the Recommendation 8b:

“We also recommend that there is some form of tangible public acknowledgement of those that have been ill served by the care system over many decades. This should allow experiences of those generations of Jersey children whose lives and suffering worsened because of failures in the care system to be respected and honoured in decades to come. The form of this acknowledgement will need to take into account the views of survivors and the medium or approach adopted must recognise the realities of the past and speak to the future aspirations of the Island’s looked after children.” [Executive Summary: 13.22]

The approach selected to progressing Recommendation 8b was to convene a Citizens Panel:

“It is proposed that a Citizen Panel is commissioned to develop preferred options for a memorial, which will ensure survivors can be respected and honoured in decades to come. The Panel will be made up of approximately 20 to 25 participants, who will assemble and participate in approximately 5 workshops to discuss the issue and produce a collective recommendation…The Panel would present its recommendations to the Council of Ministers.” [P.108/2017: Para. 14.6 p.29]

The cost of the Citizens Panel process has been met from public funds.

Public funds are replenished through the collection of taxes, contributions, duties, fines, fees and other charges as well as interest and investment income. More information about public revenue can be found in the States of Jersey’s Annual Report and Accounts:

Historic annual report and accounts for the States of Jersey

Articles applied

Article 23 Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.