Jersey Care Commission/Ofsted Report.

The Jersey Care Commission (JCC) was set up in the wake of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry (IJCI) but quite what its remit is is a little of a mystery as yet. There is little information online and as it is still relatively young, it does not, as yet, have its own website. JCC invited Ofsted to inspect Jersey's Child Care system, which it has done, and produced another damming report. The report isn't online yet so we will publish a link when it becomes available.

This morning JCC held a Press conference presenting the report and to answer questions from the media and the public. VFC went down on the off-chance they may be allowed entry and film the Conference. We are pleased to say we were made to feel extremely welcome and the Commission members were very accommodating, appeared enthusiastic, open and transparent about their work. This in itself could hopefully be part of the cultural change so badly needed in Jersey where those who question authority have been marginalised and pushed to the sidelines. Bloggers and Social Media publishers are now being recognised as legitimate commentators? The JCC is independent of the States and pretty much of Jersey so may be it is just them who are so accommodating at Press Conferences? We did film the entire Press Conference and will look to publish the video to Youtube.

When more information, and the report, become available we shall publish it.

In the meantime below is a short video of VFC asking a few questions of the Commission's Chairman.







Directly after the JCC there was a Press Conference held by, among others, Children's Minister Senator Sam Mezec, and Chief Minister Senator John Le Fondre. They want all States Members to sign a pledge to children which consists of 8 commitments.

The Pledge to Jersey’s Children and Young People has eight specific commitments:

1. We will listen directly to children and young people and involve them in how we design, deliver and review our services
2. We will provide integrated support for families that need extra help caring for their children
3. We will provide all children in our care with access to a safe, loving, secure home environment
4. 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
5. We will recruit and retain a child-centred, stable, highly professional workforce
6. 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
7. We will ensure that sufficient funding is available to be effective and that any regulatory and legislative changes needed will be progressed swiftly
8. We will set and publish clear standards and we will be held publicly to account for achieving them.

VFC was also welcomed to film and ask questions at this conference, again, we filmed the entire Conference and will look to publish the full version on Youtube.

Below is a video of questions asked by VFC.