Senator Sam Mezec
Following the publication of yet another damming REPORT into Jersey's Children's Services, which was commissioned by the Jersey Care Commission (JCC), and conducted by Ofsted. A Press Conference was held by the JCC, and the States of Jersey separately on the same day and reported by VFC HERE. Following this Press Conference we requested and were granted an exclusive and in-depth interview with the island's first ever Children's Minister Senator Sam Mezec.
We were curious as to why he believes he is the best person for the job? With so many people supposedly being responsible for our children now, who does the buck stop with? How is he going to attract Social workers to our island? He tells us, among much more, that the "discriminatory housing rules" need to be looked at/changed in order to face this challenge.
This is part one, of a two part interview/Blog, where we hope the reader/viewer will gain a better understanding of the Minister's role and we thank the Minister for engaging with Citizens Media and answering some of the toughest questions he has been asked by any media.
Posed a question to the Senator on your previous post. Having voted for Sam as the only Senatorial candidate I felt able to support I hope he will try and answer it.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to Part 2. Questions are relevant. Answers are a bit aspirational but no doubt you will be repeating the questions at regular intervals.
ReplyDeleteEx Senator Syvret was hammered for exposing the truth 10 years ago. And everything he exposed is proving to be true. Senator Mezec hope you realise that you have got it easy in comparison.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the penny will drop soon that reforming children's services is just fiddling at the edges of the discredited "Jersey Way" that was flagged up by the Care Inquiry.
ReplyDeleteIf any aspect of Jersey life were dissected in like manner all Ministers would be queuing up with similar pledges to reform the policies and practices within their own TOR. The failure to "solve" the many problems that have arisen since the Liberation can be likened to the failures in children's care because they largely derive from similar failures to apply the knowledge that those employed - as professionals - to the tasks presented. There has been no shortage of "qualified" professional employed in children's services anymore or less than they have been employed in Planning. Yet we still have a worse housing shortage than that in 1949 when the Housing Law was enacted or in the 1960s when the "island Plans" were first dreamed up.
Sam Mezec here at long last is grappling with the absurdities of applying discriminatory housing policies - but he has not yet pronounced on the need to eliminate the discrimination for all residents of Jersey - not just key workers - as the Care Inquiry realised. The Care Inquiry noted that the worst housing which those without quals have endured since the Liberation is a direct cause of so much of the distress caused to so many children and their parents.
But that this failure extends too throughout Jersey institutions such as that of law needs also to be grasped now. The housing failures are just one of the many fundamental and complex elements that make up the failed "Jersey Way" and that is why somebody like Alan Collins' role over many years has been to expose the lamentable failures - as he continues so to do - that the Jersey's own lawyers have consistently overlooked or failed to respond to.
Much the same criticism can be made of neglect of the care of elderly people, or disabled persons or why we are confronted with radical change for so much that is interlinked.
Whether Charlie Parker has grasped the total need for change I do not know and whether his master plan is required, intended or designed to deal with the enormity of the problems I have no idea - but for certain, if is so intended I don't think the general public has yet grasped that message either.
Perhaps Part 2 of this interview will reveal more.
If they start relaxing Housing rules for Children's Social Workers then there will be demand for the same from Nurses, Doctors, Teachers and anybody else who feels left out.
ReplyDeleteThis is all easier said than done.
Regarding a couple of questions and replies on your previous post I think Sam will prove a good Children's Minister. I just wish he wouldn't come across as so uppity when asked valid questions on important matters like the Dual role saga and the legal abuse suffered by the Pitmans.
ReplyDelete