09 November 2022
The Minister for Children and Education, Deputy Inna Gardiner, has today published an update on her progress against the priorities she announced when taking office.
In the last four months, the Minister has:
- Ringfenced £1.6 million to provide nutritious school meals, subject to approval by the States Assembly
- Worked with children and young people to agree guidelines on how they can be meaningfully included in Government decision-making
- Ringfenced £6.5 million to improve Children’s Social Care, and £6.1 million to fund inclusion measures in schools, subject to approval from the States Assembly
- Announced a 10.1% increase in Student Finance maintenance grants for all independent students studying at university or college
- Published a Town Primary School Review and Funding Formula for Schools
- Published a Workforce Strategy and Action Plan to increase recruitment and retention in key service areas, including teaching and children’s social care
Minister for Children and Education, Deputy Inna Gardiner, said: “When this Council of Ministers took office, we pledged to work quickly to address some of the key issues facing Islanders. For me, this has included immediate issues like the maintenance of our school buildings and securing funding for school meals.
“It has also included laying the groundwork for future improvements, like making sure we attract and retain the best staff to support children and families; including children and young people in decision-making; and identifying new sites for a future St Helier primary school.
“Myself and my Assistant Ministers, Deputy Doublet and Connétable Vibert, have been supported by dozens of officers from CYPES who have offered information, guidance and balance as we have put these plans into action. My Assistant Ministers would join me in thanking them for their outstanding effort during this period.
“While this Government still has three and half years to continue its work, I am confident that our work in the first four months will kick-start improvements to the services we offer children, families and young people.”
An update on each action is available below:
Introduce legislation and funding to ensure that children have access to one meal a day in school
£1.6 million per year has been ringfenced in the Government Plan 2023 – 2026 to deliver school meals.
Develop and start the implementation of a participation and engagement plan for children and young people
The
Participation Standards for Jersey were developed in collaboration with over 200 children, young people and professionals at a workshop held on 30 September.
The
Standards have been published. Work on a toolkit and training for Government of Jersey is ongoing and is due to be completed in early 2023.
Develop a workforce strategy and action plan
A
progress report highlighting the key workforce challenges has been released by the Minister. This has been informed by meetings with staff and headteachers to understand their concerns.
A Delivery Unit team has been stood up to ensure that the ambitions of the strategy and action plan are met. A senior leadership oversight group will meet every five weeks to monitor and drive progress.
Develop a Community Partnership
The Minister for Children and Education will work with SoJP and colleagues across Government to identify and assess strategic and operational issues relating to missing young persons and anti-social behaviour.
The
Terms of Reference for the group have been published online.
Finalise the Government Plan Priorities
The
Government Plan 2023-2026 has been lodged and is due to be debated in December. Proposed Ministerial Plans have also been published.
Maintenance for schools estates and update on Greenfields
Phase 2 of the Les Quennevais cooling works was completed for in September for the start of this academic year. This included an additional 24 rooms been fitted with air conditioning. Scoping work is currently being undertaken for a further 19 rooms to be completed in Phase 3.
Significant work has been undertaken at Greenfields during the last 100 days to address the recent improvement notices. This includes introducing a young person’s guide, the appointment of new staff, a programme of repairs and improvements, and individual education packages to meet young people’s needs.
Since March 2022, we have improved eight out of 12 areas identified for improvement, with one additional area identified.
Finalise the implementation plan for the CAMHS Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan
The
Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Strategy has been published online.
The service has continued to improve over the last six months, including increasing the number of staff from 21 in mid-2021 to 56 currently. These developments will be outlined in the response to the recent C&AG report. The implementation plan will be published by early 2023.
Publish a reviewed funding formula for schools
The funding formula has been published on the Government of Jersey website.
Finalise the St Helier primary school estate report, to be presented to the States Assembly
This
report was published on the Government of Jersey website on 20 October.
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