Off-Island Care Practitioner Requirements

​Request ​843017227

Around 20 children for whom the Government of Jersey is corporate parent are currently placed in off island care. The rationale often given for these placements is that they need specialist therapeutic care not available on island. 

I’m asking for information that lets the public test whether that rationale holds up. No child or practitioner needs to be named.

For each of the roughly 20 children off island, please provide, in respect of the lead psychotherapist or equivalent therapeutic professional working with them: 

1. Job title. 

2. Core qualification (e.g. DClinPsy, UKCP psychotherapist, BACP counsellor, BABCP CBT therapist, ACP child and adolescent psychotherapist, HCPC arts therapist). 

3. Regulator they are registered with, and whether registration is current. 

4. Any specialist accreditation relevant to the child’s needs (e.g. trauma, attachment, DDP, EMDR, systemic). 

5. Post-qualification years working with looked after or care experienced children. 

6. Frequency and length of sessions actually delivered in the last 12 months. 

7. If any individual children, of those children placed off island, have no regulated therapeutic professional working with them, please say so and explain reason why. 

8. If the information sits with the off-island provider rather than Jersey, please confirm whether the contract requires it to be reported back to Jersey as corporate parent. If not, why not?

Response

Questions 1-6. Information in relation to therapeutic professionals working with children in off island placements, is not held by the Scheduled Public Authority (SPA), please refer to the response to question 8. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 is applied.

7. There are some children who will be matched with off island providers due to reasons other than the need for specialist therapeutic intervention. This might include individual issues for the child, other specialist needs, or a shortfall in provision on island to meet the child’s needs, such as foster care.​

8. The contracts in place with off-island providers, do not require the information about professionals to be reported back to Jersey. The Government of Jersey, as corporate parent, gains assurance through these contracts which are designed to provide assurance through robust contract management, assurance and oversight arrangements. Where therapeutic services form part of the provision, providers are contractually required to ensure that these are delivered by appropriately qualified and registered practitioners, supported by effective supervision, training and governance, and in line with relevant professional and regulatory standards.

Article Applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.