19 February 2018
Children as young as three years old are being consulted as part of a major initiative from Jersey’s Children’s Commissioner to set her agenda and listen to young people across the Island.
Deborah McMillan started her new role as the first Children’s Commissioner for Jersey on 8 January and in order to ensure she prioritises the issues that are of the greatest importance to children and young people across Jersey, she has launched a public consultation to ask them for their views on what should be her areas of focus.
Online surveys have been specially developed to be available for children aged between three and 18, and Mrs McMillan’s team will also be meeting groups of children and young people across the Island to make sure they get as much input as possible. Once the Children’s Commissioner’s Office has the information, it will publish its strategic plan for the next three years.
Logo Competition
As well as the public consultation, the Children’s Commissioner is also launching a competition for children to design the logo for her Office.
The winner will receive £200 worth of vouchers, and all schools with competing entries will receive learning resources to help them to promote children’s rights. The winning logo will be included on all of the Children’s Commissioner’s publicity materials. The logo design should tell a story of what is important for young people in Jersey and can be drawn, painted or digitally created.
Mrs McMillan said: “We want to make sure that the areas we focus on are the areas that are of the greatest concern to children and young people – especially those children and young people who might not normally have a voice, or have an opportunity to have a say on issues that affect them. We need them to tell us what we should be prioritising. We also want to make sure that our office reflects input from children and young people in all areas of our work – so we want children to design our logo for us. I have already spoken to some school children about this competition during my school visits and they were very excited, so I’m hoping we get a really good response.”
The role of the Children’s Commissioner will be explicitly focused on the promotion and protection of children’s rights and will be underpinned by the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The Commissioner will be encouraging and supporting all schools in Jersey to become Rights Respecting Schools.
The Children’s Commissioner for Jersey will:
- support children and young people to find out about children’s rights
- listen to children and young people to find out what’s important to them
- advise children, young people and those who care for them if they feel they’ve got nowhere else to go with their problems
- influence government and other organisations who have a responsibility for making a difference to children’s lives, making sure they keep their promises to children and young people
- speak up for children and young people on important issues – the Commissioner will be the children’s champion
Consultation surveys
The consultation surveys are available online from 19 February – 16 March and can be accessed via the following links:
For ages 3 - 7
For ages 7 - 11
For ages 11 - 18
For adults
Surveys are also available in Polish and Portuguese, and can be accessed by contacting the Children’s Commissioner’s Office.
Competition details
The logo competition is open to all children and young people aged 18 years and under. One entry per person.
- Entries to be received by Friday 9 March 2018.
- Designs to be delivered to: The Office of the Children’s Commissioner, 2nd Floor 23 Hill Street, St Helier JE2 4UA or sent by email to: D.McMillan@gov.je
- Judging and final decision by the Youth Advisory Panel.
- Every school who sends an entry on children’s behalf will receive a Children’s Rights Resource Pack.
- £200 prize - awarded to the winning individual in the form of a voucher, tailored to winners interests.
gov.je