The Jersey Way revisited May 2019 - Review of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry of 2017

Frances Oldham QC, Alyson Leslie and Prof Alex Cameron were back in Jersey again this last week to see and hear what progress had been made in implementing their mammoth 2017 Report of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry.
Whether they originally intended to be revisiting Jersey I do not know but there were suggestions during the week that they might have to come back in another two years or even again in five years. It is almost as though there is an acceptance that they will have to keep returning because the Jersey authorities and public are simply incapable of doing what is necessary.

The “Jersey Way” it seems is just so deeply embedded that ONLY outsiders can oversee the reform process and create a society that embraces child welfare as the priority that is alluded to but not really taken very seriously.

Can this be so?

I don’t know the answer and don’t expect to see the project completed anymore than the three panel members can be the long term promoters and referees for this immense reform process. But as some small contribution to that process I include here my three video recordings made during this week and hope that these might be useful to some interested parties. Although the panel said they had received over 200 responses from the public for this visit the visible attendance at the public hearings was so minimal that this whole subject does not appear to be of much interest to the public in general or even Jersey’s elected politicians who have now been awarded the strange title and duty of “Corporate Parent.”

We were not allowed to video record any of the public hearings

Below Prof Alex Cameron - an interview

Below Alan Collins - an interview

Below Senator John Le Fondre, Chief Minister, Jersey Government - an interview

Jersey May 2019