NEW plans to restructure Social Services to help identify vulnerable children and families in need will be implemented in a matter of weeks, according to the newly appointed Health Minister.
A detailed plan on how the States will deliver recommendations made to improve Jersey’s child protection services has been approved by the Council of Ministers. UK expert Professor Andrew Williamson made 11 recommendations, which included appointing a minister for children and a whistle-blowing policy.
Senator Jim Perchard (pictured) would not say what the Williamson Implementation Plan would involve until it is lodged in the States, but he did reveal that one of the main changes would be the introduction of a children’s directorate. The news comes after three bad cases of child neglect and abuse by parents came before the Magistrate’s Court recently.
This week, two parents were sentenced to community service for subjecting their sons to systemic neglect and forcing them to live in filthy conditions. Senator Perchard, who was formerly Assistant Health Minister, said that the new plans would help identify families and children in need in order to break the cycle of abuse. ‘There is a social underclass in Jersey, and I am aware of that. This plan recognises this and will address it,’ he said.
