FOCUS: Who's looking at Guernsey's child services?

Thursday 29 April 2021

An independent review into Guernsey’s Children and Family Community Services hasn’t been done for six years, despite watchdog Ofsted suggesting authorities should be inspected every three.

The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills routinely inspects local authorities and the services they provide to children and the wider community.

The last time Ofsted inspected children’s services in the Bailiwick of Guernsey was in 2017 when it undertook an inspection of the Family Proceedings Advisory Service.

This, however, was not a comprehensive inspection of all children’s services and was instigated by an independent report in 2015 led by Scottish Solicitor Kathleen Marshall. 

This report was commissioned by a past Scrutiny Committee in January 2015, five years after the implementation of the latest Children’s Law.

Pictured: The Children's Law 2008 came into effect in 2010.

The Bailiwick of Guernsey hadn’t made any major updates to its legislation on the rights of children in Guernsey for forty years prior to the implementation of the Children Law in January 2010.

It was decided that an update was required to keep the islands in line with the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of Child. It offers guiding principles on everything from the definition of a child to the role of a guardian.

Its implementation was not reviewed until two separate reports were called for in 2014 and 2015, the previously mentioned Marshall Report and a service diagnostic undertaken by the then-Health and Social Services Department, headed by interim Director Ruby Parry.

The Marshall Report was independent, focusing on the law itself, and the diagnostic was commissioned and run by the States of Guernsey. The Marshall Report had “sought to establish whether outcomes for children and their families had improved as a result of the implementation of the Children Law.”

“The Committee welcomes the publication of the Marshall Report; five years after the inception of the Children Law it was considered an appropriate point in time to review its implementation,” said the Chairman of Scrutiny at the time, ex-Deputy Robert Jones.

The report was undertaken by Ms Marshall and raised 21 recommendations relating to private and public law. Out of these 21 recommendations, Express has received confirmation that nine have been met directly. These include the recruitment of safeguarders beyond the social work profession, and the commission of regular external inspections of the safeguarder service.

Three recommendations have been met indirectly through the CYPP and a further nine have either not been met or are still being discussed. This includes the Child, Youth and Community Tribunal still not having a role in private law disputes involving children, and the proposal for an independent avenue of complaints - such as an ombudsman - not being acted upon in the years since. 

Pictured: The latest figures showing how many children are on the child protection register was shown in the States of Guernsey Facts & Figures Booklet, 2020.

The internal Parry diagnostic was nothing short of damning of children's service in the island, with Ms Parry concluding the following: “The service would be judged inadequate, due to the inability to evidence clear governance, the lack of outcomes, measures and performance data, the lack of senior leadership commitment to corporate parenting, and the lack of joint working to promote the welfare of children in need.”

The then-Minister for HSSD, former Deputy Paul Luxon, said at the time: “On receiving the report early this year, the Board agreed an action plan of 29 recommendations which officers from across HSSD and other departments are working towards delivering."

28 of these 29 recommendations have been completed to date, following a comprehensive action plan created after the report was released. The only remaining recommendation to be completed relates to the need for secondary legislation for care leavers.

You can read our breakdown of both the Marshall Report recommendations and the Parry diagnostic HERE.

Further work has been done in-island to assess and audit the Children Law 2008, and services for children in the Bailiwick, including the Children and Young People’s Plan released in 2016 and updated for 2019-2022.

Pictured: The Children and Young People's Plan has met a number of aims so far.

An independent inspection by Ofsted isn’t required by law, but following the Jersey Care Inquiry. It has however raised questions, following the fallout of such a damning investigation in our sister Channel Island, why Guernsey is not doing something similar?

The independent Jersey Care Inquiry was launched after ‘Operation Rectangle’ discovered historical abuse within various Jersey institutions. The panel was populated by three independent specialists and they published their findings in 2017.

The inquiry revealed a clearly broken system with many children “unlawfully plucked from their families and placed in care homes”. 

Express asked for clarification from the States of Guernsey on why we haven’t had a similar inquiry for so long.

“Ofsted is a UK regulator and whilst Guernsey aspires to Ofsted standards as best practice, our services are not governed by that body in the same way as large local authorities in the UK," they said. 

"The last independent review of Children & Family Community Services was commissioned in November 2014. Some excellent work came out of this diagnostic e.g the development and implementation of the Multi Agency Support Hub (MASH)."

The Multi-Agency Support Hub acts as a single point of entry for families and children in need who require assistance from different groups, from Guernsey Police to Children's Social Care.

Pictured: MASH offers an enquiry form online for people who have concerns about a child.

So, is there a problem? Do we need an independent review of children’s services in the Bailiwick of Guernsey? With nine of 21 recommendations in the Marshall Report ticked off in the last six years, and 28 of 29 in the Parry diagnostic fully undertaken, the department in charge now has no intention to instigate any further independent reviews.

"HSC does not intend to commission an independent review of children's services in the Bailiwick in the near future," said a spokesperson. "In view of the ongoing work that is being completed in this area, it would not be a good use of taxpayers' money to review a service where changes are likely to be made in the short to medium term."

Express spoke to several ex-Social Workers who think there are clear problems in procedures and management that are letting down families and children in the Bailiwick. Most did not want to be quoted, for fear of "repercussions".

"There is no regulatory body looking into the service here and the people in charge have no-one to answer to," said one of them. "There's a structure in the UK, nobody's perfect but at least there's a system in place."

Many of the issues facing the service revolve around a difficulty retaining social workers. In a statement, we've been told that "alternative recruitment strategies have been explored", which includes recruiting social workers from India and increasing the number of social workers trained on island.

Express has been told that the States continues to internally review and consult on the services provided to families and children in the Bailiwick, with the CYPP being referred to as a "living document".

However, with no independent review of children's services happening any time soon, it has raised concerns over who those services are accountable to, and what gets missed because of it?

"Guernsey is a small place," a social worker concluded. "It could be a model service."