“As another victim of the system, Deputy St Pier sadly truly understands the ordeal we have been through and showed a great deal of integrity and compassion in highlighting our case to the States Chamber,” said the families in an anonymised statement. 

Deputy St Pier said he was saddened to find out that the families felt the need to speak out. 

“I am humbled by the families’ public expression of personal support for me, which I did not expect,” he said. 

“Frankly, they have more than enough on their plates caring for their children and I know that they were understandably concerned about talking to the media, and the possible consequences for them in doing so.” 

You can read the remainder of his statement in full below: 

“The Learning Report was completed two years ago, following an independent expert investigation commissioned solely by the Responsible Officer, Dr Peter Rabey, following concerns raised with him. It wasn’t until November 2022, 15 months later, that the families managed to secure a meeting with those whose job it is to implement the recommendations. Meaningful work to implement those recommendations did not begin until the beginning of this year, leaving a very worrying time lag between receiving the report and taking action. Whilst it appears that progress is now being made, it has to be recognised that changing processes is not enough. A systemic change in culture and behaviours is required, which is much more challenging and will need determined leadership.  

“MSG’s responses are hard to understand. When the families have said they are afraid of speaking out ‘for fear that their child’s medical treatment will suffer as a result,’ which is exactly what we felt as a family, it’s insufficient to state that there is ‘no way’ that would be the case. There is a power imbalance inherent in any patient-doctor relationship but more importantly it simply does not reflect the lived experience of the families concerned.  

“Whilst there are undoubtedly excellent individual clinicians in the MSG, there does not appear to be any organisational will or capacity to learn. Dr Evans, as Chair, sadly appears to sum up the MSG’s priority as an organisation when saying that the MSG has a responsibility ‘to stand up for our partners.’ What about the children’s outcomes and families’ experiences? Regardless of the personalities or detail of individual cases, I continue to have more families contacting me with deeply worrying and harrowing experiences. “I shall therefore continue to speak up on behalf of those who have found that the system does not afford them an equal voice, in order to represent their interests, for so long as they wish me to do so. I urge those in positions of responsibility and accountability to urgently progress deep cultural and systemic change, so that patient experiences improve permanently.” 

Pictured: Dr Steve Evans - Chair of the MSG - has responded to Deputy St Pier's letter.

In response to Deputy St Pier's above letter, the Chair of the MSG, Steve Evans, said he doesn't want to engage in a protracted public debate but has to challenge two points.

"Deputy St Pier has taken out of context an answer I gave to a specific question in a media interview about why we are standing up for our partners and implied that we don't care about children's outcomes and their families' experiences," he said.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. At the MSG, the needs of our patients come first, always. One of the main reasons we spoke out about the Privileges Panel's findings was to try and mitigate the damage that Deputy St Pier's statement in the States has done to the safeguarding service which plays such a key role in looking after vulnerable children in need of help, care and support. 

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