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Jersey

Jersey	Simeon	29 Aug 07
Re: Jersey	Paula	30 Aug 07
Re: Jersey	maria.ahmed@rbi.co.uk	30 Aug 07
Regular inspection is the answer	Dave Woodward	7 Sep 07
Re: Regular inspection is the answer	Darren Mutter	7 Sep 07
Re: Jersey	William Emslie	7 Sep 07
Re: Jersey	tony b	26 Feb 08

Subject	Jersey
Author	Simeon
Date	8/29/2007 2:03 PM
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Social worker Simon Bellwood will be on hand to answer questions about the Jersey affair on the discussion forum this morning. Post your questions about his experience of whistleblowing and his perspective on events in Jersey here. Reply To This Comment Report this post to a moderator
Subject	Re: Jersey
Author	Paula
Date	8/30/2007 10:26 AM
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Hi Simon, it's really good that people like you are willing to stand up and say what has to be said. What kind of reaction have you had to the story? Reply To This Comment Report this post to a moderator
Subject	Re: Jersey
Author	maria.ahmed@rbi.co.uk
Date	8/30/2007 11:42 AM
Email	maria.ahmed@rbi.co.uk
From Simon Bellwood Thank you for your kind words of support, Paula. I haven't really experienced a reaction to the story as yet, apart from the Jersey press wanting to speak with me. I am anxious that local politicians will be strongly displeased however I am prepared for the consequences. I just hope that the true friends who have shown me loyal support over the past months will not be turned against me by the publicity. I feel comforted by the fact that routine single separation or solitary confinement will never be used again in Jersey as a punishment for vulnerable children and young people or to ensure their compliant behaviour. Reply To This Comment Report this post to a moderator
Subject	Regular inspection is the answer
Author	Dave Woodward
Date	9/7/2007 3:50 PM
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The editorial regarding residential services for children in Jersey is spot on. The Jersey government and social services can tie itself in knots with independent inquiries while missing the obvious. It is ongoing regulation of child care services by Ofsted it requires, not one-off reports which, after completion, revert to internal monitoring processes. Other Jersey government departments such as probation and prisons receive regular inspections by Her Majesty¹s inspectorates from the UK, so why not child care? Without them it will leave children, staff, [and now it seems politicians!] at risk. I am certain individual staff in Jersey are competent and dedicated to the profession and I would hate them to feel responsible for a situation not of their making. However, if the Jersey minister gets the sack for raising concerns about child care practice, what message does this give to staff who may need to ³blow the whistle² on poor childcare practices when they find it? Not good I say. So well done Simon Bellwood. He should get some sort of social work medal not the sack! Dave Woodward Social worker Reply To This Comment Report this post to a moderator
Subject	Re: Regular inspection is the answer
Author	Darren Mutter
Date	9/7/2007 3:51 PM
Email
I worked as a social worker with the child protection team in Jersey between 2004-2005 and now live back in the UK. While there I found the team to be dedicated, experienced and committed. I felt practice was of a high standard and that it was also child centred at all times. I did not feel that there was a culture whereby I could not speak out if I felt that practice was dangerous or inadequate. It is true to say that some procedures were not as good as they might have been, but I would say that this is true for all authorities to a greater or lesser extent. One of your sources says that care homes are overcrowded and under-staffed. This article will serve to demoralise the staff in Jersey so it is important to stress this is a resource issue and does not reflect on the quality of staff or their practice. I am positive that there is hardly a social worker in child care in the UK that would not say they are under-resourced or under-staffed I count myself in that. The front-line staff on Jersey work to the best of their ability with the resources they have and as far as my experience goes, they do this very well. As for the idea of staff being "isolated by the establishment" for speaking out, I find this difficult to reconcile with my own experience as I have never before worked somewhere where I felt so close to the higher echelons of the department, more able to influence practice and more respected. Unlike in the UK where it is easy to feel the weight of the establishment bearing down on you as an employee, on Jersey there was no sense of a "them and us" attitude. Darren Mutter Senior social worker Reply To This Comment Report this post to a moderator
Subject	Re: Jersey
Author	William Emslie
Date	9/7/2007 4:06 PM
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Jersey Senator Stuart Syvret should be congratulated for his quest to root out poor practice in Jersey's care system. Twenty years ago, as a young graduate social worker, I worked at Heathfield, one of the homes recommended for closure by the 2002 Kathie Bull report. Our team had taken on the legacy of Haut De La Garenne - a monolithic children's home staffed by caring but mainly untrained, unqualified staff. There, solitary confinement, corporal punishment and many other dubious practices were rife. On its closure, those young people deemed 'workable' were farmed out to oster carers and so-called Family Group Homes (that's another story) leaving us at Heathfild with a residue of damaged, institutionalised adolescents. I like to think that we (staff and young people together) broke the mould. After two years, we had a small community of 'unplacable' kids who had a real investment in their home. I'm honoured still to be in contact with many of them. Some have mental health, offending, drug and alcohol issues as adults; few have meaningful academic qualifications. Most, however, are leading productive lives with decent jobs and families of their own. All have their own stories to tell. In 1989, I moved to West Yorkshire to take up a role in Youth Justice. There, I helped to develop, amongst other strategies, a remand fostering service for Kirklees Council. I later became a foster carer myself. At that time, the practice of solitary confinement of children in Staffordshire (which became known as 'Pindown') was roundly condemned by influential child-care professionals. I later saw the implementation of the 1989 Children Act, with all its talk of partnership and child advocacy. The future looked bright and enlightened. The problem is that legislation changes nothing. Here we are, twenty years on and, let's face it, nothing has changed. Children are still demonised. Abuse is still sanctioned by the care system. Britain still locks up more young people at a younger age than most of our European neighbours. Let's not get the idea that Jersey is an outback of repressive practice. The issues are the same here as they are in the UK; the only difference is that we have a bold politician like Stuart Syvret prepared to champion the cause of child protection. The waves could be far reaching, if others in the Social Care system are brave enough to allow them to reach the shores of good practice. Let's hope that Andrew Williamson's review of child care services in Jersey will move the tide forward. Somehow I doubt it, though. And it will achieve nothing unless those UK professionals in their ivory towers of politically correct good practice sit up and listen to the lessons learned from Jersey's disaffected youth. William Emslie Reply To This Comment Report this post to a moderator
Subject	Re: Jersey
Author	tony b
Date	2/26/2008 3:16 PM
Email
William, What you say is really interesting. I would love to chat to you some more. If you have the time, please e-mail me at tony.brown@bbc.co.uk. There is no point in being dishonest with you, I am a producer for BBC News and am working on the current Jersey story. Even if you just want to have a chat, that would be great. Thanks, Tony Reply To This Comment Report this post to a moderator