The Social Work Blog

Battle

The source wanted to remain anonymous for “fear of reprisals” and would not give a name – a scenario that was repeated by several other individuals over the next couple of days.

The first source advised me to contact Jersey’s then health and social services minister Stuart Syvret. I followed this up, expecting the usual “no comment” from a government representative. I was unprepared for the deluge that followed. Syvret, it became clear, was locked in a battle for his political life after raising child protection concerns on the island and was desperate for a listening ear.

Strikingly similar concerns

While trying to sort the factual wheat from the political chaff, I discovered that UK social worker Simon Bellwood claimed he was sacked after criticising an "abusive" practice of placing children as young as 11 in solitary confinement for 24 hours or more at a secure unit on Jersey. After “chewing it over” Bellwood agreed to go public in Community Care, despite the fact he had an employment tribunal coming up. It is testament to the strength of Bellwood’s conviction that he chose to do so.

Other sources then began to ring me from the UK and Jersey, with strikingly similar concerns about children’s services on the island.

A week into my research, the Jersey government announced they were doing an independent inquiry into children’s services, just as they prepared a vote of no confidence against Syvret. Syvret claims both moves were designed to silence him. In response to my story, Jersey officials denied there had been "abusive" practice, although they admitted the system of solitary confinement criticised by Bellwood had been used historically. They denied claims that child protection on the island was failing.

Since then, Syvret was sacked from his ministerial post but like fellow whistleblower Bellwood, refused to remain silent. But both were lone voices up against a wall of denial until the recent discovery of a child’s remains at a former children’s home.

Chilling echoes

The shocking discovery at Haut de la Garenne sheds a whole new unwelcome light on the concerns originally reported to me. My first source was tragically wrong in part: another Victoria Climbie case was not waiting to happen – something along cruelly similar lines already had, on what seem to be devastating proportions. More and more witnesses – around 150 to date – are coming forward with horrific stories of sexual and physical abuse at the home.

As the current police investigation unfolds, there are chilling echoes of Bellwood and Syvret’s original concerns. Bellwood raised the alarm over an “abusive” system of solitary confinement that was being used until recently; Syvret claimed a culture of cover-up. Both Bellwood and Syvret were whistleblowers isolated by the Jersey establishment.

According to the latest evidence, children at Haut de la Garenne were abused in the most shocking way in solitary confinement. And this has only come to light decades on, raising questions about who knew what in the Jersey establishment, and why it was not dealt with.

What began with an anonymous phone call from one concerned individual has tragically snowballed into something of unimaginable horror. It is now time for the Jersey establishment to listen to all concerned - the whistleblowers as well as the victims - and admit that it has failed to protect its children.

Read all Community Care's coverage of the Jersey case