Proposed Budget (Government Plan) 2026-2029 (P.70/2025): eighth amendment (P.70/2025 Amd.(8)) – comments. Sport addition to Jersey Premium
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STATES OF JERSEY
PROPOSED BUDGET (GOVERNMENT PLAN) 2026-2029 (P.70/2025): EIGHTH AMENDMENT (P.70/2025 AMD.(8)) – COMMENTS
Presented to the States on 4th December 2025 by the Council of Ministers
STATES GREFFE
2025 P.70 Amd.(8) Com.
COMMENTS
The Council of Ministers urges States Members to reject this Amendment. Sport is already a key part of a broad and balanced school curriculum for all groups of children and young people. In addition, the transfer of funds would reduce money available for charities that have needed to rely on the Chief Minister's pilot fund in emergency situations, to maintain their services during periods of unforeseen changes to their cash flow.
The Government's response to (P.70/2025 (Amd.(10)) will include the establishment of a roadmap which considers a number of health improvement opportunities. These will focus on disease prevention including exercise, nutrition, and mental wellbeing from childhood onwards. The intended benefits of this amendment (P.70/2025 Amd.(8)) will be considered within the scope of this roadmap.
Background
The Amendment proposes that this new service be funded from the Chief Minister's pilot fund. In recent years, it has been used to maintain the important services of charities such as Salvation Army, Butterfly Cafe, Brighter Futures and Sanctuary Trust. In these cases, the need for funding has been a reaction to unforeseen events and for short-term alleviation of cash flow problems. By comparison, this Amendment would be a proactive policy choice to extend services and does not identify a long-term funding allocation, so would raise the expectation of funding pressures elsewhere after the end of the second year.
Rationale for Rejecting the Amendment
Improving access to the high-quality teaching of physical education and physical literacy for all children and young people is an area that Ministers recognise as a continued priority. However, the Council of Ministers and the Ministers for Education and Lifelong Learning and Health contend that further consideration is needed with reference to current policy and practise in sport and healthy living in order to ensure the best impact of any new policy and funding, both for pupils eligible for Jersey Premium and for all other pupil groups.
It would be necessary, within these considerations, to include standard definitions and quality assurance of strategies for implementation, quality of teaching, valid data collection for accountability measures and the minimisation of school level inequities.
Whilst it is the case that funding may support access to a wider range of sporting activity and opportunity; it does not automatically ensure high-quality, inclusive, sustainable sports education or lifelong physical activity.
A recent report in England by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) notes that, even after years of PE and Sport Premium funding, many primary school teachers still report low confidence in teaching PE: only 56% said they felt confident; about 15% said they did not feel confident. That suggests that universal funding has not uniformly improved staff capability as intended.
Conclusion
We recognise the intended benefits of the proposal for the reasons given above and will continue to work with colleagues in public health in this area.
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P.70/2025 Amd.(8) Com.