Letter - Children, Education and Home Affairs Panel - Care Commission re Regulation of Children's Homes - 1 June 2020

Published on: 1 June 2020

Panel: Children, Education and Home Affairs Panel

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2nd Floor, 23 Hill Street Deputy R. Ward St Helier, Jersey Chairman, Education and Home Affairs JE2 4UA Scrutiny Panel

Scrutiny Office

States Greffe

Morier House

St Helier

JE1 1DD

By email: Committee and Panel Officer, Andy Harris [email protected]

1 June 2020

Dear Deputy Ward ,

Thank you for the opportunity to provide the panel with an update on our oversight and regulation of children's residential care homes during the pandemic.

The Commission is committed to providing an independent assurance that the Island's children's homes are carried on and managed in accordance with the regulations and care standards.

While routine inspection visits have not been possible, a range of other regulatory activities have been undertaken. These include the analysis of notifications of incidents reported to the Commission by the homes' managers, analysis of monthly reports completed by the Independent Visitor, regular support calls to managers and correspondence with the Director General, (CYPES) Mark Rogers, and the Director and Chief Social Worker (Children and Families), Mark Owers on a range of matters including staffing, registration and capacity.

The Chief Inspector has recently written to the providers and managers of all regulated activities to advise that the programme of scheduled inspections is under review and will be reinstated, as soon as possible. This will require careful planning and strict adherence to the necessary infection prevention and control procedures in place across all regulated activities. The Commission will be prioritising the inspection of children's residential care homes and aim to ensure that all seven homes will have an inspection before the end of the year.

I hope this is a helpful update and I would be happy to participate in a Teams Meeting should you wish to discuss these matters in more detail. I would ask that this is arranged with Audrey Murphy, Chief Inspector, Email: [email protected] Tel: 07700 714842 and Regulation Officer Geoff Gurney; email: [email protected] Tel: 07797 930895.

Your sincerely,

Glenn Houston

Chair, Jersey Care Commission

States Greffe: Scrutiny Glenn Houston

Care Commissioner

By email: [email protected]

29th May 2020 Dear Glenn,

I write on behalf of the Education and Home Affairs Panel in relation to the regulation of children's residential homes during the Covid-19 outbreak.

As you will be aware, the States Assembly adopted P.26/2020 Draft Regulation of Care (Standards and Requirements) (Covid-19 Temporary Amendment) (Jersey) Regulations 202- on 24th March 2020. Whilst the overall focus of the Regulations was on the ability to regulate care and residential homes during the Covid-19 outbreak, it is noted that the Regulations also govern the inspection process and regulation of children's residential homes. At the time of the proposition being lodged, the Panel undertook some consultation with Jersey Cares and received a number of concerns in relation to the proposals, namely the possibility that there could be no physical inspection of children's residential premises for an extended period.

I should be clear that given the context of the Covid-19 outbreak this position is understood by the Panel. I would, however, be grateful if you could provide an overview of the plans you either have in place, or may be developing, in order to ensure that inspection process for children's residential homes is able to be carried out effectively during the Covid-19 outbreak. Given the historical failings that have been raised in relation to children's residential homes, the Panel would like assurances that any inspections are being suitably prioritised at this time.

I would be grateful of a response in writing in the first instance, however, if you would like to speak to the Panel, please let our Committee and Panel Officer (Andy Harris [email protected]) know and he will make the necessary arrangements for a meeting via Microsoft Teams.

If you have any questions please direct them to Andy and I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Deputy R. Ward

Chairman, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel

Website: statesassembly.gov.je/scrutiny