Children's Commissioners Annual Report 2020

20  Annual

20 Report Children'sfor Jersey Commissioner

R.61/2021

FOREWORD

Sometimes it can seem like a lot to ask when you look at the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It sets out what life should be like for all children in a perfect world. And yet every day, we are reminded that we don't

live in a perfect world – nobody does.

This makes it all too easy for us to get discouraged. Because it is only natural, when faced with a big list of goals, to focus on the things that are still left to do – the long road that has yet to be travelled before Jersey can become that perfect place, where children's rights are at the heart of each and every part of our lives.

But let's look instead at how far we've already come, and let's listen to the United Nations' advice that we should see the UNCRC as a continuum' – a journey, in other words, where every step is a step further towards children's rights being fulfilled, protected and respected all of the time.

The Government of Jersey must, of course, take steps to achieve the full realisation of all children's rights. And while I recognise that the Government cannot realise all children's rights immediately, and that some things may take longer to do, they must do it as fast as possible.

We must not think of the UNCRC as some distant place that we will one day reach and then everything will be perfect. We should think of it instead as a star to steer by – something to always watch and be aware of, so that we can keep on course and get ever closer to where we want to be.

And never has that idea seemed clearer to me than it did last year, when the world was plunged into confusion and worry by the Covid-19 pandemic. Everything was tested – our resilience, our courage, our determination to work together as a community. And, of course, our willingness to make sure that, even in times of emergency, children's rights were at the forefront of our minds.

I saw just how far Jersey has travelled along the road of the UNCRC, as schools put into practice the principles they have spent the last three years working towards in the Rights Respecting Schools programme.

I saw it, too, in the way we were able to work with Government in keeping children's rights at the heart of their decisions, even when new rules and regulations were being introduced at lightning speed.

Most of all, though, I saw it in the way our children and young people rose to the challenges of the pandemic. They accepted the restrictions and disruptions in their lives without complaint, and often went above and beyond what was asked of them.

Rights are really important, especially during a major pandemic. I will continue to ensure that the rights of children and young people are at the heart of all I do, and I will demonstrate fearless leadership to seek to protect children's rights even when it is difficult. That means that I will champion what I know to be right, because that is what the children and young people of Jersey have asked me to do.

Deborah McMillan,

The Children's Commissioner for Jersey

A YEAR OF DISRUPTION

The Covid-19 pandemic is the one thing that we will all remember 2020 for. Even now, just a year on, it already seems surreal. Those first text messages from the Government, telling us to stay at home. Those first Zoom lessons

and meetings. And all of those empty supermarket shelves Who knew that bottles of hand sanitiser and rolls of loo paper would suddenly become the most

sought-after items in the Island?

But despite all the strangeness and the disruption, all the worry and the heartache, we all still did our best to get on with it.

For us, in the Office of the Children's Commissioner, this meant adapting very quickly and – most of all – listening to what the children and young people of our Island were telling us.

We dropped pretty much all of our planned work (something we talk about later in this report; but if you want the full, detailed story on our rearranged 2020 work programme, then click here). And we threw ourselves into the effort to ensure that the pandemic didn't sweep children's rights off the table along with everything else.

To make it easier for you to see at a glance the work we did as the Covid-19 pandemic developed and gathered pace, we have constructed a Covid Timeline of the whole of last year.

Turn the page and take a look

3

COVID TIMELINE

Comment on the child rights impact assessment around

school closurSince the begiesnning of November there have been 68 confirmed  I f l lazy and unmoti ted, pWuhpiillsCt OblVanIDk ect a  ss echs oino Jl e c rl so es yu sre chs  ow oo lsu ald n i dm 1p 0a c Ct O a Vp Ip Dr o cax sim esa ft oe rl y s  taff.  I f l bored and tired. 15,000 children in Jersey, building flexibility into school provision

would offer a way to reduce anxieties while still providing a safe

and supportive learning environment.'

Government announces charges for children to attend

the Urgent Treatment Centre established to reduce

the burden on the Emergency Department during

the pandemic. Government then reversed the decision. Channel 103: The government has reversed its decision to charge people without a GP more for non-Covid care at the Urgent Treatment Centre.

It follows criticism, including from the Children's Commissioner who called the extra £20 direct discrimination and a breach of children's rights.

Our joint survey of the Island's children and young people closes with more than 2,000 responses.

Survey findings made public, and Commissioner briefs Government Ministers and officials on recommended next steps.

Advice to Education Minister on rights considerations of a return to classroom-based learning

From a child rights point of view, it is an ongoing balancing act: trading off the right to an education and all the social and developmental needs that this involves, with the stark and immediate right to life and survival.' click here

ITV: Jersey's Children's Commissioner is going to monitor the return to school of the island's children to ensure education bosses are properly looking after their wellbeing.

In a direct message to young people, the Children's Commissioner Deborah McMillan said:

Education was a big theme, both in terms of worries about missed time in the classroom and also the excitement and trepidation about the return to school.

As Children's Commissioner, I will continue to monitor the way that the Government supports you and respects your rights. I will make sure that you have time to adapt to each stage of this process as it happens, and that you have all the help and information you need along the way.'

click here

 Learning home isn t the same.  JEP: Lockdown has led to a spike in divorce rates – with

I am stressed crying over silly  fdeoawrsntshdatucrihnigldtrhene Caroevbide-i1n9g cursiseids. aCsh iplda wCon ms'imn irsesliaotnioenr:s  hip break- things. And shouting at my sister.  rcIihtg aihsl tlces r nudgcuiirnainlglygs  iit mthu pias otdi roi tfnafinsc tua stlth aaarnte dwsudeli tcsoroufn ptthtinievu eCepotevori dimo-d1o'9n iptoanr dcheimldirce.n's

It is inevitable that some parents will find themselves faced with

In moments like these, children's rights are often at risk,

"

especially those that relate specifically to Articles 10 and 18 of

the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which set out S C A R E D I ' L L B E V E R Y F A R B E H I N D the rights to see family in another country and to be brought

A N D O B V I O U S L Y T H E S E A R E C R I T I C A L up by both parents.'

SURVEY 2020 " JEP: wasdecision tas liksemblyChiee a "head tf Minist"o send al, says Childrereacher giving el sixth f's Cenovid mes's Cormers home fommissage tverysionerone a to young people r.'om Victelling ooria ff in

T W O Y E A R S L E A D I N G T O U N I .

JEP: Jersey's Children's Commissioner has criticised the

College. What I'm really worried about are anxious teenagers REVIEW QUOTES (From an external 360 review of  being asked to stay in their bedrooms for up to ten days

Commissioner's performance conducted in July 2020) without there necessarily been some proper advice and

The Commissioner has been fighting harder than ever for  some support for them.

children during COVID. Wants to really get one step ahead upon  The one thing we must do is ensure that children and their return.' families are kept up to date with what it means to isolate. What

I'd particularly like would be some strong messaging from the The Office of the Children's Commissioner got to grips with  Ministers directly to young people, so that they understand

COVID pandemic well.' what to do and why they've got to do it.'

Hope after the period of lockdown that the Office of the

Children's Commissioner can use the way they have developed  Aof the January tdvice urging Educaerm tion Minister not to delay the start working going forward – more flexibly and progressively.'

We have heard clearly through the survey that learning from 21 pieces of advice on large issues relating to children and young  home does not enable all children to access their right to an people were delivered to date, regarding the pandemic. These  education. Indeed, we have seen that learning from home were composed of a very large list of formal advice. She has been  disadvantages those young people who already have multiple campaigning to get children back into school. Deborah knew that  barriers to their learning.'

children understand equity and that some are more disadvantaged  click here

than others and may need more support back in school.'

 MUMMY AND DADDY

SHOUT SOMETIMES

" M Y M I N D I S N O T G O O D .  M Y FLORCI EKNEDDSINA RISE CTAHUESSINAGM ES.T BREEISNSG."

 I M WORRIED THINGS WON T  

GET TO HOW THEY WERE BEFORE.

SURVEY 2020

11th May 2020 22nd June 2020 School  2nd September 2020 21 December 2020 Move to third and final level of lifting  Schools  Summer  Return  School term lockdown restrictions (continued) reopen Holidays to school  ends

MAY 2020 OCTOBER NOVEMBER 2021

JUNE

BAILIWICK WEBSITE: "Nobody here  BBC RADIO: "How is the pandemic

ITV NEWS WEBSITE: Children's Commissioner calls for all  talks about poverty, it's hidden"  affecting children's lives in JERSEY?"

years to return to school'  And what can we do to help?

Just like everyone else, our work last year was majorly disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, at certain points, it started to feel like most of our work had actually become about the pandemic, as we did everything we could to minimise the impact of Covid on the lives and wellbeing of children and young people.

For more on this, and to see how we ensured that children's rights were protected and respected throughout 2020's crisis months, see our Covid Timeline.

But while Covid may have stopped us from pursuing some of our big scheduled projects – especially those that relied on direct contact with children and young people – it didn't manage to get its hands on everything.

As well as our Covid-related work and our ongoing casework, we were still able to land two major reports last year.

Legislative Gap Analysis

Our first big report last year was a Legislative Gap Analysis, which basically involved looking through, and commenting on, a huge number of Jersey's laws and regulations.

You won't be surprised to learn that this took a very long time – almost a full year – but as far as we're concerned, the effort was well worth it. Because now, for the first time ever, we are able to see which laws in Jersey are doing a good job of upholding and fulfilling children's rights, and which of

them still need some work.

Why is this important? Because it gives us all – and the Government, in particular – a very useful roadmap to work from as we continue our journey towards making Jersey the best rights-respecting island that it possibly can be.

If you want to read the full report, or even if you just want to find out a little bit more about the areas it covers and how it was done, then visit our Legislative Gap Analysis page here.

Writing Jersey's Report Card'

Our second major report in 2020 was written for the United Nations and was, in effect, Jersey's child rights report card'. Or, to give it its proper name: The List of Issues Prior to Reporting'.

This dates back to when the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was extended to Jersey in 2014, and our Government made a commitment to protect, respect and fulfil children's rights.

And part of that commitment involves a process where the United Nations is able to check up on Jersey from time to time, and see if we're making good progress. This is done through a system known as periodic reporting', and it's part of the Children's Commissioner's job to write the first of these report cards' whenever the process comes around.

That is what we did last year. The report itself was published on Human Rights Day, and you can find it (plus a bunch more background) here.

But of course, we didn't do it entirely on our own – we needed a little bit of help, because, in order to feel like we could really understand all of the key issues for children in Jersey, we had to talk to a lot of other people. As usual, most of our evidence came from children and young people themselves, whether that was through formal things like surveys and youth panels, or through our many casual conversations, as well as our private ones when dealing with cases and issues.

Also, in the weeks leading up to writing the report, we hosted a range of different workshops with charities and groups outside of the Government who work with children and young people in the Island. We then added all of this together with the data we had already been collecting, and bit by bit, the report began to take shape.

We work with more than 50 different  In 2018, 26% of Jersey's 7-11 year-olds  2,100 We held roundtable discussions with a organisations, ranging from government  knew what their rights were. In 2020,  children and young  broad range of local agencies to discuss

departments and schools through to  this number had increased to  people took part in our Covid survey. children outside of the classroom and charities, legal representatives and other  62%. child-friendly justice.

8 Children's Commissioners. 9

Rights Respecting Schools

Back in 2018, when our office was first set up, we invested a big chunk of our budget into a programme called Rights Respecting Schools. This is a UNICEF initiative that aims to put children's rights at the heart of schools, and when we first began work on it here in Jersey, only a handful of the Island's schools were signed up. Now, there are 34 schools pursuing their bronze, silver or gold Rights Respecting Schools awards, with seven of these joining the scheme or progressing to a new level during 2020.

Our commitment to helping local schools along their rights-respecting journeys is ongoing, and our participation staff continued to work closely with a number of the Island's schools last year, even at the height of the Covid pandemic.

At a time when such extraordinary and challenging circumstances were testing both students and staff, we were delighted to see that so many of our primary and secondary schools were continuing to work hard on the programme.

For more on what the Rights Respecting Schools scheme involves, and to see an overview of Jersey's progress with it so far, click here.

Trauma-informed training

In December last year, we organised some training for key people, such as police officers, who work with children and young people when they are very stressed or suffering other effects of trauma. The training helps people to get a better understanding of children's rights, as well as all the ways that young people can be affected by toxic stress' and bad experiences.

Because of the pandemic, we had to adapt the way this training was done (and make it all online), but the feedback we

got was still very positive. You can

find out more about that training

and who took part in it here.

International

Our office continues to be a member of the three main bodies that bring together the work of Children's Commissioners in more than 30 different countries. These are:

• British and Irish Network of Ombudsman and Children's Commissioners (BINOCC), click here

• European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC), click here

• European Network of Youth Advisors (ENYA), click here

In 2020, Deborah was elected as the new Secretary of the ENOC Bureau, which helped to raise Jersey's profile on the international stage. She also played an active role in the ENOC conference in November, which focused on Child Rights Impact Assessments – you can read more about that here.

Deborah also spent some of 2020 advising a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean on the pros and cons of establishing a National Human Rights Institution in a small-island jurisdiction – something she is uniquely positioned to comment on.

Our advisory panels

Three different advisory panels support Deborah's work and hold her to account, while also contributing advice, guidance and the benefit of a wide range of backgrounds and experience to the office's ongoing work programme.

These are:

• The Youth Advisory Panel, click here

• The Adult Advisory Panel, click here

• The Audit and Risk Advisory Panel, click here

In total, the panels met 12 times last year. And we even managed to find a window in the early autumn to be able to get away to Les Écréhous for an afternoon's teambuilding

and exploration with the

Youth Advisory Panel.

651 children and young people  We made more than 30 formal  47 312 Deborah McMillan raised Jersey's responding to our Covid survey said they  submissions to Government,  staff and  pupils  international profile by being elected

felt negatively about their mental health. Scrutiny and Law Officers. in Jersey's schools tested positive  Secretary of the European Network

for Covid-19. of Ombudspersons for Children.

HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION AND ADVICE

We provide human rights information and advice to people of all ages.  

Last year we dealt with 128 new enquiries. To get an idea of the kinds of subjects we were asked  about, have a look at our 2020 Enquiries chart below.

Giving advice and support is important for two main reasons:  

Firstly, and most crucially, it helps young people to get a better understanding of their human rights,  which means they have a better chance of knowing when those rights are being ignored.

Secondly, it helps us to make more informed decisions about which Government policies we might need  to take a closer look at. There's no better way of identifying where the problems are than by listening to  people's experiences of using Government services or trying to access help and support.  

Earlier in this report, we spoke about the Legislative Gap Analysis, and how it helped us to see (on paper,  at least) where the law is still not fulfilling children's right. Our Information and Advice work gives us the  chance to see real-life examples of those findings.

We can then use this information to shine a light on areas of Government policy that may need changing  quickly, and to continue to monitor services and report to States Members on any issues that come up.  Both of these things are duties that are set out in our law. To see our world-class Commissioner for Young  People and Children (Jersey) Law in full, click here.

As the Covid-19 pandemic developed throughout the year, we found different ways to ensure that our  general advice and our child-friendly information was getting through to the public. This involved many  media appearances by Deborah, as well as efforts by all of the team to signpost some of the resources that  we'd collected together. You can still some examples of those here.  

But giving advice is not always a one-way street, and sometimes you need to be prepared to receive it  too. This is why we led the way last year (as we said we would in our 2019-2023 plan here) by working  with the UK-based social enterprise Youth Friendly to produce a child-friendly guide on how to make a  complaint, which you can view here.

NEW ENQUIRIES PER MONTH

2020 Enquiries Chart

January   9 July   14 February   10 August   4 March   17 September  11 April   12 October   12 May   3 November  14 June  17 December   5

2021 VISION: FUTURE WORK

Last year saw a huge amount of disruption to all our lives, both at home and

at work or school. For us, this meant that some of the projects we had scheduled for 2020 had to be either postponed or (in the case of overseas trips, for instance) cancelled altogether.

Happily, though, we were able to carry over the United Nations Day of General Discussion participation project, the Life on the Rock report and our ongoing Our Lives in Numbers workstream into the

2021 programme.

Also scheduled for 2021 is a major international project with UNICEF, as well as a series of training courses aimed at professionals and others in Jersey who want to learn more about children's rights.

2021 Projects and Reports

United Nations Day of General Discussion

Originally scheduled to take place in 2020, the UN Day of General Discussion will now go ahead in 2021 instead. It is a project themed around Children in Alternative Care' and will allow children and young people in Jersey to participate throughout the year, expressing their views on this topic.

The Children's Commissioner also wants to support a group of care-experienced children and young people from Jersey to go to the United Nations in Geneva in September and deliver their own presentation on the subject. You can find out all about it here.

Life on the Rock

Life on the Rock will look at 18 case studies of children and young people in Jersey who have experienced life on the Island in a variety of different ways.

The project is being done in partnership with the internationally respected Centre for Child Rights at Queens University Belfast.

In compiling these case studies and writing the report, we are working very closely with three advisory groups of local children and young people. This is part of our commitment to modelling what we think the very best in participation should look like.

UNICEF technical guidance project

We will be taking part in an initiative by UNICEF in New York that will use Jersey as one of its case studies. Throughout the year, UNICEF NY's Human Rights Unit will be developing guidance for its staff to help them better engage with, and support the work of, independent human rights institutions like our office

here in Jersey.

Child friendly justice

The starting point for this piece of work was a review done by the Government which looked at the ways in which it treats children and young people who have committed crimes.

Our aim is to expand on the findings of that review and add certain recommendations of our own, which will look at the justice system in Jersey through a child rights lens'.

We will also be discussing the minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is currently set at ten years old in Jersey.

Review of advocacy

This review will look at how advocacy services are provided to children and young people in Jersey.

Our Life in Numbers  

This is our ongoing project to bring together all the publicly available statistics on our Island's children

and young people. Not only does this help us gain

a clearer picture of what local children's and young people's lives are like, but it is also an important way of mapping vulnerability and of identifying areas

in which key services may be falling short.

2021 Training

QUB training

We have obtained licences to this highly-regarded  child rights training model developed by the team  at Queens University Belfast. We will be making it available via our website later in 2021.

A child rights approach

This training course will be available to anyone with an interest in children's rights. It will also be run through our website.

282 young people were  79%

arrested by the States of Jersey  We gave human rights  of the 2,100 children and young Police in 2020 – more than double  information and advice to a new  people that we surveyed said they felt their the number arrested in 2019. person every other working day. rights were being respected.

14

The money that pays our wages and funds the running costs of our office comes from the taxpayers of Jersey. But this doesn't mean that we're part of

a government department. A lot of our general admin is done through the Strategy, Policy, Planning and Performance Department of the States of Jersey, but we are still completely independent in the way we operate.

How does this work? Well, for one thing, our law gives us all the powers that we need to make sure no one can influence what we do or say. And as a National Human Rights Institution, we also work to a set of international benchmarks called the Paris Principles. These were designed by the United Nations to make sure that people who are working for human rights organisations are always able to act freely. To find out more about the Paris Principles, click here.

To see our 2020 budget, and for a more in-depth view of our accounts and audit arrangements, click here.

GOVERNANCE

Because we operate independently of the Government, we need to have certain measures in place to make sure that someone is keeping an eye on what we're doing and how we're spending our money.

This is where our panels come in. We have three advisory panels that were set up under the Children's Commissioner's Law. This means that their advice and support is not just a nice to have': it is a legal requirement.

For a quick and easy view of what that law says click here. But if you really want to look in-depth, you can find the whole thing here.

And to see who sits on our panels, and to find out a bit more about them, click here.

Meanwhile, here's a quick summary:

Adult Advisory Panel

This is a group of leading figures and experts who are based in both Jersey and the UK. Their job is to advise Deborah on a wide range of issues to do with her work, and to give her the support that she needs in order to get that work done effectively.

Youth Advisory Panel

This is a group of local young people from diverse backgrounds (aged 10-24) who give advice and support about Deborah's current work, suggest ideas for future work, and make sure that she and her team are always doing what they said they were going to do.

Audit and Risk Advisory Panel

This is a group of professionals who work in Jersey and give up their spare time to provide us with specialist advice and support on everything to do with audit and risk. This might mean giving us advice on data security, for example, or reviewing our financial information or helping us to manage risks.

1.6bn  34 Jersey schools are now part  1,025 children and young  The OECD predicted that skill loss from children  of the Rights Respecting Schools  people told us they had concerns  Clead tovid-ro a 1.5% drelated educaop in global economic tion disruption could

worldwide were affected  scheme, with seven of these joining  about the impact of the Coronavirus  output for the remainder of the century'. 16 by school closures. or progressing to a new level in 2020. pandemic on the future. 17

2020: THE YEAR OF THE MASK

482  231 played video  cooked

games

391  160

spent time enjoyed art with pets

381  141 played  read

boardgames

265  79

exercised gardened

250 74

watched TV trampolined WHAT CHILDREN/YOUNG PEOPLE TOLD US WHEN WE

ASKED WHAT THEY LIKED TO DO DURING LOCKDOWN

18 19

For advice, resources and information on all aspects of our work and on child rights more generally, visit our website or follow us on social media.

To contact us,

email contact@childcomjersey.org.je

Office of the Children's Commissioner for Jersey

Brunel House 3 Old Street St Helier

JE2 3RG

Children's Tel: 01534 867310 Commissioner Email: contact@childcomjersey.org.je 20 for Jersey www.childcomjersey.org.je