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Office of the Children's Commissioner
Brunel House
Old Street
St Helier, Jersey
JE2 3RG
Tel: +44 (0)1534 867310
Deputy Sam Mézec c/o Morier House Halkett Place
St Helier
Jersey
Sent by email
2nd November 2023 Dear Deputy Mézec
Thank you for your letter outlining your review of the Government Plan and the request for input from the Office of the Children's Commissioner for Jersey.
Due to the limited staff capacity of the office currently, we have had to prioritise our resource to focus on a number of pressing and complex issues. I hope you'll understand that we have, therefore, been unable to look at the Government Plan matters you raised in your letter to us, particularly in the timeframe provided.
We do however offer a more general observation regarding these matters. The new Children (Convention Rights) (Jersey) Law 2022 and associated Children's Rights Scheme lays the foundation for more meaningful consideration of children's rights in government decision making.
Whilst we appreciate that the new law is not yet in force, and that even if it were there would be no requirement to undertake a children's rights impact assessment (CRIA) on the Government Plan; we do believe it would have been good practice for CRIAs to have been undertaken on those proposals in the Government Plan (such as the issues you highlight) which will clearly have a direct impact on children and young people. This would allow for the impacts on the rights of children to be highlighted, thus enabling States Members to take a more informed view before reaching a decision on the matters in question.
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We hope this will be of some assistance to inform your important work and we look forward to seeing the outcome of your review.
Yours sincerely
Andrea Le Saint
Acting Children's Commissioner for Jersey
Copied to:
Monique Magalhaes, m.magalhaes@gov.je