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STATES OF JERSEY
Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel Student Suspensions Review Sub Panel
MONDAY, 23rd OCTOBER 2009
Panel:
Deputy T.M. Pitman of St. Helier (Chairman) Deputy J.M. Maçon of St. Saviour
Deputy M. Tadier of St. Brelade
Connétable G.F. Butcher of St. John
Witness:
Centenier P. Coffey:
In Attendance:
Ms. S. Power (Scrutiny Officer)
Ms. G. Bunting (Adviser)
Professor P. Munn (Professor of Curriculum Research at the University of Edinburgh, Adviser)
Deputy T.M. Pitman of St. Helier (Chairman):
Thank you for attending this session. The first thing I have to do is draw your attention to the statement on the desk, which is that you are covered by privilege, unless you tell us anything that you know not to be true, that is the essence of it.
Centenier P. Coffey:
Thank you. I did get some prior information which I read which is very similar to that so, thank you.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
For the record, I will get everyone to introduce themselves and if you could do that yourself? So, I am Deputy Trevor Pitman and I am chairing this sub-panel, which is part of Education and Home Affairs.
The Connétable of St. John :
Graeme Butcher, the Constable of St. John.
Ms. G. Bunting (Adviser): Gillian Bunting, ex teacher.
Deputy M. Tadier of St. Brelade : I am Deputy Montfort Tadier .
Professor P. Munn (Professor of Curriculum Research at University of Edinburgh, Adviser):
I am Pamela Munn and the Professor of Curriculum Research at the University of Edinburgh and I am an adviser to the panel.
Ms. S. Power (Scrutiny Officer):
I am Sam Power, Scrutiny Officer.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
Welcome to the members of the public who are here as well. I know you have filled in at short notice so we do appreciate it.
Centenier P. Coffey:
That is right. Can I first of all apologise on behalf of the Centenier Scaife that he cannot be here this morning. He is duty Centenier for the week and as such is in the Magistrate's Court this morning so he asked me to offer his apologies and so I am here in his stead. My name is Phillip Coffey, Centenier of St. Helier for the last 15 months and I have worked very closely with Centenier Scaife particularly on the youth side of the court proceedings.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
We obviously have some questions that we would like to ask but we thought it might be best to give you the opportunity, if you would like to talk, about how you see the issue of the young people who have been suspended as that impacts on the Honorary Police, we thought that might be best, if you are comfortable with that?
Centenier P. Coffey: I will do my best, yes.
Deputy T.M. Pitman: Okay.
Centenier P. Coffey:
Unfortunately we have not been able to keep any statistics of those children who are on suspension and then go on to commit offences. I am afraid I cannot give you any hard facts. Centenier Scaife is the Chairman of the Chef de Police of the Island's Chef de Police and he has discussed this issue with his colleagues at a previous meeting and generally speaking, the other Chef de Police are not particularly aware of children who are suspended and then go on to commit offences. However, I think St. Helier is what we call a busy parish and I think we do account for probably 60 per cent or more of all the cases that appear in front of the Youth Court and as such we are aware of one or 2 children who have been on suspension and have committed offences while on suspension. That would be within the last 12 month period. There may well have been others that we do not know about. Generally speaking, the information that we get to present before the Magistrates in the Youth Court and the panel of course comes from the Criminal Justice Unit so, you know, we a lot of the facts of the cases presented to us and generally speaking they do not give any background to the children who are being considered for being dealt with in the Youth Court. As I say, there have been about 2 instances that I can think of where children I have known that have been suspended have gone on to commit offences. Generally the sort of offences that they would be committing would be larceny from shops and probably malicious damage; those kinds of offences. Again, I think, generally speaking, these people would fit under the category of what we would call persistent offenders. There is a hard core group of youths who are found fairly regularly in different formations of groups. Sometimes there might be sort of 6 people together or there might be another 4 people together and sometimes the groups do seem to swap over.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
Could I just ask, are they mixed groups or is it all boys or ?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Mixed groups. Having said that, sometimes it is all girls and sometimes it is all boys and these groupings do seem to be fairly fluid, which makes our job in court quite difficult when you have got sort of 6 children that you are dealing with on one occasion and then on another occasion it might be some of those with some of the others. I must stress that I am talking generally now and not specifically about children who are suspended. Another thing that we are aware of is that quite a number of children are truanting and then going to commit offences. I have noticed one or 2 cases where children have almost sort of admitted that they had clocked in at school at 8.45 a.m. or whatever time it is and they walk in one door and they walk out the other. On occasions they have in fact incited other people, other pupils, from the school to sort of leave with them and then they have gone out and committed offences of the previously mentioned nature. Something else we have noticed as well that is on these sort of lines is that obviously the Youth Court sits on a Tuesday and there have been occasions, particularly last ... well, sorry, earlier on in the summer, before the summer holidays when there seem to be quite a large number of supporters of the youths who are appearing in the court. They cannot be in the court at the time but they seem to come along to support them. These children are not appearing in court themselves but we get the impression that they must be truanting at the time because, you know, they are sort of school- aged children, not in school.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
How do you deal with that when that occurs then?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I would say, at the moment ... well, the court officials tend to ignore it at the time. I would say it is not followed up.
The Connétable of St. John :
From your point of view, when you have incidents with youngsters that you have found to have been truanting at school, do you liaise with the schools on those occasions, or is it a question of name and address and, you know, follow through on the basic side of it?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Liaison with schools I think is particularly difficult because on the odd occasion when I have contacted a school I do not get very much coming back and on those occasions the data protection legislation is quoted as the reason why they cannot discuss individual children, which is a shame because I think there really does need to be more liaison with the schools because at the end of the day we are all trying to achieve the same goals and that is the welfare and well-being of the children. Yes, so, generally speaking, there is very little liaison but Centenier Scaife asked me to inform you that just over a week ago he had a meeting with Mario Lundy at which they did discuss some of these issues of behavioural problems with these young offenders and I think there has been a suggestion made that Jo Forrest, whom I believe is an educational psychologist, has expressed an interest in working with us to see what can be done in these cases, but that was a very first, tentative step.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
It does seem a bit strange that if you have got young people in school hours gathering outside the Youth Court, that it is ignored. That is not criticism; just an observation.
Centenier P. Coffey:
Yes, I could not agree more. I have to confess that I am not au fait with the law in this respect because as I was coming here this morning I saw a young lad just walking along here and I thought: "Hello, he should be school" and then I felt inclined ... should I approach him and speak to him and ask him why he is not in school? But then I did not because I am not sure where I would stand in that particular instance so I would need some clarification on that before I personally attempted to do anything about it and the same thing would apply with these children who come to court. I am not sure about that.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
I mean individual cases could be quite innocent; to be fair, they could be going to a doctor's appointment or whatever.
Centenier P. Coffey: Absolutely, yes.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
But with groups you would think
Centenier P. Coffey: Yes.
Deputy M. Tadier :
Do you ever find yourselves in a situation where you might be at a parish hall inquiry and you think that this case should never have even got to this stage because it should have been picked up at an earlier point either by the school or some other way?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I think, generally speaking, because of the lack of liaison with the schools, it would be very difficult to determine that. The youth parish hall inquiries are always conducted in the presence of a probation officer and, generally speaking, the probation officer seems to have a lot more information about the background of the children than we do. So in fact I welcome the presence of the probation officer there who certainly seems to have a lot of information, like the background of the family and so on. I mean, obviously, we do get the information with regards to the previous offending. With regard to your particular question, I do have an observation that I would like to make and this is that I am a retired school teacher and there have been occasions in the past when I have been teaching children, the age of children I was teaching was 8 and 9, when I felt that I could predict that that person would ultimately end up in the criminal justice system because of the behaviour, the family background and other things. I am sure that I am not alone and there would be a lot of teachers who would be in the same position who could say, you know: "That child we predict would end up in some sort of difficulties in later life." I have taught recently at St. Mary's School and before that at Rouge Bouillon School and there have been children in both of those institutions who have subsequently, whom I would have predicted would appear, have come along and been ... you know, gone before the Magistrate, before the Youth Court.
Deputy M. Tadier :
That is something of a fatalistic outlook, is it not?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Well, the point I would make is is there something that can be done? If teachers can identify those children who are potentially at risk, and I mean the teachers and the head teachers work very hard to help those children overcome their behavioural problems, but I just do not feel that there is ... I mean, teachers are not expert psychologists, educational psychologists so they do their best but these children often, I think, you know, fall between 2 stools. So, while I think teachers could predict those things, I think more effort could be made to try and help those families. It is not just the children and their behaviour; it is the families as well. Often single parent families are struggling, sometimes it is a single mum and sometimes it is a single dad but those children do exhibit behavioural difficulties at those ages and I just think that more could be done which would be, in turn, productive in these children not appearing before the criminal justice system?
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
To be fair, you are not labelling those as bad children; you are talking about the circumstances.
Centenier P. Coffey:
No, children with special needs.
Deputy M. Tadier :
But the implication is that if a teacher can pick up those signs from a very early age that is both encouraging but disturbing in the sense that if those children do then go on to offend then it is almost like we have known about it but the system is not picking those children up.
Centenier P. Coffey: Yes.
The Connétable of St. John :
Would you say, in your opinion that things like the human rights law or data protection are sort of binding your hands in terms of communication with the various departments?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Yes, I would say so. This is the argument that is put by the schools for not providing information. I mean, on one particular occasion I wanted to make a representation to the Youth Court based on some information I had hoped to gain from the school but it was not forthcoming so I was not able to make that representation.
The Connétable of St. John :
Well, I mean, on that basis the system is letting the children down as well.
Centenier P. Coffey:
I would say yes, it is hamstringing. I mean, we can and we do liaise with the Probation Service. There is good liaison there. As I mentioned before, the probation officer always attends a youth parish hall inquiry and that is invaluable and obviously the emphasis of the parish hall inquiry is to try to give children a second chance to help to steer them towards ... well, so they do not re-offend but unfortunately it does not always happen. It does happen a lot and we do get a really good feeling about it but there will always be those persistent offenders who ignore that second chance and carry on.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
One point, if you could clarify, you said that St. Helier is the busy parish, which I think we would all accept that it is, but does that also mean that it is busy and you are not just picking up the young people that live in St. Helier but they are drawn there from the other parishes?
Centenier P. Coffey:
That is correct. Any offence which takes place in St. Helier becomes a St. Helier case so it might be young people who live anywhere in the Island who come into town for whatever reason, any offences committed in St. Helier then it becomes a St. Helier case.
Deputy M. Tadier :
It is a slightly peripheral point; do you think there would be any benefit for that person to have a parish hall meeting in their own parish? I know it would break with convention.
Centenier P. Coffey:
I do not know. It is difficult to say. It is an interesting point. It certainly will break with convention
and I am not sure how the Connétable would feel about that.
The Connétable of St. John :
I would think, legally, it could not be done. If it is an offence, it has to be dealt with where the offence occurs.
Centenier P. Coffey:
Having said that, we do sometimes liaise. Where we know that children are offending in several parishes, we are able to liaise with the other parishes and on occasions if, say, we are dealing with a youth in the court system and if they offend in another parish, generally speaking rather than having 2 Centeniers coming to court to present cases, whichever Centenier started with the first case would then take on the other case, with agreement from the other parish.
The Connétable of St. John :
Judging from what you have said so far, I mean I would assume that you would agree that early intervention is a far more preferable way to go before catching the kids at the back end in the crimes or whatever.
Centenier P. Coffey: If that is possible, yes.
The Connétable of St. John :
So communication would be a very strong asset if it could be achieved.
Centenier P. Coffey: Yes.
Deputy M. Tadier :
In your opinion then, to follow on from that, where are the breakdowns in communication in the system?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Well, I do know that schools hold case studies for children with behavioural difficulties and I think if those children are likely to be offenders then I think it would be useful to have a link with the Honorary Police on those meetings to offer advice and to make some sort of contribution to it. I also think in terms of the suspension system itself, my experience of that is quite limited but I have known of one or 2 cases where children have been suspended and that generally speaking they are given to the care of their parents and it depends very much on whether the parent is able or willing to exercise any form of control over that child while on suspension. On one occasion that I know of, the child was not supervised by the parent and effectively it became like an extra day's holiday for that person.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
I am sure I am sure you would also agree that it is not always the parents' fault when these young people go off the rails, so to speak.
Centenier P. Coffey: Absolutely.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
I mean there is a tendency for some to always blame the parents but what sort of efforts do the Honorary Police then make to liaise with the parents about the young people to try and work together?
Centenier P. Coffey:
When we hold a youth parish hall inquiry there always has to be a parent present. So, you know, we always talk with the parent about the offending and we ask the parents for their opinion about the child, the offending. Certainly if the parent was experiencing any difficulties in dealing with the child because of the offending and because of the presence of the probation officer, we would certainly seek to offer, through the Probation Service, help and advice to a parent who was struggling. I know that does happen.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
It is probably a difficult question to qualify but do you think enough is done in those cases to look at what the underlying causes of the behaviour are rather than just to see the symptoms, because I mean that must be quite a stretch on your resources as well, I would imagine?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Yes, I am not sure that I can comment on that. I am just not sure about that one.
The Connétable of St. John :
Have you had any experience with youngsters where it has been perceived that a suspension is a badge of honour, rather like those have started to become in the U.K. (United Kingdom)?
Centenier P. Coffey:
The one or 2 cases that I know of, I am not aware of that being like a badge of honour. I could not really sort of help you on that one.
Deputy M. Tadier :
I think it is generally understood that suspensions, although they are supposed to be the last resort, are necessary on certain occasions. Is there a sense, from an Honorary Police point of view that suspensions shift the problem from one area to another without necessarily dealing with it?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I think if it is deemed that children are likely to commit offences while they are suspended I just wonder whether the schools might be able to offer some sort of way of supervising the children rather than, as I said before, letting them have an extra day's holiday. If there were some system, I mean I do not know how it would work; if the schools themselves had some way of dealing with suspensions so that the children were supervised. I do not know what the implications of that would be but that would certainly help to solve that problem.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
To pick up on what Deputy Tadier said there, we have heard from teachers' representatives that they would like to see some kind of external facility developed so if young people were suspended, that is where they would go. It would seem to me, from what you are saying, you might support that view from the Honorary Police, so they would not just be turned over to parents. Let us face it; parents might have to work and obviously there is a financial implication but do you think that could be an answer?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Well, as I say, any way it could be designed to make sure that the children are supervised and therefore not offending, whether it was within the school itself or within the, you know, as you described, an external place. Obviously the schools would be best placed to know how they could or would not be able to deal with those sorts of situations.
The issue for you then would to tend to appear to be that although they have turned it over to the parents' responsibility, often for probably genuine reasons because parents may be working, they will end up completely unsupervised.
Centenier P. Coffey:
Yes, I mean I think under those circumstances it generally tends to be single parent families where the parent has got to work and they accept that the child has misbehaved at school, the child is suspended but I do not think they have the wherewithal to be able to deal with it themselves.
The Connétable of St. John :
Generally we have talked so far to you regarding bad behaviour, et cetera, have you come across it in the limited amount of things that you have done where health and medical issues might be partly attributable to the problems? We have heard, you know, from previous witnesses like dyslexia and things like that that cause kids to become a little bit disruptive and that sort of thing? Have you come across any cases where that has been evident?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I have not but I have heard of cases. I mean, I have taught dyslexic children and also children with Asperger's and so I am aware of their needs and the kinds of effects that their condition can have on them, and I do believe that they need special consideration when brought before the criminal justice system for any reason. But it is a case of flagging it up; of someone recognising that somebody may have difficulties and may need some extra support. I used to live next door to Phil Le Claire and so I used to be able to talk to him about this kind of situation and I do know that if I was faced with a person that I thought might have Asperger's or whatever, that I could contact him and ask for some advice and get his support.
Deputy M. Tadier :
We have heard that as a result of being suspended and children committing offences, does it work the other way round where children might get suspended because of an act they have committed, so does it work that way around?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I would not think so, no.
Deputy M. Tadier :
No? It is usually just what happens at school?
Centenier P. Coffey: Yes, I think so.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
This is a difficult question but if you could define it in a nutshell, what could be done, from your experience, to improve that relationship with schools to try and curtail some of these instances? Does it come down to picking problems up earlier? Is that the key to it?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Well, I think certainly better liaison between the schools and Honorary Police and the States of Jersey Police, as well, I would think, would be advantageous and certainly if we could sort of overcome the data protection legislation, if we could all be sort of part of the same team, that would be a good thing.
Does that relationship work any better with the uniformed police than it does with the schools because it does not seem as if it does work very well with the schools? You have the same limitation, I suppose, with sharing information with the uniformed police?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Well, do you mean between the Honorary Police and the uniformed police?
Deputy T.M. Pitman: Yes.
Centenier P. Coffey:
No, I would say there is a good liaison there. Again, you know, we can liaise with the police or if there is an officer in charge of any case, we can liaise with them through the criminal justice unit.
Deputy M. Tadier :
Are there any issues; we talked about earlier about data protection and because the parish hall inquiry does not take place in public, are there any issues of exchange of information between the Honorary Police and the relevant departments?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I do not see any difficulties, really. I mean, I suppose we would be talking ... if we were liaising, say, with the Probation Service about an offender, they would obviously be someone who would be named and we would be talking about them as individuals and they are offending as individuals. I do not see any problem with it but I might get hung out to dry for this one.
Deputy M. Tadier :
The reason I ask is that in my experience there have been issues in different departments so I had an issue with Housing. They needed to seek some information as to a result of a parish hall inquiry and they were not able to get it very easily because of the nature of the parish hall inquiry system. That is the reason I asked.
Centenier P. Coffey:
Well, yes, I would think that the results of the parish hall inquiry are, you know, they would not be just sort of dished out willy-nilly. We would be talking about, say, the Probation Service, the police, the legal departments, prosecutors and defence lawyers would obviously have access to any information that they needed to help them proceed with a particular case. Of course the results of parish hall inquiries are kept on individual persons' records so if someone was given a written caution or a fine then that would be on their record at the parish level but I do not think that would be available to the general public.
Deputy M. Tadier :
But it would get intimated to schools, presumably, or to the Education Department, if deemed appropriate?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I honestly do not know because I do not think anybody has ever asked.
Deputy M. Tadier :
It is probably something we need to look at, to be honest.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
With the young people that you have had experience with who have been off because they are
suspended, do they tend to gravitate towards particular areas within the town? Is it always the same areas we end up picking them up for offences?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Not always the same areas. I mean, I think a lot of the cases that happen during the day time would be larceny from a shop, which is a very common occurrence, where young people are going into these shops to steal alcohol - and they seem very adept at doing it - and then they go along and, you know, consume the alcohol with their friends and get tanked up and in the evening they will go on to commit other offences.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
What is the sort of breakdown between the Honoraries getting involved in evening or day time? Is there a tendency that it is the evening that most of the incidents happen because of the scenarios you are describing?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I think generally speaking it is the States of Jersey Police who deal with arresting people for offending and then when the evidence has been gathered, the evidence will be put before a Centenier to make a decision on how to proceed. I would say that there certainly seems to be more offending taking place out of school hours than ... well, very much so than in school hours.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
If there is not any effective liaison between the schools and yourselves, I imagine it is only when an offence has taken place and you are called to the scene that you learn that those young people are suspended. Is that correct?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Well, as I say, that has only really happened that I am aware of on 2 occasions where they have been arrested and sometimes it can be one or 2 days before the Honorary Police get involved because the States of Jersey Police are interviewing witnesses and the youngsters themselves - always in the presence of an appropriate adult - and so it might be several days before the Centeniers would get involved in reviewing a case and making a decision as to how to proceed.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
Are there many cases where an appropriate adult has to be found from elsewhere because the parent or guardian cannot be contacted or is not interested?
Centenier P. Coffey: Yes.
Deputy T.M. Pitman: There is?
Centenier P. Coffey: Yes.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
What does that appropriate adult tend to be? I mean, I have been approached before as a youth worker.
Centenier P. Coffey:
Yes, well certainly people from the Youth Action Team, some of the children who are offending are residents in children's homes so it might be somebody from the home who was asked to be an appropriate adult.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
Does that flag up concerns for you immediately because obviously there must be concerns there for how the children are being looked after in the first place if the parent cannot be contacted?
Centenier P. Coffey: Yes.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
Is that considered when people are not judging the young people but trying to explore the background about how they came to be involved in an incident?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I think, generally speaking, we are not able to get involved in the underlying problems causing youth offending. We have to deal with the offending itself as Honorary Police. Obviously we would hope that other agencies like the Probation Service would be involved in trying to understand. Yes, we do take into account problems that children face and certainly I know that the Magistrates would take into account that when issuing sentences.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
Has the closure of facilities like the Drop-In Café in Liberation Square had any effect on youth offending?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I do not know. I cannot answer that question, I am afraid. One thing that I suppose that does concern me a little bit is that I am not sure what happens when the children are remanded to Greenfields, whether their education continues or not. I do think that some, particularly the persistent offenders, seem to spend quite a bit of time not at school as such and therefore their education must be suffering while they are going through the criminal justice system. I mean I know, I had some experience, years ago ... I am just trying to think what Greenfields was called before, Les Chenes. I had some contact with Les Chenes, not as a teacher but in another form of employment, and I was aware that education was going on during the day with children who were there for a variety of reasons. I am not sure whether that happens now at Greenfields. Can anybody enlighten me on that one? Does it happen or does it not?
Deputy T.M. Pitman: It is meant to.
Centenier P. Coffey:
You ask the questions and I answer.
Deputy M. Tadier :
No, but it is an interesting point.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
I do not think there is any automatic referral though for suspended children to go anywhere. I think that is the issue and Greenfields is fairly limited or restricted in the parameters that they can accept children.
Centenier P. Coffey: That is right, yes. Deputy T.M. Pitman:
The reason I raised the issue about the Drop-In Café, I mean that has probably got a different function but it seems that it used to keep children off the street and the anecdotal evidence is since that got shut due to lack of funding, you know, it has moved the problem ... well, it has created a problem and put children on the street. So, it might be beneficial if there were a facility like that for suspended children.
The Connétable of St. John :
Can I just ask, as a point of interest, do you get many issues down at the skate park with children gathering there? Is that one of the locations that you find ?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Not really, no. Not that I am aware of at all, no.
Professor P. Munn:
Forgive this ignorant question but would the Honorary Police see it as part of their role to try and promote positive behaviour among young people as well as dealing with problems that occur?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I like to think of the Honorary Police as a community police service and I think one of the things I enjoy most is dealing with events taking place at, say, Jersey Live or the Battle of Flowers and those sorts of things. Coming into contact the community, young people and I am not aware that there is anything that we could do at the moment to help to promote positive behaviour.
Professor P. Munn:
You would not be leading on particular programs or interventions?
Centenier P. Coffey: Not at the moment.
Professor P. Munn:
Is that something you think that would be welcomed by your colleagues?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I think it is difficult to say. I mean, I am not sure. I think I would be interested myself, coming from a teaching background and I enjoy working with young people.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
On that note I can say that the Honorary Police did used to come into youth projects quite a lot but then the attitude to that has changed over the last 10 years. Maybe wrongly, the perception was that they were still policemen and that was maybe a disappointing sort of outlook but it certainly has taken that sort of turn.
Centenier P. Coffey:
I do know that St. Helier in particular are very under-staffed and under-manned at the moment and we only have about 6 constables/officers and there should be around about 30 and it is very difficult to recruit people into the Honorary Service. As I say, they are just very, very stretched.
Deputy M. Tadier :
Are you warned in advance of any students that are suspended; will you be aware?
Centenier P. Coffey: No, not at all.
Deputy M. Tadier :
Would that be beneficial if you were informed?
Centenier P. Coffey:
I think it would be difficult because I mean a child, say, who attends a school in St. Saviour , if they were suspended and the Honorary Police in St. Saviour were informed that they were suspended and the child then might be committing an offence in St. Helier , we might not be aware of it. But, you know, I think that better liaison between the schools, if in fact we perceive that there is a problem that we can liaise with the school, if we could be better received by the schools.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
You talked earlier about a meeting you said had taken place with the Director of Education.
Centenier P. Coffey: Yes.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
To your knowledge, has there ever been an organised seminar where all the agencies have come together to talk about the issue of suspended young people?
Centenier P. Coffey:
Not that I am aware of, no.
Deputy M. Tadier :
I think we are okay. Maybe it is worth asking if the advisers have any questions?
Deputy T.M. Pitman: Indeed, yes.
Professor P. Munn: I do not think so.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
Have you got anything else that you would like to raise with us because we seem to have gotten on very well there? We have extracted a lot of information from you.
Centenier P. Coffey:
I do not think so. I mean I did make a few notes but I think we have covered everything that I wanted to.
Deputy M. Tadier :
If necessary, you are able to email us information if you think of anything.
Centenier P. Coffey:
Yes, okay, I am happy, really. I think I have covered everything that I wanted to say.
Deputy T.M. Pitman:
If no one has got any questions, I will just thank you again for coming and filling in at short notice and
for being so informative. Thank you.
Centenier P. Coffey:
That was a pleasure. Thank you.