Senator John Le Fondré, Jersey’s Chief Minister said children’s services on the island were not fit for refugees, after Lord Dubs called on the Island to take in child refugees last week.

At a further meeting on Friday with his Deputy, Le Fondré, said the island’s child welfare services were in a “very poor state” and “not presently in the right position to deal with even [Jersey’s] own children properly.”

He added, ‘It is not just a case of money. It is about getting people in the right place, and giving stability, for example, to the social-worker workforce, so those relationships can carry on in the longer term. That is incredibly important.’

Jersey’s children’s services have been blighted by poor practice and serous failures.

After concerns were raised by the Independent Care Inquiry, Ofsted confirmed last year that it would inspect the island’s social services. Ofsted’s report was damning. The inspection body found that Jersey social services was not prioritising the needs of its children, that children in care on the island were falling far behind their peers at every stage of their education and that structural and cultural problems inside social services were hampering service delivery.

Jersey put together an improvement plan in July 2018 to address the failures highlighted inside Ofsted’s report. Little has been done to action the plan.