Blog Comment - for discussion

Sorry for my delay in posting further. I have been tied up trying to get my new business going, and fighting the States of Jersey as they persist in trying to prevent me and my family from staying in our family home.

Anyway, that is a post for another day.

I was contacted this evening by someone who wrote the following:


"I was quite disturbed today by a conversation I had with a work colleague. Having attended a family b.b.q one of her relatives was very upset that his grand daughter, who is in care had phoned him that evening, worried that she had to have a bath and it was only male staff on duty.

He subsequently phoned the home, to be told, yes due to the holiday roster there were no female staff on duty.

How can this happen in the current light of things.

I am not a care worker or have anything to do with this field but alarm bells are ringing in my ears when a venerable young girl feels so desperate.

Surely their should be a mix of staff at all times.

Are their no set guidelines?"

Any views?

I know what National Minimum Care Standards say but this is Jersey, does anyone know what National Minimum Care (Jersey) Standards guidelines say?!

Unfortunately, it could be argued that there is nothing wrong with this scenario as Jersey have no set standards, preferring to make it up as they go along. As far as good practice is concerned, it would be acceptable to have only male staff on duty during the day, but there should always be one female staff member present at night. However, it should be possible for the young person concerned to feel safe enough in the children's home that they can have a bath, in a bathroom with a locked door, without fearing that anyone will walk in on them.

I would encourage the parent to make a complaint about this, but be warned that there is no proper complaints policy, so the way that the complaint will be dealt with is hit and miss. Probably miss. But it's still worth making the complaint.

Unless of course you're an employee, then you can blow the whistle using the Serious Concerns Policy. My advice on that point would be, don't do it - if you do use it they will get rid of you and then proceed to tell everyone that you were rubbish at your job, ruin your career, make your life hell, and carry on as if nothing happened.

When they have finished doing all this, then you could telephone the Minister, Senator Shenton, and he will reassure that"...you have been shafted but that's politics; if it wasn't for you, none of these changes would have happened." He might go on to say, "what is said behind closed doors is not what is said to the media."

He might even promise to make a public statement after the summer recess in support of you, but don't hold your breath.