Friday 29 July 2016

Must try harder...


I did a piece for ITV Channel News yesterday in response to an item the appeared on the Bailiwick Express site.   I believe it wasn't used.

The original piece was childcare recruitment jersey has serious image problem

I do not doubt they are having problems recruiting, but I am sceptical to say the least about the reason given.  We know other caring professions - nursing and teaching come to mind- where recruitment is also a problem. That indicates to me there is a systemic problem.  Further, I have seen no evidence of a properly conducted survey on the reasons recruitment is so difficult  in social work, let alone the results of any such survey.  

I have one other reason  why I am doubtful.  It is the nature of vocational work  like childcare.  People who have a vocation want to make a difference .  You do that by going where there is a problem or a need, as long as you feel you can change or improve things.  Well Jersey has a need, and any quick online search would confirm that.  It isn't a deterrent, if anything the opposite.

But my real anger is the  use of that tired  meme  the 'Image of Jersey'.   It has been used all along by those who wanted to refute the evidence of abuse in our care system, and by those who wanted to deny having a Committee of Inquiry. And it is the mindset that is at the heart of the problem.,  The moment someone in authority -a manger or a politician decides himself, or instructs a junior to prioritise the Image of Jersey there is a problem. The idea that it would be better to keep this quiet, not make an issue or a fuss, because it would look bad of the island, that is where the canker festers and the cover ups begin. It is the most rotten of mindsets.

I was reminded of a quote of Gandhi - first they ignore you , then they laugh at you , then they fight you , then you win.  Survivors in Jersey were ignored, their claims were ridiculed, they have continued to fight, so the next step....  It may take a long time.  You only have to look at  time it took for campaigners at Hillsborough or North Wales to see justice (http://jerseytoday.blogspot.com/2012/11/jerseys-coming-30-year-war-what-we.html) Indeed I am coming to the conclusion it will take the passing of a generation of vested interests before the real truth gets out.  Too late for far too many who suffered so much, and denying justice to many.

The piece that ITV did show:  http://www.itv.com/news/channel/2016-07-28/jersey-social-worker-shortage-blamed-on-historical-abuse-claims/


4 comments:

  1. You do that by going where there is a problem or a need, as long as you feel you can change or improve things.

    And there in a nutshell is the problem, because prospective staff believe that if they raise issues they will get the there's a boat out in the morning treatment.

    The evidence for that is in the hands of Andy Green himself - for who was it that attempted to trash the independent inquiry into the way Amar Alwitry was treated for speaking up about bad practices?

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  2. JT.

    The report by ITV/CTV was appalling and an attempt to blame the quote; "infamous" police investigation (Operation Rectangle) for Jersey's apparent bad reputation. The only infamy I can see is the horrendous abuse meted out to vulnerable children and concealed for decades. ITV/CTV has reported on the RECENT damming Serious Case Reviews where H&SS have shown that nothing has changed since the atrocities yet they (ITV/CTV) didn't think to contradict the party line with the stuff they had reported on earlier. That's without mentioning the 4 Varley Reports, and the Jo Olsonn testimony all given to the Care Inquiry which shows things in H&SS are as bad now as they've ever been. That's without mentioning the resignation of former Senator Zoe Cameron who has said there is STILL a culture of fear of speaking out in H&SS.

    The ITV/CTV piece was as distasteful, and inaccurate, as one would expect from this "news" franchise and further serves to show that nothing, as far as they are concerned, has changed in the reporting of Child Abuse on this island.

    ITV/CTV has a long history when it comes to its misreporting and inaccuracies which should have seen them banned from HERE.

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  3. Senior UK social worker says image is not to blame. http://www.itv.com/news/channel/update/2016-07-29/senior-social-worker-says-historical-abuse-not-to-blame-for-staffing-shortage/

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