Children's Commissioner Gets To Work With New Powers

The Children's Commissioner has promised to change the lives of young people in Jersey for the better as she publishes her plans for the next four years.

A new law has now come into force giving Deborah McMillan the powers to make sure the rights of children and young people are prioritised.

She was hired on a shadow basis at the start of 2018, after the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry report revealed decades of child abuse in the care system.

Mrs McMillan has been telling Channel 103 what she can now do:

"We will provide children with information about their rights, we can support children and young people to complain when they feel their rights aren't being realised, but more than that, we can actually investigate cases where the rights of children and young people have not been recommended and make recommendations to the government about how things can be improved, and we can go to court for children and young people in certain circumstances."

The 'About Us and Our Aims 2019-2023' report sets out the office's vision, mission, values and objectives.

It promises to put children at the centre of everything they do; to be accountable; non-discriminatory; to demonstrate fearless leadership; and to not be unduly influenced by people in power.

"What we are talking about is a developing and embedding this culture, so that when we talk about 'putting children first' everybody knows what that means and everybody knows how to make that happen."

The Children's Commissioner will produce an annual report outlining what has been achieved.  The first one will be published in February 2020.

You can read the 4 year plan in full here