Howard League report

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be and if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. We have all seen this when we do arithmetic. When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit this and go back and start over again, the faster I shall get on. There is nothing progressive about being pigheaded and refusing to admit a mistake.  - C.S. Lewis

I heard Jimmy Perchard on BBC Radio Jersey today saying he was upset that Community Care were releasing part of the report today.

Why do they have to be so defensive?

If a business were told by FSC (Financial Services Commission Jersey) said they were not fully compliant and would have to pull their socks, and get proper procedures for Know Your Client, the thing to do would be to take that on board, and set up a rectification programme.

Yet much the same has come from the Bull report, and more recently the Williamson report. The sex offenders register is not in place, nor is there - as all the recommendations make - an independent body to oversee facilities like Greenfields. When Ian Gorst raised the matter recently, he was told that these matters were "in progress".

Why can't the States do the same as any business would do if faced with the need to put their house in order with childcare? There's a lot of talk about putting into place the Bull report, or Williamson etc, but a timetable would be better. Our target is to do this by this date, this by this date etc. Then we can see how successful they are, and it is 100% better than bland assurances. If not achieved, reasons will need to be sought, and the project can be monitored properly. Otherwise, it is more or less on a par with the Millennium Town Park - 8 years later, and still on everyone's "wish list".

I think there is a lot of misplaced arrogance in some people in the public arena who cannot easily admit that there might be faults in the systems - unless they can lean over backwards to say, in effect, "but they are minor ones", as if to say "well, it doesn't really come to much criticism after all." This constant "need to reply" seems to display a great measure of insecurity, to get in the "last word". As C.S. Lewis says, "There is nothing progressive about being pigheaded and refusing to admit a mistake."