Inna Gardiner is Standing for Deputy, St Helier - District
No. 3/4 on a manifesto platform which includes
Fair Deal For St Helier
Community Inclusion
Diversified Economy
Equality of Opportunity
Her background, on her website, shows someone both engaged in local culture and business as well as having some international experience.
Her Vote.Je manifesto is available at
www.vote.je/candidates-2018/gardiner-inna-18/ Also see:
http://innagardiner.com
https://www.facebook.com/voteinnagardinerfordeputy
https://www.linkedin.com/in/innagardiner/
Manifesto Questions
Self-Employment and Business Start-Up
“I propose that people wanting to become self employed have greater assistance from government departments. I will cut the red tape and create a simple procedure for registering with all the necessary departments and getting the permissions and permits to run a small business in Jersey.”
Question:
What do you see as the main kinds of “red tape” which hold up people wanting to become self-employed? Without naming individuals, do you have an concrete examples so people can see what the problems are.
Answer:
The jump between being employed and self employed is big one. The jump from being unemployed to being self employed is almost impossible in the current climate. I would like to enable the employed and unemployed to become self employed.
The planning, administration and marketing are very time consuming and take up time that could be used for doing the actual paid work. Everybody needs some support/training in at least at one of these areas. Unless you are already self employed you will not have the experience and knowledge to set up and run a business.
I have an example. A lady worked for a business that was shut down. She decided to become self employed. She needed £50K to set up the business. Her bank refused to give her a loan because of the high risk.She needed the money to pay 6 months rent payment in advance and a deposit.
Eventually she found a bank manager who believed in her and she now has 4 years of successful trading and has moved into to bigger premises. She is a very hardworking and determined woman but could easily have become unemployed.
An example of red tape is the time it takes to obtain planning permission to do basic changes to a business. When a business needs to make changes to improve profitability the long wait to get planning could put them out of business.
I have had conversations with young trained tradesmen who are looking to rent workshops to become self employed. The main thing that is stopping them is finding affordable storage/workshop space.
We also have positives, Jersey Business provides an excellent service. We need to make people aware it's not just a service for big businesses it's also a service for people who would like to be self employed.
GP Appointments and Lunchtime Meals for Primary Schools
“I would campaign for free GP appointments for all children under 16 years of age. I believe routine and emergency health care should be available for all children regardless of wealth.”
“I believe that children in nurseries and primary schools would benefit from hot nutritious meals at lunchtime.”
Question: These are worthy proposals, but how do you propose to fund them?
Answer:
GP
Firstly I have an emotional response to this question, I want children to have the best possible start in life I have children of my own. I feel for families with sick children.
My rational behind it is this, many GP’s, including my own, give free appointments for all children under 16. I would like it if all GP’s did this..
Health budget spending in early years, as a preventative rather than reactive spend saves money in the long term. It makes financial sense to treat acute and chronic illness as early as possible. If someone requires a period of hospitalisation/ or attendance at A&E resulting from unaffordable (unattended) GP appointment, all GP appointment saving are lost.
I would also like to see a review of charges for out of hours telephone consultations.
Some of the pressure on the A&E dept is a direct consequence of these charges.
Meals
There has been an increase in childhood obesity from Jersey Health Profile 2016
1 in 5 children ages 4 to 5 are overweight or obese (22%)
1 in 3 children age 10 to 11 are overweight or obese (32%)
Provision of hot nutritious meals at lunch time has been shown to help reverse obesity in other jurisdictions.
Obviously, it should come in combination with physical activity and promotion of healthy living as stated in my manifesto
Unfortunately many of these children are overfed whilst still being undernourished.
The long term health costs for these adults over the next 50 years far exceed the cost of hot meals and children’s playgrounds.
I have worked within Governments, for NGO, and global corporations as a consultant, creating and adapting work practices and processes in order to save money by creating efficiencies. I believe and I have seen first hand how cumbersome and inefficient the States of Jersey has become.
So in answer to your question “where is the money coming from?” rest assured I have no intention of spending money Jersey does not have. I do feel that we should decide where the saved money will be spent before we make changes and when making changes and creating efficiencies realise what the greater purpose is.
Immigration
“Immigration is a controversial topic and as an immigrant myself I feel I have a lot to contribute. We need a clear balanced immigration policy to maintain a suitably trained, experienced and sustainable workforce.”
“Businesses must have flexibility to employ the right number of suitable people.”
Question:
Have you any figures in mind for net (not absolute) migration inwards? What in your mind would a balanced immigration policy look like? Would it have any limits placed on it (for instance by the capacity of the island to supply fresh water etc). Everyone wants a balanced immigration policy, but what kind of details would you give on it? What do you think of the outgoing Council of Ministers’ proposed migration policy which the new Assembly will vote on?
Answer:
I feel that the proposed migration policy is missing details, such as what the expected number of necessary and skilled employees will be in the next 5 years from our different local industries. This information would allow us to plan local training whilst we will decide what type and number of permits are required.
In my opinion it’s not just about numbers when we talk about immigration, it’s also about quality.
Last year we issued 61 work permits for the Digital industry with an average wage £51K. Each work permit created 2 jobs for locals and brought new skilled people to the island who gave training and experience to the rapidly developing local digital industry.
We need to encourage and retain the permits for a highly skilled, innovative, tax paying workforce.
At the same time we also had unskilled immigrants coming to work for specific tasks for agreed in advance periods of time, and they need to understand this is the case before arriving to Jersey.
There is no one solution.
We need to promote an immigration policy that bridges the skills gap we have in Jersey and plan for a managed, sustainable population.
I have been looking at some of the manifestoes of those standing and asking questions to clarify what the candidates say, and she has been kind enough to volunteer replies that I can put on my blog.
Self-Employment and Business Start-Up
“I propose that people wanting to become self employed have greater assistance from government departments. I will cut the red tape and create a simple procedure for registering with all the necessary departments and getting the permissions and permits to run a small business in Jersey.”
Question:
What do you see as the main kinds of “red tape” which hold up people wanting to become self-employed? Without naming individuals, do you have an concrete examples so people can see what the problems are.
Answer:
The jump between being employed and self employed is big one. The jump from being unemployed to being self employed is almost impossible in the current climate. I would like to enable the employed and unemployed to become self employed.
The planning, administration and marketing are very time consuming and take up time that could be used for doing the actual paid work. Everybody needs some support/training in at least at one of these areas. Unless you are already self employed you will not have the experience and knowledge to set up and run a business.
I have an example. A lady worked for a business that was shut down. She decided to become self employed. She needed £50K to set up the business. Her bank refused to give her a loan because of the high risk.She needed the money to pay 6 months rent payment in advance and a deposit.
Eventually she found a bank manager who believed in her and she now has 4 years of successful trading and has moved into to bigger premises. She is a very hardworking and determined woman but could easily have become unemployed.
An example of red tape is the time it takes to obtain planning permission to do basic changes to a business. When a business needs to make changes to improve profitability the long wait to get planning could put them out of business.
I have had conversations with young trained tradesmen who are looking to rent workshops to become self employed. The main thing that is stopping them is finding affordable storage/workshop space.
We also have positives, Jersey Business provides an excellent service. We need to make people aware it's not just a service for big businesses it's also a service for people who would like to be self employed.
GP Appointments and Lunchtime Meals for Primary Schools
“I would campaign for free GP appointments for all children under 16 years of age. I believe routine and emergency health care should be available for all children regardless of wealth.”
“I believe that children in nurseries and primary schools would benefit from hot nutritious meals at lunchtime.”
Question: These are worthy proposals, but how do you propose to fund them?
Answer:
GP
Firstly I have an emotional response to this question, I want children to have the best possible start in life I have children of my own. I feel for families with sick children.
My rational behind it is this, many GP’s, including my own, give free appointments for all children under 16. I would like it if all GP’s did this..
Health budget spending in early years, as a preventative rather than reactive spend saves money in the long term. It makes financial sense to treat acute and chronic illness as early as possible. If someone requires a period of hospitalisation/ or attendance at A&E resulting from unaffordable (unattended) GP appointment, all GP appointment saving are lost.
I would also like to see a review of charges for out of hours telephone consultations.
Some of the pressure on the A&E dept is a direct consequence of these charges.
Meals
There has been an increase in childhood obesity from Jersey Health Profile 2016
1 in 5 children ages 4 to 5 are overweight or obese (22%)
1 in 3 children age 10 to 11 are overweight or obese (32%)
Provision of hot nutritious meals at lunch time has been shown to help reverse obesity in other jurisdictions.
Obviously, it should come in combination with physical activity and promotion of healthy living as stated in my manifesto
Unfortunately many of these children are overfed whilst still being undernourished.
The long term health costs for these adults over the next 50 years far exceed the cost of hot meals and children’s playgrounds.
I have worked within Governments, for NGO, and global corporations as a consultant, creating and adapting work practices and processes in order to save money by creating efficiencies. I believe and I have seen first hand how cumbersome and inefficient the States of Jersey has become.
So in answer to your question “where is the money coming from?” rest assured I have no intention of spending money Jersey does not have. I do feel that we should decide where the saved money will be spent before we make changes and when making changes and creating efficiencies realise what the greater purpose is.
Immigration
“Immigration is a controversial topic and as an immigrant myself I feel I have a lot to contribute. We need a clear balanced immigration policy to maintain a suitably trained, experienced and sustainable workforce.”
“Businesses must have flexibility to employ the right number of suitable people.”
Question:
Have you any figures in mind for net (not absolute) migration inwards? What in your mind would a balanced immigration policy look like? Would it have any limits placed on it (for instance by the capacity of the island to supply fresh water etc). Everyone wants a balanced immigration policy, but what kind of details would you give on it? What do you think of the outgoing Council of Ministers’ proposed migration policy which the new Assembly will vote on?
Answer:
I feel that the proposed migration policy is missing details, such as what the expected number of necessary and skilled employees will be in the next 5 years from our different local industries. This information would allow us to plan local training whilst we will decide what type and number of permits are required.
In my opinion it’s not just about numbers when we talk about immigration, it’s also about quality.
Last year we issued 61 work permits for the Digital industry with an average wage £51K. Each work permit created 2 jobs for locals and brought new skilled people to the island who gave training and experience to the rapidly developing local digital industry.
We need to encourage and retain the permits for a highly skilled, innovative, tax paying workforce.
At the same time we also had unskilled immigrants coming to work for specific tasks for agreed in advance periods of time, and they need to understand this is the case before arriving to Jersey.
There is no one solution.
We need to promote an immigration policy that bridges the skills gap we have in Jersey and plan for a managed, sustainable population.
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