Oversight board plans closer Jersey links

The Channel Island Political Oversight Board held its first formal meeting on Monday in a bid to improve cooperation between the two islands’ public administrations.

The board discussed and agreed a pipeline of opportunities across a wide range of public services, and agreed some priority work streams where significant progress can be made within the next six to 12 months.

These include:

n Joint working on policy development, including through joint commissioning of external experts and secondments of policy officials between islands.

n Introducing a shadow Channel Islands Health Authority to promote joint working in health and care.

n Setting up a joint digital transformation board to work together on the delivery of technology to speed up online services for islanders.

n A formal partnership for public sector procurement, including contract and supplier management, to improve value for money and reduce costs.

Policy & Resources president Gavin St Pier said the two islands faced common challenges and opportunities.

‘The meeting has helped us raise our ambitions – not just to focus on quick wins, but to transform the way that we work in order to make public services better and to reduce the cost of providing those services in over the medium to long-term,’ he said.

‘Frankly, there should be no obstacles to why we cannot share some aspect of most of the public services delivered in both islands.

‘That means not just working together, but jointly procuring in a way that unlocks shared benefits, sharing data, and developing policy together.’

‘Both Senator Le Fondre [Jersey’s chief minister] and I are determined that we should be able to identify and target savings which can be made, and then include these in the next iteration of both islands’ Medium Term Financial Plans to help drive change.’

Health & Social Care president Deputy Heidi Soulsby said the meeting had given ‘much-needed momentum’ to pan-Channel Islands work on health and care.

‘The creation of a shadow Channel Islands Health Authority is a logical step. Jersey and Guernsey share common challenges in terms of health and care, and there are real gains that can be made by working together, which is very much in keeping with the transformation plans in both islands and supports the Guernsey Partnership of Purpose adopted in December.’

‘Our two islands have not always worked effectively for the common good in the past, because we haven’t put the political weight behind the partnership and officials have defaulted to their respective silos,’ said Jersey’s new chief minister, Senator John Le Fondre.

‘This new initiative is different, as it is setting specific targets against both islands’ government business plans, financial plans and transformation programmes.

‘It is not only championed by both chief ministers, but also has the full commitment of our public service leaders.’