Benefits showing of plan for young people

The plan is Guernsey’s commitment to ensuring that all children and young people are safe and nurtured, healthy and active, achieve their full potential and are included and respected.

There are six commitments to achieve those four outcomes – to listen to the voices of all children and young people, to focus on early help and prevention, to tackle inequality and promote inclusion, to work in partnership with each other and families, to collate and use data, evidence and information and to communicate the plan with the community.

CYPP development and implementation lead Nick Hynes said there are two pieces to the jigsaw of success and one will not fit without the other.

‘We cannot improve the lives of Bailiwick children on our own, and we cannot expect the States to do it single-handedly either.

‘It has to be everybody working together, including the community.

‘Having one body being cross representative has contributed to it being successful and that can be mirrored in the States.’

Deputy Heidi Soulsby, president of Health & Social Care, which is the lead States committee for the CYPP, agreed, saying it would be promising to have a designated children and young people’s service.

‘At the moment, services are separate but if we had a grouped one where we pooled budgets and resources we could provide a cohesive service for children rather than separate across committees.

‘We spend money on rectifying things after they have happened.

‘What we want to do – which the CYPP is helping us achieve – is stopping problems getting too big or happening in the first place.

‘Strong Families is helping people at an early stage and then breaking that cycle of problems.

‘This is wider than just being about children, it’s about how the community can come together.’

The plan was launched in 2016 and a new set of key performance indicators was brought in this year to be achieved by 2022.