HSC president George Oswald said the services were not immediately at serious risk and his committee had started trying to address the concerns.
He was responding to a question from Deputy Haley Camp, who said she had received reports from within the care sector of HSC staff ‘working in impossible situations in terms of competence and resource for the risks faced daily’, and asked if staffing was adequate to safeguard both children and employees.
‘We recently had a presentation from the deputy of children services, and there is no doubt at all that children services are under stress,’ said Deputy Oswald.
‘We have not identified an area of major risk we need to be concerned about at the moment, but we have asked the deputy of children services to come back to the committee with essentially a wish list of what she requires to enable her to deliver her services within the limits we expect.
‘That is not to say that we have identified a worrisome deficiency at this present time, but clearly there are markers of concern.’
In his latest update statement to the States, Deputy Oswald said that work was progressing on the development of a children services hub at Raymond Falla House.
It will bring together staff and services currently based at four sites – Lukis House in the Grange, Swissville and Le Carrefour in the Rohais, and Perruque House near the King Edward VII Hospital site in the Castel.
‘The inadequacies of the current buildings have been explored in previous answers to both written and verbal questions in the States. A policy letter will be brought back to the Assembly by the end of this year,’ said Deputy Oswald.
He had previously expressed surprise that skilled staff had chosen to carry on working for HSC given the state of some of these buildings, and pledged to improve conditions as a matter of priority.
The idea of a community hub at Raymond Falla House was initially put forward by HSC nearly a decade ago.