The £22m. scheme at Raymond Falla House will bring together services for children and families currently run from five locations – Lukis House, Swissville, Garden Hill, Perruque House and Le Carrefour – which Health & Social Care have said are no longer fit for purpose.
Before backing the proposals, some deputies sought assurances that there would be no repeat of HSC’s recent mismanagement of capital projects, which has included delays and cost overruns on two phases of the redevelopment of the Princess Elizabeth Hospital and the replacement of an electronic patient records system.
‘You would have to be a very, very brave person to give HSC a sum of money for a building project given their past track record,’ said Deputy Simon Vermeulen.
‘I am very nervous about entrusting a large sum of money and expecting the project to come in on time and on budget or, worse still, even to get spades in the ground within a workable period.’
In recent years, the States has also wasted £18m. on an IT scheme aimed at centralising customer services which delivered no substantial improvements and spent £24m. on new systems at the Revenue Service which made things worse for taxpayers and staff.
‘Consequently, the States chief executive has reshaped the approach to projects under the auspices of P&R, and to my mind it is incumbent on P&R to tell us why we should be confident about the new approach to projects,’ said Deputy Marc Laine.
P&R president Lindsay de Sausmarez said that project management was ‘a tanker that needs turning and is very much in the process of being turned’.
She said there was now ‘a more robust process’ used when estimating project costs and ‘more dedicated expertise in the States to resource this kind of project’.
HSC president George Oswald said that children and their families currently had to move between multiple locations to use essential services, which created barriers to co-ordinated care and a fragmented experience, and that the existing buildings did not provide a welcoming or therapeutic environment.
He said his committee was determined to provide the best support the island could afford during the first three years of every child’s life, which studies had repeatedly shown were critical in setting the right foundations for later childhood and adulthood.
‘Although the proposed model is not strictly for a family centre, bringing children and services together in one location will improve integrated working and strengthen the effectiveness of preventative and early-help intervention,’ said Deputy Oswald.
‘Children who receive good early support have better physical and mental health outcomes throughout life. By the age of three, children from disadvantaged backgrounds can be 18 months behind their peers in language development.’
The existing buildings were also expensive to maintain, due to their age and condition, and the sites could be put to better use once given over to the Housing Committee for the development of social housing.
The Scrutiny Management Committee had issued a letter of comment criticising the case for the children’s hub which had been presented to the States, and its president, Andy Sloan, expanded on those concerns in the debate.
‘I appreciate that we might come across as the institutional killjoy, the person who turns up at the party and declines the champagne and just asks to see the bill, but someone has to look at the proposals dispassionately to see whether they are worthy of the cause and whether the numbers stack up,’ said Deputy Sloan.
He accepted that there would be good arguments for more integration in children’s services.
‘But supporting the consolidation of children’s services is not the same thing as accepting that we need to spend £22m. on a building to achieve it,’ he said.
‘We are told that integration will improve outcomes and facilitate earlier intervention and deliver more effective services, but by how much? How many additional children will receive support? What reductions in waiting times are anticipated? What improvements in outcomes are expected? Are there identifiable savings from reduced duplication or more efficient use of staff?
‘Then, critically, how much of any improvement depends upon bringing the services together in this particular building rather than simply changing the way those services are organised and delivered.’
Deputy Sloan claimed that there was ‘no satisfactory basis for a capital investment decision’ until such questions had been answered.
HSC member Jennifer Strachan argued that the children’s services hub would be ‘a critical step on the way to providing the support which our children and families deserve’ and indicated that levels of poor mental health in youngsters might be lower today if such projects had been developed years ago.
‘This should be seen as a spend-to-save initiative. Each Guernsey child is worthy of this investment to ensure they can grow and thrive,’ said Deputy Strachan.
She also believed the single hub at Raymond Falla House was badly needed by staff working in children’s and family services.
‘Having met many of those professionals working at the coal face, delivering support for those who are struggling at this vital time, I would like to thank them for their heroic work,’ she said.
‘This facility will improve their working environment and help with recruitment.
‘The fact this initiative will release land for housing is the cherry on the cake.’
Deputies Tina Bury and Marc Leadbeater were concerned that the idea of a competitive tender process for redeveloping Raymond Falla House could be undermined by publicly announcing the maximum budget at the outset.
The proposed children’s hub was approved by 31 votes to four, with Deputies Sloan, Haley Camp, Liam McKenna and Rob Curgenven opposing, and a second proposal to delegate authority to P&R to sign off funding for the project was approved by 28 votes to six.
You need to be logged in to comment.