All Public Stats On Jersey Children Brought Together

The Children's Commissioner's Office has brought all available data on the island's young people to one web page to identify areas in which key services may be falling short.

It's inspired by work carried out by England's Children's Commissioner, with the launch coinciding with World Children's Day.

61% of all pupils get five standard GCSEs, including 4.2% of children in care, while 164 youngsters have experienced maltreatment or personal harm.

114 young people are on a child protection plan, with 91 of 230 children and young people classified as 'in need' not having any plans in place.

100 16 to 18 year olds are not in education, employment or training, while an average of 272 children and young people commit offences every year.

It's estimated that 363 children are bullied every day.

The JCCO says it's crucial to understand children and young people's vulnerabilities 'when the Covid-19 pandemic is laying bare the seriousness of existing challenges, and creating fresh ones'.

"Having reliable estimates of the number of children and young people who are living in situations of vulnerability and assessing this over time can enable effective and meaningful advice for practice and policy. It can help to understand the scale of difficulties that young people are faced with today, and it can support decision-making to better support children.

"This work lays the groundworks, working with what is available. It does not account for any co-occurrences (double counting), and as such it does not seek to create a total sum figure of children living in situations of vulnerability.

Its purpose is to assess what data is available, what the trends in these data show and what can be done in the future to create a better and clearer picture."

You can read all the data here.

Jersey's new Children's Minister has used World Children's Day to pay tribute to the island's young people 'for showing tremendous resilience and rising to the challenges of this pandemic'.

"Please continue making those incredible efforts to help keep everyone safe. It really does make a difference. This special day is your day. It’s a day I want each and every one of you to celebrate your achievements. You deserve it. Enjoy it safely."

Deputy Jeremy Macon has also praised the services and staff that work with young people for 'working so hard to protect our children and keeping them safe'.