Government Plan 2022 Review - Children, Education and Home Affairs

The Government Plan seeks to bring together public income and spending against the context of the stated strategic priorities of Government. It is a rolling four-year plan but is brought back and updated each year to take account of changes in the Island's economic outlook.

The Government Plan 2022-25 is the second which has been published since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes made to financial forecasts to fund Government's response to it.

The Government Plan is scheduled for debate the week of 14th December 2021.

Details of the plan include:

• Estimated income and expenditure of the Consolidated Fund
• Amounts to be internally transferred between States Funds
• Any other proposed financing
• Major Projects and their proposed costs
• Estimated income and expenditure from States trading operations to be paid into the States trading operations fund
• Amounts to be appropriated from the Consolidated and States trading operations fund for the next financial year
• Estimated amounts in States funds at the start and finish of each financial year

Each Scrutiny Panel has been allocated various revenue programmes and capital projects included in the Government Plan 2022 to scrutinise. For a full list of programmes and projects allocated to the Children, Education and Home Affairs Panel, please see document below under Research.

The Panel presented its report on Wednesday 8th December. You can read the Panel's report here. As a result of the Panel's review, it has lodged six amendments to the Government Plan as follows:

1. Maintain the full grant amount to the Jersey Child Care Trust - this amendment seeks to reverse the Government decision to decrease the grant by £30,000 in 2022
2. Increase funding for the Nursery Education Fund in 2022 for 3-4 year olds
3. Provide funding for targeted support for 2-3-year-olds from the Nursery Educatioin Fund
4. Increased funding for schools and Special Educational Needs
5. Move funding for the Best Start Partnership from the Covid Recovery fund to Children, Young People, Education and Skills - this has since been amended as follows
6. Provide funding for degree courses for private nursery practitioners

• To undertake a review of the sections/projects of the Government Plan 2022- 2025 which are most relevant to the remit of the Children, Education and Home Affairs Panel, using the following criteria as a guide:
• Where funding over £500,000 has been allocated
• Where funding has been withdrawn or decreased significantly from the previous year
• Where funding has been increased significantly from the previous year
• Projects which the Panels consider are of most concern (as a result of, for instance, delays, deferrals, overspends or because they are not in keeping with Common Strategic Priorities)
• Projects which have been identified as of concern by stakeholders
• Projects which are contentious and/or in the public eye.
• Projects where insufficient information has been provided and more information is sought
• Concern is held on the project's alignment with Common Strategic Priorities, social impact and impact upon children
• To determine whether those projects align with Ongoing Initiatives, Common Themes and, ultimately, Common Strategic Priorities.

• To consider whether the resources allocated to the projects is sufficient or excessive.

• To review of the success or otherwise of projects agreed in the previous Government Plan for 2021. 

• To assess the expected impact on the ongoing delivery of public services, by Minister, through rebalancing and efficiencies of Government finances