Life on the Rock
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1 Children’s Commissioner for Jersey LIFE ON THE ROCK. 2 3 Contents Introduction .........................................................................................................................................................4 What is life like for children in Jersey? ..............................................................................................................5 6 12 20 28 36 44 52 60 66 72 Housing Leisure Time Being Safe Getting Around Staying Healthy Getting Support Getting an Social Media Money & Family Life and Activity Jaya Olivia Sophie Olivia Anna Education & Online Life Employment Lucy Leo Sophie Reuben Jackson Charlotte Sarah Elliott Anna Elliot Freya Charlotte Freya William Luke Noah 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The Future ...........................................................................................................................................................80 Being Respected .................................................................................................................................................86 Appendix .............................................................................................................................................................88 How we carried out the study ............................................................................................................................88 Children’s Advisory Group (CAG) .......................................................................................................................88 Secondary analysis of survey data .....................................................................................................................90 Life History Interviews ........................................................................................................................................90 Qualitative Data Analysis ....................................................................................................................................92 References ...........................................................................................................................................................93 Contents 4 5 Introduction What is life like for children in Jersey? Life on the Rock is presented under 10 core themes that capture the key aspects Life on the Rock tells the life stories of 21 children and young people, aged of children’s lives on the island, such as accessing an education, getting support from 9-18, on the island of Jersey. In line with her mandate, the Children’s and social media. In each of the themes the data is presented in four sections. Commissioner wanted children’s views to be central in the development of These are as follows: the study, and so it employs a unique children’s rights-based methodology developed at the Centre for Children’s Rights, Queen’s University Belfast. The Survey: Social Vignettes: The Children’s biographies: Advisory Groups’ A secondary analysis of Personal stories relevant data from the A synthesis of the highlighting the Key Messages: Office’s 2018 survey of experiences based on the experiences of over 1700 children. 21 children’s life stories. individual children. The CAG’s response to the The researchers worked with a children’s advisory group (CAG) These costs may relate to conflicts between housing, transport, findings, focusing on what team to design the study including: developing the qualitative leisure, school, or even medical assistance, and in this regard, not had resonance for them, methods, interpreting the data and contributing to the design and all costs fell equally. Living in certain parts of the island can preclude what surprised them and dissemination of the report. The research team also conducted a children from engaging in the many activities that are clustered in what they think needs to secondary analysis of existing survey data collated by the Office of St Helier due to the expense and sometimes inconvenience of buses. happen so that children the Children’s Commissioner. Further details as to how the study can enjoy their rights. was conducted can be found in the appendix. A stereotype of a Jersey child might be one born on the island to wealthy parents, getting a high quality education and enjoying a What emerges from the collection of stories is that childhood on the range of diverse, often outdoor, activities. Yet even some of the Rock is not one thing. For almost all the children who told us their life children for whom this was generally true reported challenges at stories, it was characterized in the main by family, friendship and fun times in their family lives, with their peers, or in school or their – often on one of Jersey’s beaches or hanging out in St Helier. communities. When this happened, families were often very However, even though all of the children who shared their life stories supportive but services that might have helped were not available spoke of these things, an overarching conclusion was that life was not or not as helpful as children would have wished. Safety concerns were enjoyed to the same extent at all times, or experienced in the same way, notably focused on issues with peer groups, school and occasionally by any of the children. In this sense, life on the Rock was a continuous family. For children not born on the island, or living in families for The discussion of the 10 themes is followed by the CAG’s recommendations for each theme. These provide oscillation between a number of contrasts and conflicts in Jersey that whom financial worries were a concern, there were additional policy makers, professionals and other adults who work with children, information to consider when making existed, sometimes in tension. On the one hand, children appreciated challenges faced. Their accounts of their lives suggested: challenges improvements to their services, based on what is important for children. how safe the island is, how everyone knows everyone in the communities integrating; a reduced sense of belonging; instability; and at times in which they live, but on the other hand, there is less privacy or escape significant stress. What emerged was not so much a tale of two lives The ten cross-cutting themes are followed by an account of the participants’ aspirations about the future. from the public gaze – whether out in town, or visible online. That also (Jersey born or not; ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’), but a complex array of These are summarised without analysis: the children’s hopes and aspirations in many cases speak to their brings particular challenges to children whose lives do not conform to experiences that are impacted not only by factors such as national past experiences and current lives as well as their hopes for the future, whether that is on or off the island. what was presented by children and young people as the ‘Jersey norm’ origin and socio-economic status, but gender, disability, sexuality – straight and white, enjoying outdoor sport, interested in fashion and and race, among other things. This report tells the stories of young The report concludes with a significant cross-cutting theme which was threaded across the children’s beauty, and speaking with an English accent. people living and growing up in Jersey, in their own words. All names life stories – that of respect. have been changed to protect the identity of the young people who While Jersey offers many of its children a seemingly idyllic backdrop in participated in the project. which to grow and develop and learn, many children do not enjoy this to the same extent as others since much of what is available comes at a cost. Introduction 6 7 Housing was one of the top five issues that would make Jersey better for over a Housing quarter of children, with concerns increasing as children get older. 1 Housing Jaya, 13 9 Sophie, 16 10 Housing 8 9 I think houses and flats are really expensive in Jersey and sometimes mums and dads don’t earn enough money to afford a nice house for them and their children to live in and sometimes Housing landlords have nice big houses but won’t let children live in them. (survey respondent, female, 10) Jaya, 13 Jaya moved to Jersey at a young age with her parents and two brothers, a move she found Life on the Rock for many children landlord. Even though Charlotte considered her family pretty difficult because of her perceived difference. well-off, they remained susceptible to such instability and were under in Jersey, like 10-year old Joshua threat of eviction at one point. Because I wasn’t born in Jersey lots of people used to make fun of me living on the west of the island, and just say things about how I looked and about the colour of my skin… The housing has been crazy too… the first house we rented for everyone knew each other and everyone had their friends, none were really means life in a beautiful place, in two years, then we moved to another rented house and willing to open up to other people. Some people were just a bit mean. because we were under the impression in the first house, we’d a comfortable home within easy be kicked out… they were going to sell it to developers to knock On the breakdown of her parents’ relationship, Jaya, along with her mother and reach of a beach: it down … Em, so like, they’d end our lease. And then the brothers, had to access emergency accommodation for a really long time; second house we were renting and then my parents decided accommodation that was unsuitable for a mother and three children. I’m pretty privileged to