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Parents say Jersey is ‘not as family-friendly as it should be’
BBCWith its beautiful beaches, low crime rate and small community, Jersey is often considered an attractive place to raise children.
But parents have told the BBC that high costs and a lack of effective support from politicians and employers mean the island does not cater to families as well as it could.
Mother to a one and three-year-old, Katherine Jauncey said she believed there needed to be a “cultural shift” away from prioritising the social wellbeing of older islanders to focus on parents and children.
The island’s government said it understood families struggled with the high cost of living and it had set up several initiatives “aimed at improving family life in Jersey”.
Mrs Jauncey moved to Jersey with her husband who was born and raised there.
She said some aspects of bringing up her children on the island were “really great”, such as how safe it was and the system of state-supported private schools.
However, she added: “Families and individuals with children are really not prioritised in Jersey culture”.
“There’s a work culture that is unfairly weighted on the side of the employer… and the fact that our culture as an island is very much directed towards the elderly who have a large amount of the voting power.”
She said the island was “focused on the people who are shouting the loudest”, adding that often older people were the ones with the time and energy to do so.
‘Lack of childcare’
Mrs Jauncey said, despite a push to get women in particular back into the workforce, there was a “lack of support for parents with children under five” made worse by a “lack of affordable childcare”.
A report prepared for the government in 2024 found average childcare fees in Jersey were almost 50% higher than in England, while a survey of parents found 95% of those asked thought childcare was too expensive.
The government has announced plans to introduce an additional 15 free hours of nursery care per week for two-year-olds, but there has been concern from parents and nursery staff that it will not be enough.
Family campaigner and mother-of-three Denise Heavey said her own experience of paying nursery fees was “financially crippling”.
“Some months we were paying £2,200 and that was my salary swallowed up,” she said.
She kept working while her children were young but said a lot of parents were “forced out of the workplace because of the high cost of nursery care”.
To remedy this, she said the government needed to think about greater financial support for parents, particularly when returning to work after parental leave.
She added that businesses should also work harder to implement family-friendly policies, such as flexible working arrangements.
Mrs Jauncey has also called for greater statutory rights for working parents, including specific days outside annual leave to look after sick children.
It is not just the cost of childcare that is a cause for concern.
Single mother Karla Divin said the cost of living as a whole was the “most dominant concern” for parents.
In Jersey, prices are continuing to rise with the latest figures showing inflation at 2.8%.
Ms Divin said: “Childcare fees, rent, household bills, food and general expenses often consume an entire monthly wage, leaving little to no disposable income.”
She said this often meant families had to sacrifice experiences that could support a child’s development, such as school trips or extracurricular activities.
“Parents are often forced to prioritise essentials over opportunity,” she said.
Errol Mittoo, a father of four, told the BBC the island had a lot to offer young people but the “cost of bringing up a family was quite high”.
“You do struggle a bit when you’ve got children.”
What is the government doing to help?
In a statement, the government told the BBC it has introduced several measures to make lives better for families in Jersey. These included:
Alongside increased support for the nursery sector, ministers also said they had plans to publish a new play strategy to make sure children could play in all residential areas.
‘Look at solutions’
Outside government, a number of charities and individuals have stepped in to provide support.
Mrs Heavey, for example, has recently launched MentorHood, a community network offering support groups, workshops and meet ups to parents and caregivers in Jersey.
She has set up the group with another mother, Alice Vincenti, to build parents’ confidence and help them be “better performers at work and and be more present parents at home”.
However, she said it was “incredibly frustrating as a parent” that they were having to provide information and help to their peers when the government could make it readily available.
Mrs Heavey said she would like to see politicians making bold choices about childcare and support for parents, considering solutions on a much longer timeline than one political term.
She said this was a necessity given Jersey’s ageing population.
She said: “We can’t just keep saying with every new government that goes in that we’re going to basically start a project and it’s going to stop and then we start again.
“We have such a wonderful island and I think that we can be very, very family-focused, and we can look at solutions to encourage more people to bring their families here too, you know; have more children and to want to stay on the island.”
The US-Israel Iran war has halted almost all traffic in a key waterway and the price Brent crude has surged.
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Crunch talks between resident doctors and the Government are set to continue in a bid to avert strike action.
Sir Keir Starmer has given the resident doctors committee of the British Medical Association (BMA) a deadline to reconsider a deal on pay and jobs which includes an offer of thousands of extra NHS training posts.
It is understood the proposal will be removed from the deal if resident doctors in England press ahead with a six-day strike from April 7 in a row over jobs and pay.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the resident doctors committee of the union, said: “It is wrong for Government to withhold desperately-needed jobs as part of negotiating tactics.
“Anyone who works in the NHS knows that patients need these 4,000 jobs created as soon as possible.
“We made that very clear to Government in our meetings today.
“We are not interested in arbitrary deadlines – we will be looking to get this dispute ended right up to the last minute.
“We believe there is a deal there to be done if Government is willing to withdraw the changes it made at the last minute that reduced the funding for pay rises. Talks continue.”
It comes as senior medics announced they were escalating their disputes with the Government.
Consultants and other senior doctors are to be balloted on industrial action after ministers announced they would be getting a 3.5% pay award.
Simultaneous ballots of consultants and specialist, associate specialist and specialty (SAS) doctors will run from May 11 until July 6.
Addressing resident doctors, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wrote in The Times: “The truth is this: no-one benefits from rejecting this deal.
“Resident doctors will be worse off. Instead of improved pay, progression and support, they will receive the standard pay award this year, with none of the reforms that would have strengthened their working lives.”
The deal sets out a minimum of 4,000 new additional specialty posts to be delivered over the next three years.
NHS England boss Sir Jim Mackey confirmed the offer to expand training places will “come off the table” if an agreement is not reached.
The walkout, which is due to run from 7am on April 7 until 6.59am on April 13, will be the 15th round of strikes by resident doctors in England since 2023.
In a letter to health leaders, Mike Prentice, national director for emergency planning at NHS England, wrote: “We expect this round to be challenging as there is a shorter notice period, bank holidays within the notice period and the action itself falling during the Easter holidays.
“This will represent a significant strain on staffing resources to provide safe cover.”
Business
Iran oil returns: India set to receive first cargo in 5 years, tanker heads to Gujarat – The Times of India
India is set to receive its first shipment of Iranian crude oil since 2019, with a tanker carrying 600,000 barrels of oil en route to Gujarat following a temporary sanctions waiver by the US, according to PTI.Ship-tracking data indicates that the vessel Ping Shun is headed towards Vadinar port, marking a potential revival of Indo-Iran oil trade after nearly five years.“The Indo-Iranian oil trade has flickered back to life. Following the US administration’s decision to grant a 30-day window for Iranian oil “on the water” due to regional conflict, the vessel Ping Shun is now en route to Vadinar (in Gujarat) with 600,000 barrels of crude. This is the first such delivery since May 2019 and comes at a critical time for Indian refiners facing tightening inventories,” said Sumit Ritolia, Lead Research Analyst, Refining and Modelling at Kpler.The development follows Washington’s decision earlier this month to allow a 30-day window for the purchase of Iranian oil already at sea, aimed at easing global oil prices amid the ongoing US-Israel conflict with Iran. The window is set to expire on April 19.While the buyer of the cargo remains unidentified, Vadinar houses a 20 million tonnes per annum refinery operated by Rosneft-backed Nayara Energy and also serves as a landing point for crude supplies to inland refineries such as BPCL’s Bina unit.India’s oil ministry has so far maintained that any decision to resume imports from Iran will depend on techno-commercial viability.Before sanctions were tightened in 2018, India was among the largest buyers of Iranian crude, importing both Iran Light and Iran Heavy grades due to refinery compatibility and favourable pricing terms.Imports ceased in May 2019 after US sanctions were reimposed, with India shifting to alternative suppliers including the Middle East and the US. At its peak, Iranian crude accounted for 11.5 per cent of India’s total imports.India had imported about 518,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian oil in 2018, which declined to 268,000 bpd between January and May 2019 during a sanctions waiver period before dropping to zero thereafter.“The Aframax Ping Shun (IMO 9231901) loaded with Iranian crude oil from Kharg Island in early March has emerged as the first vessel observed signalling a destination of Vadinar, India since May 2019, following sanction reimposition on Iranian oil by the first Trump administration,” Ritolia said.The tanker is estimated to have loaded around 600,000 barrels from Kharg Island around March 4 and is expected to reach Vadinar on April 4.An estimated 95 million barrels of Iranian oil are currently stored on vessels at sea, of which around 51 million barrels could be supplied to India, while the rest may be directed to China and Southeast Asian markets.However, payment mechanisms remain uncertain as Iran continues to be excluded from the SWIFT global banking system, complicating international transactions.Earlier, payments were routed in euros through Turkish banks, but that channel is no longer available following renewed sanctions restrictions.Iran was first disconnected from SWIFT in 2012 due to EU sanctions over its nuclear programme, with further disruptions in 2018 after the US reimposed sanctions, limiting its ability to receive payments and access foreign currency reserves.
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