Advisory Council meeting, 29 June 2023

Advisory Council Meeting, 29 June

The first meeting of the Policy Centre’s Advisory Council was held at the Prosperity 24/7 offices on Tuesday 29 June 2023. 20 members of the Council attended.

Overview

Simon Burgess, the Chair of the Advisory Council, opened the meeting by thanking those attending for their support. He outlined the role of the Centre, noted that the terms of reference of the Advisory Council had been agreed by the Centre’s Management Committee and that it had been registered as a Jersey charity.

The objectives of the meeting were for members to –

• Improve their understanding and hopefully commitment to the Advisory Council.
• Produce an agreed set of priority topics for research projects.
• Get to know each other and how to work together to support the direction of the Policy Centre.
• Agree next steps.

Alan Merry, Chair of the Management Committee, said the Centre had deliberately undertaken a great deal of work, all on its website, before seeking general support rather than first seeking support on the basis of plans. The website was already very widely used and the Centre had over 1,000 followers on LinkedIn.

Criteria for research projects

Alan Merry facilitated a wide-ranging discussion on the criteria that should be used to decide the areas on which the Centre should concentrate. The following points were made –

• The Centre should look at areas that are not being covered by other organisations.
• The Centre should work in areas where it can make a difference.
• There has to be a clear understanding of the end-game.
• Ways of engaging the public must be part of the process.
• The Centre needs to earn the trust of politicians from all backgrounds and officials.
• Politicians are a target audience but the Centre has an overall objective of increasing public understanding and engagement of public policy issues.
• The Centre needs to engage with local media in order to get its message across.
• The Centre needs to take into account the views of all sections of the community.
• The Centre's Advisory Council needs to be more diverse (a point recognised by the Chair who indicated the intention to address this), although noting that there were already a diverse range of views in the room, but the Centre is committed to increasing diversity.

Research priorities

A “strawman” had been circulated listing possible topics for research.

Kate Wright, Vice Chair of the Advisory Council, facilitated a discussion on which should be prioritised. The following points were made –

• An issue for Jersey was making things happen. There had been many reports but ineffective implementation.
• The effectiveness of the political system needed to be improved.
• Could more use be made of people's assemblies?
• International comparisons were important. In particular, it would be useful to know what metrics can help drive policy.
• It was suggested that in some areas, for example climate change and energy, the available data did not support current policy measures.
• In engaging with people from disadvantaged or marginal groups an independent organisation was more likely to be successful than anything connected with the government.
• There were important areas like healthcare or population management where the government currently seemed to have no policy and no policy capability.
• The work of the Youth Parliament was relevant. Its priorities were housing, diversity (including religion) and “a safe place to hang out”.

Following discussions in smaller groups the following priorities emerged –

1. Housing
2. Poverty
3. Implications of the the ageing society.

Other issues that had some support were healthcare, education, the economy (in particular the reliance of the finance sector) and Island resilience.

The close inter-relationship between the various issues was noted and it was acknowledged that many subject areas crossed others.

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