New think piece - Vision CI by Chris Brock

The Policy Centre Jersey has published a new think piece – Vision CI, written by Guernsey-based economist and consultant Chris Brock.The think piece is a thought-provoking case study designed to generate positive debate on the potential integration of public services across the Channel Islands and sets out possible next steps options for consideration by all potential stakeholders and interested parties.The paper argues that the impact of common challenges facing both Jersey and Guernsey set against the current escalating backdrop of long-term international and national tensions and events is a daunting scenario: “Therefore, it is unlikely that there will ever be a better opportunity to review a pan-CI approach to the provision of many key public service functions.”Chris Brock also suggests that “the funding of public services also presents an increasing challenge and the merging of key public services on a pan-CI basis should ensure that CI public expenditure, now standing at £1.65 billion a year, is contained as far as possible and even reduced by harnessing the benefits of critical mass and economies of scale.”The Centre’s think pieces are short evidence-based papers by named authors relevant to public policy in Jersey. They are either entirely Jersey-specific or build on work done by other think tanks and research organisations, drawing out relevance to Jersey. Vision CI is the third to be published, the others being by Mark Boleat on principles for tax policy and Dr Michael Goldstein on university education on-Island.