Jersey civil service 'change resistant'

Jersey's civil service is resistant to change, the former Health Minister, Senator Stuart Syvret, has said.

A recent report found faults in the management of the Health and Social Services team. A new chief executive has now been appointed.

The senator said problems ran wider within public administration.

But Bill Ogley, Chief Executive of the Council of Ministers, has said politicians have power and civil servants have just an advisory role.

'Impartial, honest, fair'

Senator Syvret said: "Most politicians in Jersey are terrified, and that isn't too strong a word, of taking on this culture, of taking on the public sector and of taking on the senior management."

Mr Ogley said: "The ministers are the people who make the decisions.

"We've got a very transparent process and it's officers jobs to provide the advice - impartial, honest, fair advice - to ministers.

"But it is ministers, the individual minister, who make their own decisions."

A new chief executive officer for Health and Social Services has been selected.

Julie Garbutt, who has been the chief executive of NHS Norfolk since 2007, has been named for the post. A start date has not been set.

Jersey civil service 'change resistant'