Archives and Collections director Linda Romeril travelled to the UK to collect the documents – which include witness statements, daily records from care homes, social services reports and other information that will be redacted – from the inquiry team, which concluded its work earlier this year.
The exchange marks an important step in a major project to archive all the public documents from the inquiry – which will be the biggest digital archive ever to be managed by Jersey Archive – and ensure that they can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
The first documents are expected to start appearing online early in 2018 but the whole process is likely to take two to three years to complete.
Preserving the inquiry documents in perpetuity was part of the key recommendations of the panel, which said they must be retained in the public domain and consideration given to making the archive more easily searchable.
Extra staff are to be employed by Jersey Archive to help with the project, which has received £200,000 funding from the States.
Those staff will come from existing projects and therefore be well known to the Archive and experienced in its work, Mrs Romeril said.
They are also well aware of the personal and distressing nature of the accounts of abuse provided to the inquiry, including by anonymous witnesses whose identity will be protected, she added.
‘Staff will work with sensitivity and care over the next couple of years sorting, cataloguing and indexing the material to do justice to the important and often harrowing aspects of Jersey’s history they contain,’ said Mrs Romeril.
‘Any inquiry material that could identify witnesses who’ve asked to remain anonymous will be kept off-island and out of the public domain for an extended period determined by relevant legislation, likely to be at least 100 years.’
The archive is now asking for suggestions of how people would like the inquiry public records to be presented on the online catalogue, to ensure that the contents are easy to search.
Independent Jersey Care Inquiry chair Frances Oldham said: ‘Anonymous witnesses to the inquiry were assured that information that could identify them and their families would not be shared with any agency or individual in Jersey.
‘In these unique circumstances, the panel have sought secure, off-island, archive facilities with experience of handling inquiry material, where the confidential data can be lodged.
‘The panel will consult with the Jersey Archive and representatives of the States of Jersey regarding the facilities it is considering before arrangements are finalised.’
Chief Minister Ian Gorst added: ‘While the inquiry report documents are painful to read, we must do so and keep open to the public and wider world as part of Jersey’s history. It allows us to better understand the pain and hurt experienced by children and ensure the greatest level of safety and protection for our children in the future, in order that they may flourish.’
Large quantities of historic evidence given to the inquiry by States agencies came from the Archive and have already been returned.
