Deborah McMillan said although she had no current evidence that such children existed in the Island, there were gaps in records which meant that there could potentially be children today, and in the future, who the authorities would not know about.
And the risk with such a situation would, she said, make it impossible for the government and other agencies to ensure such children were safe.
She is now carrying out a piece of work designed to ‘triangulate’ records and identify where there might be gaps.
Her comments come weeks after the foster parents of a man who was smuggled into Jersey illegally when he was just five spoke out about how they believe he was ‘catastrophically failed’ by Children’s Services and would have ‘fared better if he had been dumped on the streets of Morocco’.
After the man was jailed for drug offences, the couple criticised the government for failing in its care of him from the day he arrived in Jersey, for doing little to track down his real mother and for not supporting him once he left their foster care.
Mrs McMillan said her office was now working to better understand the potential for ‘hidden children’ to be in Jersey.
‘One of the problems I think we have with Jersey is that the government aren’t very good at collecting data and then looking at that data to see the story behind it and bringing data from different places together,’ she said.
‘So we are doing some thinking about where these children might be and trying to look at the data. One of the dangerous things, like the current Housing and Work Law, means that there could still be children brought to the Island that we don’t know about.
‘In England, for example, you register with a GP and you are known – you are on a system. Well they might not do that here, particularly not in the first six months because it costs. And equally, because parents aren’t able to claim Income Support until they have been here for five years, they don’t need to be claiming for the child. So potentially there could be children we don’t know about and that is what we need to make sure of, because we want to make sure that all children on the Island are safe.’
Mrs McMillan added that the work to cross-reference records would also have other benefits and would not simply relate to identifying the potential for hidden children.
For example, there is data about children being excluded from school and, separately, for the educational outcomes of looked-after children, but no way of linking the two to see if children in care are among those being excluded.
And she said that her office was also keen to work with those vulnerable children who may, for whatever reason, struggle to have a voice, including those from ethnic minorities.
‘That is why we publish our material in different languages,’ Mrs McMillan said.
The commissioner recently published her strategic plan in various languages, as well as in a child-accessible format. There was also a version aimed at those with disabilities.
Children can contact her office at any time on 867310, or by emailing commissioner@childcomjersey.org.je.
