Jersey government to cut job and freeze recruitment for top jobs as part of restructure review

Some Jersey civil servants will be made redundant as part of the Government's restructure.

It is also freezing the recruitment of all new officials who would earn more than £66,000.

The announcements come as part of a nine-month review called the Common Strategic Policy which looks at how the Government can cut costs.

The wider document sets out 13 priorities of the Council of Ministers until the end of the current political term in 2026.

It outlines benefits for households, families, patients and care providers, islanders, businesses and the community.

ITV News understands the measures will not affect frontline workers such as nurses and doctors.

As of today, grade 11 jobs and above - that is people who earn £66,000 and more - will no longer be advertised.

Any vacant positions that have been on the books for more than six months will now be taken down.

This freeze is going to last for nine months because the Government says it doesn't make sense to continue to recruit people when they are trying to restructure the Civil Service.

They will be redeploying some staff but ultimately they are hoping it is going to save them a lot of money.

As part of that, some civil servants will be made redundant.

Deputy Malcolm Ferey from the States Employment Board says: "Nine months is a long time to actually look at the structure of the Civil Service to make sure we redeploy the people and if there are any job losses, that they make the way through the system.

"It is going to be a long piece of work, it's not going to be easy but it will be worth it when we get there."

The size of the Communications Department has been controversial.

To put it into perspective, as of September 2023, 34 people were working in the team costing millions of pounds.

In comparison, the States of Guernsey only has nine members of comms staff and there are just eight in the Isle of Man Government.

There have been questions raised before about whether somewhere like Jersey. with only 100,000 people, needs a team that big.

Now we are hearing that the Government is looking to make around a third of its comms team redundant and they're currently in a consultation period.

It is an uncertain time for many civil servants and when the new Government building opens in a matter of weeks, many may be concerned about their future.

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