With more than a year of the political term now firmly under our belt, and despite a few changes to our lineup, I’m confident that the Committee for Employment & Social Security has gotten to grips with our extensive policy and operational agenda.
That in mind, the Committee has been hard at work to develop its Work Plan, which I’m pleased to say we published at the end of last month. ESS’s mandate is broad and varied and this is clearly reflected in our priorities for the remainder of the term.
Firstly, we want to make sure that the Islands’ social security system is sustainable and able to meet future demand while promoting intergenerational fairness.
Another of our top priorities is to support the wellbeing of Guernsey’s workforce and expand opportunities for workforce participation, which we will do through our Work & Wellbeing strategy.
We also have an ageing population to consider and must ensure that the social security system is equipped to meet the needs of those who require social care.
At the other end of the age spectrum, there is also a role for us to play in improving outcomes for children and creating an environment in which families can thrive and participate fully in society and the economy.
And finally, by broadening legal protections against discrimination and ensuring access to justice through the Islands’ Legal Aid Schemes, we’re committed to supporting a fair and socially just society.
With these goals in mind, we’ve given ‘critical’ priority status to several workstreams in our Work Plan, these include:
- implementing agreed changes to the Long-term Care Insurance Scheme and developing proposals for a new model of community long-term care;
- implementing any approved changes to the structure of social security contributions;
- identifying and implementing savings opportunities; AND
- developing proposals for shared parental leave and the right to request flexible working.
Not only do these workstreams align with the Committee’s goals but each also helps to support or deliver at least one Government Work Plan Super Priority.
Alongside these, our Work Plan identifies other workstreams as ‘important’, and these have either been explicitly identified in a GWP Area of Focus, or support an Area of Focus, such as:
- continuing the development of the Prevention of Discrimination Ordinance;
- implementing reforms to the Legal Aid Schemes;
- progressing the extension of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); AND
- investigating ways to support productivity and participation in work.
In addition to those priorities, the Committee oversees a significant amount of business-as-usual work and must also play its part in reducing public spending, which I’ll return to in a moment.
Narrowing our priorities down was not an easy task and, in all honesty, we have not achieved this to the level that we would like.Given limited officer resource, funding constraints, and the absence of an established prioritisation system or resource allocation solution within the organisation, prioritisation remains challenging and I’m sure we all recognise that there is an ongoing tension between ambition and deliverability across government.
Despite this challenge, we’re committed to progressing the priority areas we’ve identified.
We have also been making progress on many ongoing workstreams recently but before I speak to those, I’d like to briefly cover savings as I know this is an area that everyone is keen to hear about. The Committee has established a Savings Working Party which has been turning stones and actively looking for opportunities to make savings and efficiencies, including invest-to-save opportunities. So far, over 30 areas have been identified for further investigation and Members will see some initial steps being taken in our upcoming annual uprating policy letters.
I’m grateful to Deputies Ozanne, Rylatt & St Pier for continuing this important workstream and would like to thank Members who recently attended an update about the work we have been doing towards achieving savings targets. If any Members missed this presentation but would like to know more, please drop me a line and we can arrange another session or 1:1.
We do recognise our responsibility to reduce spending, but we must also ensure that changes do not unfairly affect Islanders who need support and who have often contributed throughout their working lives. Taking this into account, any benefit changes must be carefully assessed to avoid unintended consequences. Many changes require legislation changes, which take time, and transitional protections are often required, meaning savings are realised longer term rather than immediately. While we all want rapid savings, we have to be realistic that genuine quick wins are limited.
One of our pre-existing invest-to-save workstreams is the Work & Wellbeing strategy, which I mentioned earlier, and I’d like to give a bit more detail now on what that actually entails:
We know that sickness and incapacity benefit claims have increased in recent years.We’re acutely aware of the increased challenges some young people face.A recent report found that almost a million young people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training in the UK (what’s known as NEET).
And in Guernsey, there are around 100 people aged 17 to 25 claiming sickness or unemployment-related benefits.
The UK report suggests that their welfare system focuses more on income replacement than helping people find work. However, this is something we are already prioritising.
Our Work & Wellbeing Strategy, which was launched in May last year, is a five-year programme to improve workforce participation, reduce the duration of sickness absence and ensure that people who experience illness, injury or disability receive the right support at the right time.
The strategy is built on partnership across government, employers, healthcare professionals and the third sector. This work includes:
- the formation of a dedicated ESS Work Support team;
- a review of our existing Back to Work provisions;
- regular training and awareness sessions with GPs and practitioners; AND
- implementing a new Work & Wellness assessment tool which focusses on individuals’ strengths and needs, and takes a positive approach centred around what a person CAN do with the right support to get them back into work.
A key message emerging from both the strategy and operational data is that our early intervention is working and we have seen the increase in sickness-related claims start to slow. Between May 2025 and May 2026, the work support team received around 1,500 referrals for individuals experiencing barriers to employment due to ill health or disability and resolved 1,375 cases. Over 900 individuals returned to work, increased their work participation, or re-engaged with active job-seeking and, of these, 679 were supported by Work Support Case Managers to return to work or re-engage with job-seeking activities.
Interventions take place during the critical rehabilitation window, with engagement typically occurring within the first few weeks and months, when support is most likely to have a positive impact. Early conversations help build personalised return-to-work plans with the individual and their healthcare providers.
To break down potential barriers to accessing early support we are actively promoting, on social media, services provided by officers and have also partnered with Guernsey Mind to provide regular drop-in sessions for customers engaging with the Work Support team.
To be clear, our approach is not about targeting or penalising people with a health condition or pressuring people back into work before they are ready.Instead, it is about ensuring that no one faces health challenges alone, that employers have access to the advice and support they need, and that people are given every opportunity to remain connected to the workplace while recovering.
To help the workforce reach its full potential we need an inclusive, adaptable labour market that opens doors to work and helps people stay in it, while striking the right balance between worker protections and supporting economic participation.
In other areas, we’ve been busy tying up some loose ends from last term. These include implementing changes to the eligibility criteria for family allowance and widowed parent’s allowance, meaning that from 1st September this year, payments of both benefits continue until a child finishes school in the year they turn 18, rather than ceasing on their 18th birthday.
We’ve also been working to implement changes to the Long-term Care Insurance Scheme agreed by the States in February last year. This includes introducing a user contribution towards residential care costs and amending one of the residency conditions to be eligible to receive Long-term Care benefit.
Members will have seen that some of the required legislation to make these changes was on the Billet for our last two meetings and has now rolled into this one. However, further work is needed, and it is complex work, including the minute details of financial assessments - to ensure that only those that can afford to pay will do so – as well as anti-divestment rules. We intend to bring forward Regulations for this in due course.
On this subject, I’d like to thank Members for engaging with the briefing session delivered by Deputies de Sausmarez, Oswald, and I on 20th May. The three Committees we represent continue to work closely together via the political oversight group with particular focus on the design of a new Long Term Care model, which sits under the Supported Living and Ageing Well Strategy. ESS’s role includes funding arrangements and sustainability considerations, including:
- exploring the expansion of the Scheme to provide care benefit to people receivingcare in their own home;
- considering the introduction of a higher rate of benefit for people with more complex care needs;
- reviewing the case for and against moving from what we have now which is a residency-based entitlement, to a contributions-based system;
- there's also reviewing Severe Disability Benefit and Carer’s Allowance; AND
- ensuring that any proposals for change are financially sustainable and fair across generations.
Turning briefly now to pensions -
As of 1st October last year, the statutory duty on employers to automatically enrol eligible employees in a workplace pension has been in force for all employers.
By way of reminder, Your Island Pension - known as YIP - is the States facilitated workplace pension scheme administered by Sovereign Pension Services (CI) Ltd.As of 16 September this year, 4,697 Islanders have a YIP account.
As YIP is not the only qualifying workplace pension, overall participation figures will be higher, however updated data on this is not yet available due to IT issues at Revenue Services.
But, without doubt, the provision of a second-pillar pension scheme for Guernsey and Alderney workers will reduce future reliance on income support and will improve peoples’ financial security in retirement.
Moving on to an entirely different area, as part of our statutory responsibilities, actuarial reviews of both insurance funds are underway. There have been unavoidable delays to this work because population, earnings and unemployment data, which is essential to the review process, has been unavailable for some time. We postponed the reviews for a while to await the data but, as this is outside of ESS’s control and still being resolved, we have worked with the actuaries to find a way forward. We anticipate that the review will be finalised before the end of this year.
Finally, this has been a particularly busy time of year for our ‘business as usual’ activity at ESS. This work is essential to ensure that lower-income Islanders do not fall below an acceptable minimum standard of living.
Work is complete on the annual uprating process, with proposals due to come before the States today and at the Budget meeting to take effect at the start of 2027. As part of this, we’re reviewing methodologies to seek out savings opportunities and ensure a sustainable and balanced approach over the long term. But upholding fiscal responsibility while also ensuring that financial support is available to those who need it is a difficult balancing act.That in mind, the Committee is taking a careful and considered long-term view, some steps have been taken for 2027, but more analysis is required before introducing any more substantial reforms.
Given the scale of the work I’ve covered in this statement, I’m very pleased that in June we welcomed Wendy McHugh as a non-voting Member of the Committee. Her significant experience in HR and employment relations aligns closely to some of our priorities. She has already made many valuable contributions.
In closing, Madam, the Committee is under no illusions about the scale of the programme of work, but we are determined to make meaningful progress against our priorities this term.