Nearly £60m more for health in Jersey's new budget

Treasury Minister Deputy Elaine Millar said the 2026 budget would see increased funding for health and education

Health and education are the departments set to get the biggest spending uplift in the Jersey government budget for 2026, which has been set out on Tuesday.

The States Assembly would need to approve the proposed budget which allocates an increase of nearly £60m to health and £20m to children, education and families.

The health department has consistently overspent on its budget in recent years but the Treasury Minister Deputy Elaine Millar said the increased funding should prevent this happening again.

The extra funding in the department would go towards preventative health care and improving the service's digital infrastructure - the States will debate the proposals in December.

In the 2025 budget, health received £322m. Politicians have proposed raising that to £381m this year.

Millar said: "There is some more money going into health under this budget. We will be putting more money into preventative healthcare, this is all intended to help people stay healthier in the long term; and also £8m will going go into digital health, which means we have a modern, fit-for-purpose healthcare service."

She added: "There are always very robust conversations when a department overspends, but I think the extra money going into health means we will not see overspends in the future."

Free nursery care

The children, families, education and lifelong learning department would have a departmental spend of £246m , which is £20m more than last year.

This will include £3m to help deliver free nursery care for two and three year olds, which is due to come in from January 2026.

Chief Minister Deputy Lyndon Farnham said: "It would have been nice to be able to provide full funding for two to three-year-olds, but we can't do that because we have to work with the industry to make sure the resources and staffing are aligned.

"That's why we are starting at this level of 15 hours a week during term-time of free nursery which is universal and we will be working with the industry to increase that in the near future."

The government has also set out plans in the budget to spend £1bn on buildings, infrastructure, IT and the new hospital in the next four years.

The treasury minister said: "Existing capital budgets will be devoted to that.

"I think we have one small amount of borrowing. The funding structure for the hospital is already agreed, but there will be a small amount of borrowing for Fort Regent, for the initial works and that is planned in this budget; but, otherwise, the funding will be through our existing capital budgets."

Other proposed plans in the budget include increasing the personal income tax threshold for individuals from £20,700 to £21,250 and a reduction in alcohol duty on draught beer.