No permanent chair for Jersey health board until 'spring 2025'

"The remainder of the board are very constructive and collaborative", Deputy Tom Binet told the States Assembly.

An independent board which oversees the work of Jersey's health department will remain without a permanent chairperson for the next year, the health minister has announced.

Tom Hayhoe stepped down as the leader of the Health and Community Services (HCS) Advisory Board earlier in April - five weeks after his appointment had been announced.

The health minister said Mr Hayhoe had left the role due to "differences in working styles".

On Tuesday, Deputy Tom Binet was asked in the States Assembly to provide a timetable for the appointment of Mr Hayhoe's permanent successor.

The board's former chairperson, Tom Hayhoe, stepped down in early April 2024, five weeks after his appointment had been announced.

"Given that the assembly is due to review the board arrangements in the spring of 2025 and the fact that the recruitment process for the new chair will take approximately three to four months, I have decided not to proceed with recruitment at this point in time," Mr Binet said.

"If a person were to be appointed they would only have a contract period of around nine months, and this would probably be too short a period to be attractive to candidates.

Mr Binet said that the former acting chairperson, Carolyn Downs, had agreed to temporarily lead the board, which is next due to meet on 25 April.

He said the other non-executive board members would share the workload of a permanent chairperson between themselves.

"The remainder of the board are very constructive and collaborative," he told States members.

"I am enjoying working with them and I hope the same can be said in reverse.

"I don’t have any issues, the board is functioning perfectly well."

Deputy Jonathan Renouf asked Mr Binet to confirm that he remained committed to the existence of the board.

Deputy Jonathan Renouf noted that Mr Binet had voted against the establishment of the health board when the topic was debated in June 2023.

He pointed out that other politicians who are now members of the government, including the Chief Minister, Deputy Lyndon Farnham, the Infrastructure Minister, Constable Andy Jehan, and the Children's Minister, Constable Richard Vibert had also voted against the board's establishment.

Mr Renouf said that Mr Binet had "now got rid of the first permanent chair of the board and says he doesn't intend to replace him for over a year".

He asked Mr Binet to "reassure the public that he is not simply trying to get rid of the board, and remains committed to the decision of this assembly to set up a board as an essential mechanism for driving up standards of healthcare in Jersey".

In response, Mr Binet insisted he had not objected to the creation of the board, but that he had felt it "wasn't acceptable" to have the board "reporting to the health minister only".

"That's a matter I intend to address as soon as I can," he told politicians, before confirming he had no plans to make any other changes to the board's terms of reference or remit.

Meanwhile, Mr Binet was also asked to further explain why Mr Hayhoe had decided to leave his position less than a week after chairing his first board meeting.

"I made an arrangement with Mr Hayhoe that we would say nothing further," said Mr Binet.

"I intend to stick to that."