A new central accommodation service has been set up by the Government, to provide temporary accommodation to colleagues across all departments recruited into priority key roles, to support their relocation to Jersey.
Where skills cannot be found in the Island, it is necessary to find professionals willing to relocate.
The enhanced relocation offer will help those people recruited into some of the Island’s most essential roles and will provide them with one, two or three-bed Government-owned or leased properties at rates typically below those in the private sector.
Key staff and their families, who access the housing, will be able to stay in it for up to a year while they settle in Jersey and complete their probationary periods, giving them time to find permanent accommodation in the Island.
As part of the move, 45 Health and Community Services colleagues, who are permanent residents in Jersey and have been in subsidised accommodation for more than a year will receive assistance to move into the private sector.
The Government has engaged a relocation company to help current occupants find new accommodation, is contributing up to £1,000 to the cost of moving and has given licenses to colleagues who didn’t have them, to widen their pool of available homes.
Chief People and Transformation Officer, Mark Grimley (pictured) said: “We are enhancing our offer to people relocating to Jersey into some of our most essential roles. This will improve recruitment and retention of key workers and bring much-needed skills to the Island.
“To do this we need to ensure the housing stock we have available to us is utilised fairly to support better recruitment and retention for key workers across all departments and not just for health professionals, as has happened historically.
“The vast majority of these homes were only ever meant to be transitional for a year while staff found their own accommodation.
“We’ve written to staff in the temporary properties to let them know what’s happening and reassured them of the support in place to help them move.
“We continue to explore ways of expanding provision in Jersey to enable Islanders to gain skills for key worker roles, as part of the Government’s focus on recruitment and retention.”
