Following last week’s election of Deputy Farnham as the next Chief Minister and his subsequent nominations of Connetable Vibert as minister for Children and Deputy Rob ward as Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning, it is with a heavy heart that I write to advise that I will not be standing for either of these positions tomorrow. It is the Chief Minister’s role to set out his vision and build his team as he sees appropriate, and clearly, he supports separate Ministries.
It has been a privilege to serve as your Minister for Children and Education for the past 19 months and I will really miss being able to continue working with you all.
I hope you can appreciate that whilst I absolutely want to continue as Minister to maintain the excellent progress we have made since July 2022, there is much more to the role that takes place outside of our departmental interactions. I cannot deliver as a Minister without being assured that the Chief Minister and his Council will be an effective and cohesive team who I can rely upon to actively support and where appropriate finance, the vision, policies and priorities we have, to make the lives of all children better. It has been a really hard decision to make, and I have put a lot of time and thought into it over the last couple of weeks.
My passion for the role, the department and all it does to deliver priorities for the Island remains strong, but my principles sadly mean I am unable to continue in the role at this time.
Whilst saddened to be leaving I do take much comfort in the many significant achievements and real progress we have made in so many areas over the past 19 months. I know I always pushed hard for progress at pace, and at times this was very challenging, but looking back the pace you maintained throughout has created a really long list of achievements we can all be proud of. I know there is much more to do and really wanted to continue but politics has prevented that sadly.
I want to thank you all for the support and dedication you put into your roles every day, often long days, and sometimes weekends and holidays when needs must. You are all such dedicated individuals with a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and I have really enjoyed working with you all, and I have learnt so much from you as well. Ministers cannot deliver without a great team supporting them and I was blessed to have you as my team.
I will take some time to reflect and ponder what (if any) role(s) I will take up on the non-executive side until the next election, but there is one thing I can assure you of right now. I will continue to champion for children and education whether I am on a Scrutiny Panel or otherwise. I now know much more about the complexities and challenges of CYPES and the breadth of services it provides, and I will use this knowledge to the best of my ability to hold the new Government to account and see what success I can achieve for children and families from the back benches.
I make no apologies if I soon become the top of your tally for submitting written and oral questions, after all it’s good to keep in touch 🙂
Thank you all for everything, I have always felt well supported and I am sure your new Minister will feel just as well supported as I was.
Deputy Inna Gardiner
Minister for Children and Education
