Housing minister Dave Jones wants new key-worker licences. They would allow the Health and Social Services, Education and Home Departments to recruit essential staff without getting specific approval from Housing.

In a bid to lock in staff, licences would belong to the department rather than the individual.

‘Recruitment and retention of staff is not always helped by the licensing system,’ said Deputy Jones.

‘We need to have a system that is fair but does not put unnecessary barriers in the way of these departments.’

Deputy Jones has already spoken to the departmental ministers about a possible pilot scheme.

‘While the nuts and bolts have yet to be decided, it is in my view a great way forward,’ said Home minister Mike Torode.

‘This is in principle an extremely good idea and I am more than happy to discuss more of the details soon.’

Deputy Jones said that, because Housing had currently to grant licences based predominantly on the information provided by the departments anyway, this would cut bureaucracy and provide more flexibility.

Housing also found that some employees granted licences to work in one of these key sectors changed profession after coming to the island.

It was more difficult for Housing to reject changes to licences once workers were already in the island.

Linking licences to jobs would lock workers into the profession.

Education minister Martin Ozanne said the proposals could help solve some of the difficulties of recruiting and retaining staff.

‘It is has been becoming more difficult over the last few years to recruit teachers because the turnover is so high. We are having to replace teachers who are on short-term contracts and those who come to the island and then change profession.

‘This initiative is a real breakthrough; I hope that it will enable us to provide real continuity in teaching.’

Health minister Peter Roffey welcomed the idea.

‘On the surface it would appear an attractive proposition in that bureaucracy would be cut and Health would have more freedom to recruit and retain staff.

‘But in reality much of the delay and bureaucracy has already been cut out and the devil could be in the detail. We need to determine what are key workers because we employ managers as well as doctors and nurses.

‘We also need to be fair to the whole of the island while recognising the difference between the recruiting priorities of the public sector and private business.’

The individual departments will now discuss the proposals and the chief executives will meet to discuss more of the detail.