It is the extent to which the goodwill that has historically underpinned so much of youth work's "architecture" is being undermined by the requirements of a contract culture.
Work that is done by volunteers or by paid staff in "extra time added on" because they believe that work that is valuable is being quantified, given targets and has a price put upon it. Such mechanistic measurement does not sit easily in youth work and many activities that youth workers have traditionally undertaken in a spirit of goodwill become harder to justify when all the resources have to be quantified. International youth exchanges, expeditions, conferences and residentials can often be key turning points in young people's lives, but increasingly, these are the elements of youth work that are seen as too resource intensive and not sufficiently focused on the all important National Indicators.
Contract culture drives us to seek recompense for all aspects of our contribution to projects. "If the funders don't pay, we don't do it" is becoming a dangerous and depressing mantra across the youth work world. Workers demand payment for every hour they spend on residentials: local authorities blanch at the cost of supporting UK Youth Parliament, consortia bids for funding become undignified squabbles about how much of the pot each organisation should get and volunteers walk away from long established programmes, furious that work they have done unpaid for decades is allocated a paltry spot price in exchange for a raft of paperwork.
Young people lose out in this, missing the exciting opportunities that are now not seen as providing value for money.
Youth workers too are losing the satisfaction that comes from work with young people in stimulating, creative and fun environments. I don't want to hark back to some mythical golden age of youth work, but I do think that goodwill is the glue that holds youth work together and it is too important to sacrifice on the altar of the false god Contract.
Gill Millar is a co-opted member of the NYA's education & training standards committee and is regional youth work adviser at Learning South West.
