It's time for us to be treated as professionals
Doug Nicholls
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
There are some perennial weeds in the youth work garden. Unless they are removed, the aspirations the government has declared for young people will wither away. The obstacles to growth relate to workforce issues.
Youth work is listed officially as a sub-profession of social welfare. It is not yet a proud educational profession in its own right. It has great public confidence in it but not the security or esteem afforded to other comparable professions.
Anyone can call themselves a youth worker, and unlike, for example, teachers, social workers, or lorry drivers, there is absolutely no regulation.
The sages and politicians have nodded in agreement over the past 30 years when the Community and Youth Workers' Union has said that we need a low-cost package of inter-related policy adjustments to create a respected profession. But nothing has been done.
We need legislative protection of the name "youth worker", so that only those meeting certain criteria of qualification and practice can use the title. Currently 83 per cent of professional range workers and only 52 per of youth support workers are qualified in England. Percentages are even lower in Wales. All practitioners must be qualified and the move to a graduate entry profession in 2010 is welcome. But wages are far too low and must be increased.
We need a code of ethics in operation throughout the UK and Ireland and a licence to practise to go with this. Along with this should go an entitlement and funding for regular and compulsory continuous professional development (CPD).
Other professional groups now have key worker status. Youth workers deserve this too. The ludicrousness of our profession plodding along without a labour market plan that meets the requirement of providing one national qualified youth worker for every 400 young people has to end.
National terms and conditions of employment for youth workers have been set under the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) Report, but a renewed commitment to these terms within the voluntary sector would help raise the profile of youth work.
And why do we need these modest reforms? Because to engage best with young people, the quality of the relationship with the youth worker is decisive in enabling young people to move on.
Doug Nicholls, national secretary of Community and Youth Workers' Union/Unite.
