Union voices funding anxieties over youth worker licence plan

The trade union held a meeting last week to discuss the benefits of adopting a registration scheme for youth workers.

The move comes just two weeks after Fiona Blacke, chief executive of The National Youth Agency, called for the creation of a register of licensed youth workers on the grounds that it would help integration with other services in the sector (CYP Now, 13-19 February). Blacke suggested youth workers would need a degree or other higher level qualification to be eligible.

Gill Archer, national officer for local government at Unison, said at first glance the idea of a licence for youth workers was attractive but a number of questions had to be answered first.

"Who will fund the regulatory body?" she said. "There are 4,000 professional youth workers and all are coping with below-inflation pay awards and mounting fuel, food and housing costs. Will we expect them to pick up the tab?"

Archer also questioned whether licensing would be extended to youth support workers and whether the annual registration cost would be the same whether youth workers were full- or part-time.

She added that, while Unison wants the youth work profession to have the respect it deserves, it must first define clearly what a youth worker is. "Only then can we make sure licensing will not damage the very nature of youth work or change the core reasons why the approach is so successful," she said. "We don't want to create a two-tier workforce."

But a Scout leader, who did not wish to be named, told CYP Now the proposals would not benefit young people.

"The uncomfortable truth is that young people's need for caring adults already exceeds the supply of those willing to help," he said. "Limiting this supply further by demanding more qualifications might give the profession a middle class veneer and pay scale but will be of no benefit to young people."