Youth and community workers need 'substantial' pay rise to attract new recruits

13 April 2010

Youth and community workers need a 'substantial' pay rise to combat the shortage of 4,000 professionals in the workforce.

This demand is the key feature in the pay claim for 2010/2011 put forward by the Joint Unions representing 60,000 youth and community workers – Unite, UNISON, UCU and NUT to local authority and voluntary sector employers.

Staff side secretary and Unite's national secretary, Community and Youth Workers, Doug Nicholls described the claim as 'the most important JNC pay submission for a generation'.

The five-point claim includes:

• a substantial rise on all grades and allowances for the year 2010-2011
• a joint comparative review of all London and area allowances to be completed by December 2010
• the introduction of an ‘on call’ allowance and a late night allowance, as of 1 September 2010
• a joint working party to establish a joint job security agreement
• a joint agreement to promote long term funding arrangements for voluntary sector projects.

Doug Nicholls said that one of the main reasons that a substantial pay increase was needed was to attract new recruits to the profession, where there was an estimated shortage of 4,000 youth and community workers.

In September 2010 youth work becomes a graduate entry profession, yet the minimum JNC starting salary for graduates is at least £3,000 below the average graduate starting salary of £23,431 in 2007, (£27,500 in London).

The claim demonstrates the educational importance of youth and community work and shows how the employers, by cutting pay over the last three years, have been out of step with the policy intentions of government and local government.

Ofsted has demonstrated the rising standards of youth work. Various recent government and local government reports have described its unique impact in dealing with many of the problems caused by the recent economic crisis, but employers have ignored these factors and let the value of wages fall.

The claim seeks an agreement with employers to promote long term funding arrangements for voluntary sector projects and a job security agreement to protect the remaining jobs of youth workers in the context of a shortfall of 4,000 youth workers.

The joint unions will be holding a rally on 5 June in London in support of their claim. Local authority and voluntary sector employers will be consulting on the claim prior to meeting the unions on 17 June.

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