I was working at a community based alternative learning provision and boxing club in the heart of the community, the role sat well between, statutory services, third sector organisations and the community they served.
Families across the city knew and trusted me, I knew the kids granddads and grandmas, mums and dad, aunties and uncles, so I was in a well-placed and unique position to liaise with schools, police, social workers etc.
Everyone who knows me, knows I have a deep mistrust in social workers, and social services, who do not always tell the truth or understand what is really going on. I have often stated there is not one good social worker left, this is by default in their failings of the protection of children and the arrogance and bullying tactics you often find within the service.
My point is, a good social worker is in the best position to be a whistle-blower, and yet social worker whistle-blowers are few and far between. A good friend of my who was in charge of the services, well respected, with knowledge and experience second to none, was, sacked from his 90K a year job, after whistle-blowing on the whole system, he was in charge of. He had been pushed and pushed by the stakeholders when he fought for improvement and change. He lost his career, but not his personal or professional integrity.
I would work alongside some great Youth Workers, so heard the rumours had started about cuts, I cannot remember datelines, but I’d suggest this was mid to late-2000s. Cuts in service, youth clubs and direct services. The leader of the council asked me if I wanted to take over all the youth club buildings, which I declined. Moral with those working in statutory services were at an all-time low as redundancy packages started to drop through letter boxes, invites to meetings and emails passed around.
It was cuts in staff first then cuts in services, projects, and anything to do with children’s services.
Within the space of eighteen months the council had reduced Youth Workers, from two-hundred full stime staff to six, six!! the six remaining became Coordinators to start replacing the Youth Workers with Charity Workers, trying to tempt them in with tiny pockets of money, or as happened to me, I should do the work for free. This was strengthen when David Cameron championed The Big Society and what a croak of sh**e that turned out to be.
There are many factors why this happened, which normally starts a political debate, however, whatever the reason, money was the biggest factor.
Again around this timescale the “Troubled families” name and banner was being knocked about, firstly this name was absolutely disgusting, put families in to a category as no hopers “the bad, ungrateful, and stupid” families as they were often seen as. In the same way a girl wearing a short skirt and hangs about is looked down on by these same services. This point is proved time and time again in serious case reviews in child sexual exploitation.
The fallout of having no Youth Workers is unmeasurable.
Ben Bradley, the Conservative MP for Mansfield, now Leader of Nottingham Council, and a member of the APPG inquiry group, agrees. For some youngsters, youth work is the only source of continuity in their lives.
“When you look at the preventive element of it – how much good quality youth work intervention early on can save you further down the line, I think it should be a big priority and removing ringfencing on things like that I think is daft.”
MYA youth worker Kath Thompson, who has also worked as a teacher, says a youth worker “can be that consistent person” for young people.
Preventative was the key word and role, Youth Workers were the eyes and ears the children needed, the interaction and trust allowed the Youth Worker to be in the perfect position to stop something before it had chance to start. I remember many times Youth Workers questioned and reported risk situations of exploitation before the term child sexual exploitation was recognised. They did the job of protector.
Truth is Youth Workers were the heart of the community, lived in the community, worked in the community. They were trusted, knew the families, had an informal working approach and ran the projects, but most of all they cared and were not afraid to shout out.
They were the solid and constant link between everyone involved in a child’s life.
When the local authorities tried to replace their services, Youth Workers, with community groups the biggest barrier they did not remove was the word confidential, they would send the most vulnerable children for support but then excluded the community groups from relevant meetings, or more typical “forget” to send an invite to a multi-agency meeting. They never did and still don’t understand or implement the main concept of confidentiality and safeguarding.
Confidentiality is the protection of information, made up of some law and lots of best practice, safeguarding is the protection of life, made up of some best practice and lots of laws.
To work with a vulnerable child in a capacity of trust you need all information around that child. In a game of top trumps, safeguarding wins every single time. Read the Jay and Casey reports and this point is driven home time and time again.
We need to bring Youth Workers back.
a forgotten boy