Welcome
Welcome to the website of the Community and Youth Workers in Unite! Formerly the Community and Youth Workers’ Union (CYWU) and now part of Unite the union, the biggest trade union in Europe. As part of the Community, Youth Workers and Not for Profit Sector, our members are either working or training to work with children, young people and communities in statutory or voluntary settings. This website offers access to information for both members and non members and if there is anything you would like to see here please contact us.
CYWU News Bulletins
This is Youth Work: Stories from Practice
To promote greater understanding of youth work, the In Defence of Youth Work campaign (IDYW) has been collecting youth workers’ accounts of youth work practice. These demonstrate its distinctive way of working with young people and the impacts this can have on lives of young people and their communities. IDYW has also been filming young people’s own accounts of why they go to youth clubs and other youth work facilities and why they value their youth workers. With the support of Unite and Unison, IDYW has brought these stories together as a book and DVD entitled `This is Youth Work`. The book and the video can be accessed here.
Action on Pensions
The #N30 action was fantastic and youth workers, community workers and playworkers marched alongside thousands of fellow trade unionists across the country. Unite is committed to protecting member`s pensions and more information can be found on the Unite’s main website.
Is the Government Positive for Youth?
The Unite response to the Positive for Youth consultation papers is available for download here. It is expected that the government will launch their new youth policy next month.
JNC Pay Claim 2011
For the second year, the Employer’s Side of the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) for Youth and Community Workers have been `unable to make an offer ` on pay for 2011. The position of the Employers’ Side remains that there will not be a pay award for 2011, but they are prepared to open discussions at joint secretary level later this year to see if there can be a pay award for 2012. Branches will be consulted on what the next step might be. The claim can be accessed here.
Youth Workers speak up for young people!
Youth workers in Oxfordshire held their second day of strike action on Friday 9th September. Watch the video of the rally here. The action is being held in protest at jobs cuts and loss of JNC in the county. More info here
EDM on Youth Work and Youth Services
An Early Day Motion (EDM) on Youth Work and Youth Services tabled in the House of Commons is still live. We are asking all members to speak to their MP’s, urging them to sign this EDM
A special Westminster Hall debate on the Youth Service was held on Tuesday 23rd November 2010 and a full transcript can be accessed here with the parliamentary video also available on this page below the Twitter feed. (You will need to forward to the start of the debate at 11:00).
Rapport - Sep 2011
Latest copy of Rapport is available here!
MP`s confirm the government is negative for youth
The long awaited report resulting from the Inquiry into services for young people has now been published. One of the main conclusions from the Committee was that the cost of the National Citizens Service (NCS) could not be justified. The Committee warns that extending the National Citizen Service (NCS) offer to all 600,000 16-year olds could have a price tag in excess of £350 million each year even if only 50% of young people take part. This would make it more costly than the entirety of youth services currently provided by local authorities.
Unite national officer Doug Nicholls said: "One year into this government and this country’s world-class, constantly evolving, 50 year old youth service is on its knees. What a damning indictment of `compassionate conservatism`, which, in yet another government gimmick, is pretending to be ‘positive for youth’, while doing the opposite".
The full report is available here and the full reaction by Unite is available here.
LLUK - Sector Skills Council
Following the decision not to relicence LLUK (Lifelong Learning UK), the footprint responsibilities of this Sector Skills Council (SSC) which includes youth work will be transferred to the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) when LLUK ceases to operate from 1 April 2011. More information here.
Valuing Youth Work
Further research has been published by the Local Government Association and the National Youth Agency. Valuing Youth Work contains case studies of local authority-funded projects in Birmingham, Devon, Hartlepool, Hounslow, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Rotherham and the Wirral. Each example shows how organisations and councils can work together to provide services covering health, citizenship, participation, and training and education, and the positive impacts such work has on young people.
Benefits of Youth Work - In conjunction with LLUK and Unite and researched by staff at the National Youth Agency this study could not be better timed. The Benefits of Youth Work sets out in simple terms the reasons why our work is important, why it is cost effective and how it makes a real difference to young people`s lives.Ideal for councillors, policy makers and their colleagues within multi disciplinary teams. Hard copies of this document can be obtained for postage and packaging costs in advance from Kerry Jenkins
For Youth`s Sake Campaign
CYP Now Magazine is calling on youth workers, young people and their families to back its For Youth`s Sake Campaign by signing an online pledge. The campaign is championing the role that young people`s services play and will encourage decision-makers and communities to support youth projects. Services for young people have been hit hard by recent public sector cuts and, as a result, many invaluable youth projects and intiatives face uncertain futures. Unite is supporting this campaign and ask all members to sign the pledge by completing the online form. Further details of the campaign can also be found here.
Community and Youth Workers Section Office
Is located at Transport House, 211 Broad Street, Birmingham, B15 1AY,Tel: 0121 643 6221 Fax: 0121 633 0184
Help us keep in touch by letting us have your email address or any membership amendments by sending an email message to Kerry Jenkins - here
For contact details of your local branch please ring the Section Office. If you need to contact your local Unite Office the details can be obtained from the Unite website, www.unitetheunion.org or by clicking here
Unite the Union website
Visit the Unite the Union website and see what Europe’s biggest union is doing to support it’s members. The website has a dedicated section for the Community, Youth Workers and Not for Profit Industrial Sector and direct links to this website.
Other News and Information
***Community Membership***
Through Unite’s community membership we will work with you to make life better; we will give you the platform you need to create a fairer society. Our trade unions are the biggest voluntary group in the UK. At 6.5 million strong, we are the Big Society. At Unite we have 1.5 million members – just imagine what you can achieve with them standing by your side? For more information on community membership visit Unite`s main website.
Oxfordshire Action
Youth workers in the prime minister’s home patch of Oxfordshire have vowed to battle on to save the county’s top class youth service as they stage their third strike action, read the press release here.
It is understood about 80 jobs are at risk as the Conservative-run county council makes savings of £119m. Mike Beal, who chairs the community and youth workers branch said about 430 staff have been sent a letter notifying them that their job is going to be `deleted`. He added: `The job title of youth worker has gone, our identity has been stripped and the philosophy that brought many into the process has gone.`
The action in Oxfordshire is vitally important in terms of defending youth work both locally and nationally. Please express your solidarity in the following ways:
Send solidarity messages to mike.beal@oxfordshire.gov.uk
Speak up for Young People
ChooseYouth Lobby of Parliament
Unite is proud to be part of Choose Youth, an unprecedented alliance of over 30 national youth sector organisations and trade unions, brought together to back young people’s services from the onslaught of spending cuts.
Youth and young people’s services are being hit by the biggest cuts to any public service. This summer we saw just how important frontline services are to communities. Every young person, regardless of their background or where they live, should be entitled to high quality youth work delivered by professionals.
Since coming to power the Con-Dem government has done all it can to alienate young people. Unite says enough is enough. Young people didn’t cause the crisis, they should not have to pay for it now, with hiked tuition fees, no jobs, and an axed Education Maintenance Allowance.
The lobby of Parliament brought over a thousand young people, workers, trade unionists and MPs together and was a great opportunity to speak up for young people and for youth work. More resources will be available soon as a result of the event.
The alienation and disaffection of our youth
The more unequal a society the more violent and alienated young people become. They turn against each other in gangs and against the high street trappings of wealth from which they are excluded. Young people in Knightsbridge won’t be rioting.
The policies of a few are wrecking our communities. The Tories particularly have targeted youth services not for cuts, but for closure. The significance of this is very great. Young people saw the new government come in and without a mandate to do so raise student tuition fees, get rid of the Education Maintenance Allowance and then begin their most serious assault on the architecture of services closest to young people’s hearts.
What is little recognised is that one of the public services substantially built by young people in their own interests, the youth service, could be the first public service to disappear. Already a number of Tory councils have abandoned it and London Boroughs have been reckless in its neglect, with £17 million proposed to go from 15 already threadbare London youth services in the last half of this year. Read more here
News from Around the Branches
All Branches are facing huge threats to youth services across the nations. Please let us know what is happening in your area so that we can keep an overall view of the cuts and of the fight that is needed.
Oxfordshire Branch - watch highlights from the first day of action here.
Choose Youth on False Economy
Choose Youth have signed up and given details of the campaign on False Economy. We are asking all those with an interest in services to young people to sign up to this site and to ensure that all cuts to services are recorded. This will help build us to build a comprehensive picture of all cuts that are happening both in local authority and voluntary sector services. False Economy have just amended one of the `cuts categories` to ensure that cuts to youth services are recorded appropriately. Please encourage others to use this great facility.
Become a fan of Choose Youth on Facebook
Join the Choose Youth community by liking the page. The page will be used to keep you up to date with all the latest news from the Chooseyouth campaign as well as other campaigns and developments. You can add photos and postings of your own and contribute to the discussion in the forums. To get started, just click "Like" on the top of the page and their postings will appear in your newsfeed.
Inquiry on Youth Services - the facts
The Inquiry into young people’s services was launched by the Education and Select Committee on the 21st October 2010 and received one hundred and forty five written submissions. These can be accessed here.
In the first session of evidence, the Committee heard from national agencies representing youth services and young people, in the second from universal and targeted service providers and some young users, and in the third from academics, Ofsted, and local authority heads of youth services. The fourth session was split into two panels with the aim of the first panel to examine the composition and effectiveness of the young people’s workforce, including the recruitment, training and qualification framework for youth workers and other staff working with young people, including volunteers. All sessions and further information can be accessed here.
National Officer for the Community, Youth Workers and Not for Profit Sector, Doug Nicholls, gave evidence which can be viewed here.
The very latest version of Rapport is now available for Trade Union News