Ever since the emergence of IDYW we’ve been arguing that targeted intervention into young people’s lives, involving referred caseloads and prescribed targets, is the antithesis of a process-led, person-centred youth work. I’ve written a number of pieces making this point at length. Why did I bother? Leave aside its illiteracy the following advert, posted on July 13, says it all.

Targeted Youth Worker
Salary/Rate£24,000 – £27,000/annum /Agency Goldteam Recruitment Ltd 
Job title: Target Youth Worker /Location: Slough Salary: up to £13.63 per hour

The employer is a Local Authority/Borough Council who are going through massive projects within various specifically within Health and Wellbeing, which makes this an exciting time to join. Projects are developed to meet objectives set by the Council’s objectives.

The employer is seeking some one to join their Wellbeing and Social Care departments to work with vunerable young adults from the age of 11 to 19 year olds to proactivily encourage, motivate, and inspire them to achieve objectives set by the line manager.

The candidate will need to be:

A car driver

Has experience of working with young people in a targeted way, would have a caseload of vulnerable 11 to 19 year olds.

Preferred qualification would be JNC in Youth work or Social work qualification.

Please forward your CV

Thanks to Justin Wyllie for the link and for the following comment.

‘Objectives set by the line-manager? Objectives, which the ‘targeted youth worker’ will ‘inspire’? It is Stalinist – down to the completely obvious temptation to forge the ‘results’. In fact – worse than ‘Stalinist’ – because there targets related to physical output – here they are messing with peoples’ heads. (It also shows a total ignorance of how people work – that is – if you want people to ‘get well’ you have to work with them collaboratively. And this is the ‘Well Being and Social Care’ department.’