Non-jobs of the week

Submitted by JMB on Thu 25/Jun/2009

The City  of Bristol is currently recruiting for the following:

  1. Better Together Project Manager (PT) £35,079 - £37,665 pro rata
  2. Better Together Project Worker (PT) £25,220 - £28,353 pro rata

“Better Together” is a fiddly one, because the phrase has been used and used again by half a dozen different local authorities to mean different things. Today in Bristol it is something to do with youth crime, specifically to:

    1. Identify, refer, target and engage children and young people most at risk of offending, anti-social behaviour, social and educational exclusion. (Target is defined as work undertaken with an assessed list of young people to be prioritised for engagement.)To improve the outcomes for young people and their families by identifying and reducing risk whilst increasing resilience.To maintain, develop or establish where necessary functioning, multi-agency panels to support the delivery of the intervention in all NR areas.
    2. To progress the staged evolution of Multi-Agency Prevention interventions into the emerging Multi- Agency Locality Team structures within Children and Young Peoples’ Services.

Did Mike Popham write that last paragraph? Yet another round of vaguely good-intentioned interventions into the lives of failing families; this time using part-time management and part-time labour. Older documents suggest a high six figure annual budget, so there must be a full time person in the loop somewhere.

The description above is from 2008, so perhaps they have their “assessed list of young people to be prioritised for engagement”. If not, might I suggest you ask the local magistrates and coppers, as they can probably provide most of the names off the top of their heads.

Bristol Safeguarding Children Board

This one is not quite a non-job since it does come with responsibility.

It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to be the designated scapegoat in any future local child protection scandal, and the human RCD to protect the jobs of tier one/two council officers in CYPS and their compatriots in the local NHS trusts, police and probation service.

If you fancy 36 days work a year at £500 per day, and the slim possibility of a torch-wielding mob of angry peasants at your front door, think about putting in your application to be the  “Independent Chair – Bristol Safeguarding Children Board”.