No fewer than 524 public sector jobs advertised on the Guardian jobsite today, and – as with every week – there’s no certainly shortage of dubious positions.
This week’s non-job fits firmly into the category of unnecessary and ultimately intrusive roles that have become a staple within local government. Another week, another professional community busy-body and this week it’s Luton Borough Council that are advertising:
“Neighbourhood Co-ordinator
£32,522 - £35,145 p.a.
Luton is a diverse, multi-cultural town of 200,000 residents. The area is home to over 100 nationalities, difficult cultures, religions and ethnic groups at all different levels of prosperity. This interesting and vibrant setting creates a rich set of social situations to shape our Integrated Youth Service.
Our new Integrated Service is developing an enhanced service for all young people in Luton and is committed to ensuring successful transition into adult life for all young people aged 11-19. We believe Luton’s committed children’s workforce, compact geography and strong partnership foundations help us build strong integrated neighbourhood working.
You’ll be a key player in the development of information, advice and guidance (IAG) and youth work in the West of Luton so you will need to have in-depth experience of working with young people and experience of supervising a team of practitioners. If you have the experience and enthusiasm to make this post work and help develop an excellent service we would like to hear from you”.
My favourite line is “(Luton) is committed to ensuring successful transition into adult life for all young people aged 11-19”, you can choose yours. Remember when children turned into adults without such rigorous participation/facilitation from the local council?
And since when was it the responsibility of the applicant to ‘make the post work’? Surely the post is a complex combo of important, necessary tasks that need an adequate professional to fulfil them, not a vague concept that needs to be developed into a legitimate job by whoever lands it?
The role is part of a three tiered team, with youth workers below and the head of service above. Who can say if this hierarchy will swell to encompass more titles and ambiguous positions? We can only say that based on previous experience it seems fairly likely.