Party Vibe

I would hope the advisers would take your volunteer work into account but hard to say as unfortunately these things are sometimes entirely on the whim of the Civil Servants who are your advisers, and some deliberately take these jobs in “postiions of power over others” to enforce their ideas of how they feel a citizen should live (the New Deal is actually an old Tory idea from the 1990s which was often used to mould claimants into becoming better corporate citizens, by using their dependence on the giro to control them…)

If you can, perhaps get the headteacher of the school (or someone else in authority there) to write a letter saying what you do and how valuable you are to them.

IMO if you have the skills to be a teaching assistant you should be getting paid for it anyway, the education authority shouldn’t be being subsidised by the goodwill of citizens.

yes, that is the whole idea of it. if you’ve been called up it usually means you’ve been on giro for a while and they are wanting to put the pressure on to stop you claiming..

the worst part of it they know the reactions they are going to get, they have all sorts of panic buttons and both uniformed and plain clothes security to deal with those citizens who don’t agree with decisions (and CCTV as well of course) – DWP even has its own security / investigation team (and some of the more ambititious “desk” staff who assess claims would aspire to join this team) in extreme circumstances staff are even permitted to give fake names (its not just the cops who can rip their numbers off)

what annoys me though is Cath shouldn’t even need to be claiming giro – the job she already does (helping teach kids) is something that she should be being paid for.

We live in a country where they spend money to blow up foreign countries and then depend on voluntary goodwill to run schools….. thats fucked up IMO…

its a nice idealistic thought but where I’ve lived I’ve always found that when/if people try to do things themselves they often find red tape comes up against them anyway; if they make a suggestion for the Council or Education Department it is ignored or watered down – and if they take matters into their own hands (particulary if they do stuff like create squatted social centres) they could even get in trouble due to the rules and regulations.

Look what happened to the Ungdomhuset, in a country with far better social democratic structures than ours…

OTOH some of the rules are sadly required (such as CRB/POVA) as there are too many scum around who take advantage of lax security and would pose a threat to vulnerable people (a culture of bullying and abuse is ingrained in this country and has to be constantly watched for).

So these days “community” efforts essentially come to nothing unless the nanny state supports them; and IMO if those in authority insist on everything being done by proper channels why not just do it properly as part of the public sector, using their budgets?

I don’t even have or want kids but I don’t mind more money being spent on education to do things properly…

Also I’ve seen too many voluntary groups end up as a clique of people with their own hidden agendas or those who fit in with Middle England views and mindsets (such as the Suffolk “community centre” group who discourage young people from joining them because they do not fit in with their views)

humans are increasingly self-serving, and this sort of “community spirit” only exists when times are good and resources are plentiful (and they are getting less so).

unfortunately that gives a boost to is the argument that if the service is essential either the market or state should provide it, and that if its not essential, that Cath who is doing it could be “better deployed” in a “normal job”.

OTOH the fact she is doing it and is helping the kids is surely a pointer that there is a demand for her work, and at present the public purse is paying for her anyway through the dole?

Perhaps a sensible solution would be for the job centre advisors (or whatever they are called nowadays) to help Cath get a job in a school (I expect you have to be CRB cleared to volunteer so thats one hurdle out of the way, plus the experience).

Sadly, although true this situation has been abused and is often used to eliminate real paid positions (perhaps through no fault of some public sector organisations who are always seeing dwindling budgets) – so people are increasingly withdrawing their goodwill when they are realising they are being used as a “free” resource.

The voluntary sector is being increasingly used to undercut public sector services and no-one is gaining from this.

so in other words the public purse is funding your voluntary work anyway; therefore if there is a need for what you are doing (and I don’t see why not) it makes more sense for this to be a “proper job”.

IMO the Education Authority should have taken you on as a paid trainee and helped you get these qualifications, or if that is not possible the New Deal lot should use their power to try and help you get a job in one of these private agencies or elsewhere within your local Education authority as a “foot in the door”

Its a pity you live so far away as I actually work in the education / training / care sector and if you were in the East of England could at least suggest some opportunities.

Unfortunately I can see how people are forced into call centre or office work as that is still plentiful up North (many jobs from where I lived have gone up there) and the New Deal is tasked to provide quick delivery of people into jobs, but I would hope if you have a proper discussion the New Deal lot would realise the value you are adding to the local school.

Globalloons argument with respect to voluntary goodwill is understandable in an ideal world, but in the current climate it has the problem of limiting this sort of occupation mostly to middle aged women whose own children have grown up and/or whose partners are at work (and can pay the bills), rather than a wider spectrum of the community.