@RosesAndHellebores- excellent post. I work in child protection to save money over the last decade we had 2 experienced admin on the team, then cut to one. Now we are at none and have a pod of mostly inexperienced people getting paid a salary no single person could live on. As a result, loads of social work hours are spent on quite specialised admin rather than us working directly with families and our hourly pay is much higher. How anyone can justify this as a good use of resources baffles me.
I worked for an amazing local charity, initially as a student on placement and then when I qualified for a couple as a social worker over 20 years ago. I have worked for the Local Authority now for nearly 20 years but because this charity is really good at what they do they are still around and do incredible work. They employ the right people to get funding from Children in Need/Comic relief/commissioning services for drug services/ youth work etc. They are a huge part of supporting the community which they know well. This grew out of a youth club and l a drug harm reduction service which was basically a couple of workers going to the estates with a back pack, clean needles and empathy. My city's drug services was based on their model of community drugs work, and 15 years later they remain a stakeholder and have have have huge success.
Other services continue. This includes preventing family break down, offering counselling and emotional support to parents and children, as mentioned drug treatment services, working with young people not in education or employment, young people at risk of sexual or criminal exploitation and much more. This requires having to bid for huge amounts of money and manage it appropriately which is a really skilled job.
No one at this charity takes huge salaries for what they do. However they need to employ the right people to keep going and ensure they get the funding they need to provide the services the public sector cannot because of governent cuts. When I was there, qualifed youth workers had a few hours funding from one source, then a few from another that were only guaranteed for 2 years at a time. I worked for the drugs service and our budget was slashed by 70% due to changes in policy and funding, yet they made it work. This only happens when the right people are employed. I am sure many towns and cities have similar charities doing amazing work and importantly not doing it to make a profit.
Why does anyone think that charity staff should work for free or at minimum wage? Most work for a salary way below their skill set alongside a huge level of uncertainty becaue their contract is only as long as there is funding in place. Due to the previous governments cuts in funding, charities have really had to step in where the state has failed to provide support for the most vulnerable people in the UK. Local authorities have also had no choice but to stop commissioning charities to provide support. However huge amounts of money were found to give contracts to Tory doners who did not deliver contracts.