The Joint Negotiating Committee for Youth and Community Workers (commonly known as the JNC) is a United Kingdom committee that endorses professional qualifications for Youth and Community workers and negotiates employment conditions for Youth and Community Workers.
Following pressure throughout the 1950s from the voluntary sector and the Community and Youth Workers' Union, the government in 1961 as a part response to the Albemarle report, agreed to establish a national collective bargaining committee for youth and community workers. This was established to negotiate pay and conditions and to approve qualifications in youth and community work. The JNC delegates the responsibility for the validation of training courses for youth and community workers to the Education and Training Committees of England, Wales and Ireland. Once the training courses have been validated they are entered into the JNC Report and those qualifying on those courses are entitled to JNC terms and conditions.
The JNC is made up of two sides and a total of 25 members. One side represents the employers another side represents Youth and Community workers (the staff side). The employers side consists of 9 members, 6 from local government, 2 from the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services, and 1 from the Council for Wales Voluntary Youth Services. The staff side consists of 16 members, eight from the Community and Youth Workers' Union, 2 from the National Union of Teachers, 2 from the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education and 4 from Unison.
The Employers' Side of the JNC has a Secretariat managed by the Local Government Employers association. The Staff Side Secretariat of the JNC is managed by The Community, Youth Workers and Not for Profit section of Unite. Allison Wheeler is the Employers' Side Secretary and Doug Nicholls is the Staff Side Secretary.
The JNC's scope extends over all Youth and Community workers employed by UK Government, and all voluntary sector youth services that receive government grants. As such it has become the norm for new posts to require a qualification recognised by the JNC, even in the voluntary sector organisations which do not receive government funding.
The JNC provides grading criteria and terms and conditions for youth support workers and youth and community workers whether working full or part-time. As of 2010 a degree in youth and community work has become the minimum entry level for workers on the Professional Range of JNC.