Measuring What Matters – the movie

A short video of extracts from the ‘Measuring What Matters’ conference that we held last year, mainly featuring contributions from Nick Marks and Ron Colman, can be seen on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAKSQCnv6Fk

Scottish Community Empowerment Newsletter

The Scottish Government has produced the first version of a quarterly Scottish Community Empowerment Newsletter. This electronic newsletter is intended to update readers on the progress of the Community Empowerment Action Plan, give details of training opportunities and upcoming events, and provide examples of community empowerment in action.

Standards Council opts for voluntary model

The CLD Standards Council has been looking at how to introduce a system of registration for Community Learning and Development workers in a way that best suits the values and diversity of the field. They hope that this will foster a strong sense of identity and a shared understanding of professionalism within CLD and its constituent strands. This understanding will be reflected in an increased awareness of and respect for CLD work by other partners.
After scrutiny of existing models in comparable fields, its Registration Committee has recommended a voluntary model of registration for workers, managers, training providers and others involved in CLD. The core criteria for all applicants, regardless of the category they register within, will be:

• making a clear commitment to the CLD values and competences
• signing up to a CLD Code of Practice or Ethics
• committing to ongoing development and improvement of practice.

There will be a small number of categories of registration depending on qualifications and experience. The committee will work on the details of these and consult with the field before finalising the model. This consultation will begin with a series of events around the content of a Code of Practice / Ethics.

“Equal Communities in a Fairer Scotland” Action Plan

Following the Equal Communities in a Fairer Scotland Policy Statement published jointly by Scottish Government and COSLA in October 2009, which reaffirmed the need for targeted action to tackle disadvantage in spite of the demise of the Fairer Scotland Fund, the two partners have now issued an Action Plan. This consists of a work plan for the Community Regeneration and Tackling Poverty learning network, setting out a range of support to be provided to Community Planning Partnerships and their delivery partners until March 2011.

Concordat reaffirmed

The two partners have also issued a brief statement reaffirming their Concordat, stating a continuing commitment to partnership working between national and local government. Particular mention is given to the delivery of services to the elderly and tackling climate change.

Declaration of Dunbar

In October groups interested in promoting local production and consumption of food in Scotland came together for the first time and issued this Declaration:
“We are working towards a sustainable Scotland in which, in every region we produce more of what we eat and eat more of what we produce.
We believe a more localised food system would be better for the environment, health, community and economy of our country. We are building a movement to create a food system that:

• Is locally based with shorter supply chains
• Promotes and respects seasonality
• Is resilient
• Is fair and accessible to all
• Creates and maintains a sustainable livelihood for producers.

These steps are essential in order to ensure a fairer more equitable food system appropriate for a low carbon economy.”

Local community development in practice

The 2009 SURF award in the ‘People’ category went to Playbusters, a grassroots voluntary organisation that provides a broad range of educational projects for children, families and the wider community within the East End of Glasgow. Project funding originally came through the Standing Up to Antisocial Behaviour Award. A grant was later awarded by The Big Lottery Fund in Scotland.
Its activities have included:

• A programme of collaborative working between schools and older people, providing opportunities to learn new skills and enjoy visits to places of interest.
• ‘Easy Spanish’ workshops, which offer a fun family learning experience, and a ‘hidden’ educational agenda; these are having a visible impact upon the number of children who move on in education, and demand has grown substantially
• A practical environmental project that was developed through engagement with local Eco-School committees. Participating groups took part in the creation of community gardens in several neighbourhood locations, and the project has also developed a rooftop garden and an allotment.
• Opportunities for local people to become involved with the project in a voluntary capacity, and to later progress onto paid sessional work.

So, by my reckoning, their community development approach has helped to make people Smarter, Greener, Wealthier, Safer and almost certainly Healthier. For more information, contact Margaret Layden on 0141 551 0071 or info@playbusters.org.uk

Community enterprise enters new league

Stenhousemuir FC has become the first professional football club from either the Scottish or English Leagues to become a Community Interest Company. More.

On line

Guidance on social networking  YouthLink Scotland, in partnership with Young Scot and Fujitsu, organised a very successful conference last year on how youth work can engage young people through the use of digital technologies with a special focus on social networking. Delegates were asked to contribute to the development of Guidance Notes for Youth Workers. These Guidance Notes are now available to download along with copies of some of the workshop presentations.

Lifelong Learning debates Materials from Lifelong Learning UK’s annual conference are now available. As well as key note speakers Will Hutton, of The Work Foundation and Stephen Uden, Head of Skills and Economic Affairs at Microsoft Ltd, the conference included inputs from Rory MacLeod and Duncan Simpson of the CLD Standards Council for Scotland around the nature of professionalism

“The debate around professionalism is particularly pertinent at the present time in the CLD Standards Council. We want to embrace all of those working in the sector, so we are not about to develop an exclusive club for ‘professionals’. On the other hand, we do want our workforce to aspire to the good things about professionalism – like shared values, a commitment to quality improvement, and taking personal responsibility for the development of services”

A Practitioners Guide to A Curriculum for Excellence  Copies of presentations on how A Curriculum for Excellence relates to work with young people (from a seminar held by YouthLink Scotland in partnership with Learning Teaching Scotland) are available.

Publications

SOAs and youth work  The Children’s Voluntary Sector Policy Officers Network has analysed the extent to which issues affecting children and young people have been addressed in the 2009 Single Outcome Agreements (SOAs).

Meeting the Shared Challenge  The Scottish Community Development Centre has produced a short Briefing Paper on the community-led approach to health improvement and the work of its Meeting the Shared Challenge programme to promote this.

Community Self Help   The Community Development Foundation has published a position paper (free download) on community self help. It describes this as the collective ability of groups to make decisions and take direct action in addressing their communities’ needs — with minimal influence from government. Self-help groups and projects can complement existing public services, and offer an innovative way to enrich service provision across the country.

Voluntary Sector and Freedom of Information  A survey report has been published on the use of Freedom of Information laws by the Third Sector in Scotland. It appears to cover organisations of all sizes and types, and finds that half of all respondents had made a Freedom of Information request.

National elected member development strategy  A National Elected Member Development Strategy for Scottish local government has been published by the Improvement Service. The strategy outlines how councils, the Improvement Service and other partners can work together to establish development programmes and other opportunities for elected members to develop their political, leadership and governance skills. It says:

“Without elected members supporting improvement and change agendas at local levels much in terms of public service improvement could stall or fail to have the impact that it otherwise could have. Elected members will be fundamentally important in ensuring that improvements in outcomes for communities, families and individuals occur and as the only locally elected individuals within the community, they will also be a vital link to engaging with the community itself as part of the improvement process”.

Green Up – English guide  CDF has produced Green Up! (free download), which ‘provides community groups with everything they need to work productively with their councils on environment and sustainability issues’. Though the general principles are useful, the guide is very much about the English system.

However its plain English approach makes it very handy if you want a quick description of how Local Area Agreements, National Indicators etc work south of the border. Shouldn’t someone be producing something like this for Scotland?

Practitioner – Led Action Research  A pack is available from the Scottish Government containing examples of practitioner led action research in adult literacies, and a guidance booklet on how to carry out this out.

Teaching Reading to Adults Handbook  A pack created by adult literacies practitioners in Scotland is now available. It is described by one participant as “A collection of ideas, strategies, innovations, resources and terribly clever practices.”

Impact of devolution  The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a series of reports on the impact of devolution. One looks at the impact on Area-based Regeneration, identifying the relevant policies in each nation.

Another looks at devolution and low income and identifies some of the key challenges in the years ahead if devolution is to make more of an impact
on people and places in poverty.

Creating a Successful Development Trust  The Development Trusts Association is distributing a learning resource based on the story of Comrie Development Trust. Community organisations who would like a free copy of “Inspiring Change”, which includes a booklet, DVD and timeline wallchart, should contact Katrina .

Community Benefit clauses  The Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition has published ‘Winning new business through sustainable procurement : An introduction to Community Benefit clauses’, described as ‘a new slow burn revolution currently taking place in public sector procurement practice’.

OECD on community capacity building  The OECD has published a guide to ‘Community Capacity Building: creating a better future together’, edited by Antonella Noya, Emmy Clarence and Gary Craig. Drawing on examples from around the world, the book analyses community capacity building in social policy, local economic development and environment. Purchase details.