Farewell to Learning Connections

The Scottish Government’s strategic review of the Learning Connections unit of its Lifelong Learning Directorate (formerly in Communities Scotland, formerly Community Learning Scotland, formerly the Scottish Community Education Council) has concluded that ‘Historically there has not been strong co-ordinated support at national level for the delivery of policy and practice in Community Learning and Development (CLD), and the existing delivery landscape for CLD is complicated’. It has therefore decided to split the unit up.

It identifies three groups of functions.

• The new Standards Council for CLD in Scotland will, as expected, become independent of the Scottish Government , and will be managed by Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK), the sector skills council for lifelong learning
• Policy development will remain an internal SG function. The team will join others currently in the Further and Adult Education Department  to form a single unit, and they will establish  formal links with the Youth Work team in the Children, Young People and Social Care Directorate (which addresses an existing split in responsibility for developing policy for the different elements of CLD)
• Practice development and policy implementation work (such as the current work on support for community capacity building) will be moved out of direct Scottish Government control into Learning and Teaching Scotland, where a representative advisory body will oversee its work.

Upskilling the CLD Workforce

The Scottish Government has identified resources to invest in a programme of “upskilling” of the CLD workforce.  Learning Connections (for the time being) is implementing the programme, with the advice of the Standards Council for CLD.  The Standards Council will be looking for partners across all sectors and aspects of CLD to contribute to its success.

The main strands of the action plan for the programme are

• Establish a national workforce development strategy
• Deliver a national workforce development programme
• Establish a continuous learning framework for the CLD workforce
• Establish a coherent system of CPD opportunities for the CLD workforce, accessible across Scotland
• Support the development and use of individual learning plans for and by all CLD practitioners
• Establish a programme to develop collaborative leadership and management
• Ensure a specific focus on equalities and diversity
• Support and encourage the active involvement of practitioners
• Support sustainable change.

A report by Blake Stevenson scoping the requirements for the programme is available.

Initiatives on Community Empowerment

The Scottish Government has launched a number of new initiatives in pursuance of its Community Empowerment agenda including:

• Support to SURF (Scotland’s independent regeneration forum) for a Networking Assistance Programme (SNAP) to enable community activists and volunteers to attend events, seminars and forums organised by SURF.
• Support to Local People Leading for a Knowledge and Skills Exchange Programme, to promote and stimulate learning and exchange of expertise. LPL will work with Development Trusts Association Scotland  to provide a brokerage service to help community groups to share experience and practice, through visits to other organisations and projects across Scotland
• A learning resource pack on setting up a Development Trust
• Hosting a learning event on regeneration and community empowerment around October/November; this will be free and open to community activists and volunteers, and will provide a forum for learning, sharing best practice and networking (groups that are interested in presenting their experience should contact Wendy-Louise Smith at communityengagement@scotland.gsi.gov.uk before 31 July)

Brief reports are also given (see Annex E here) on progress with other actions set out in the Community Empowerment Action Plan:

• Development of a learning programme to support and improve practice in engaging communities
• Community Empowerment Case Studies
• Support for communities to own assets.

‘Dynamic Inclusive Communities’ projects

The Big Lottery Fund has awarded a total of £1,123,467 to three Scottish organisations from its Dynamic, Inclusive Communities programme (DInC), which is aimed at strengthening communities so that they can play a bigger and more effective role in planning their own futures.

The Scottish Community Development Centre will receive an award of £399,086. Their Achieving Community Empowerment project will provide community organisations with mentoring support so that they can access expert advice and information to help them carry out community activities. It will also develop a learning exchange programme to capture, analyse and disseminate learning across the community sector in Scotland.

The Scottish Community Foundation has been awarded £315,150 for Our Community Our Future, which will establish capacity building programmes in eight Scottish communities (locations to be announced). It will help groups living in those communities to canvas the opinions of their community to find out what the issues are, in the hope that they will be empowered to approach decision makers with greater confidence, armed with findings to support their cause.

Forward Scotland will receive over £400,000 to investing in the delivery of its Sus it Out Plus ™ community empowerment programme.  This will work with 150 groups, increasing awareness of sustainable development principles, developing group action plans and providing funding to enable the building of skills and experiences. The programme will run for two years and is open to community groups, new and existing, that wish to develop in a more sustainable manner. Groups interested in taking part can contact Forward Scotland.

The three organisations intend to work closely together.

BLF’s new strategy

The DInC fund is part of BLF’s Investing in Communities programme. The BLF’s UK wide Big Thinking consultation on its future strategy has led it to the conclusion that in Scotland  it will build on Investing in Communities, improving it and refocusing it where necessary to take account of the needs and priorities of communities. It will do this in dialogue with its stakeholders and customers, reflecting the policy directions given by Scottish Ministers, and aims to open to applications by June 2010.

Future Jobs Fund

COSLA has adopted a report on the progress that has been made to institute the Future Jobs Fund, which sets out recommendations for the role of councils in accessing the fund in Scotland. It proposes that councils should have a leadership role in developing composite bids to the fund for each Community Planning Partnership, with a two way dialogue with partners in the third sector to join up bids and eliminate duplication. Guidance Notes on bidding are also available.

Volunteering and state benefits

Volunteer Development Scotland (VDS) have provided this reminder on benefit claims and volunteering: over the past few months there has been an upsurge in interest in volunteering as a means of enhancing employability and helping people into the labour market. There are now no limits on the amount of volunteering benefits claimants can do – as it related to volunteering, the so called 16-hour rule was abolished several years ago. As the most up-to-date guidance makes clear, if you volunteer your benefits will not be affected.  Overall Jobcentre Plus are keen to encourage customers to consider volunteering as a step back into work.

Benefit rules may however cause problems for the attempt to bring the Grameen Bank, offering business loans to people without collateral, to Glasgow. Read more.

Meanwhile the DWP has rejected Create Consortium’s initial proposal to pilot a Community Allowance scheme to allow community organizations to pay local people on benefits to carry out part time work in their neighbourhoods, as it included those on Job Seekers Allowance. But it has asked them to put forward another, scaled-back bid to focus on those on Employment and Support Allowance and Incapacity Benefit, so it seems likely some pilot schemes will go ahead.

(un)Happy Planet index

nef (the new economics foundation) has released the Happy Planet Index, the second global ranking of the ecological efficiency with which the world’s nations deliver long and happy lives for the people who live there. The new Index is based on improved data for 143 countries around the world, representing 99 per cent of the world’s population. Costa Rica emerges as the ’greenest and happiest’ country

Intergenerational Pilot

YouthLink Scotland is seeking expressions of interest from organisations wishing to develop intergenerational work from a youth work perspective. Each organisation will receive £10,000 to develop the work. It wants to work with four organisations to develop different models of intergenerational practice, with a specific focus on community safety and working with the hardest to reach young people and older people within particular communities using a partnership approach. To express an interest, contact: Lisa Hogg, phone: 0131 313 2488, e-mail (Closing date 31 July).

Community Ideas Campaign

Employers in Voluntary Housing have launched a web based Community Ideas Campaign. The campaign is based on the Irish Ideas Campaign where 5000 ideas were generated in one month to help regenerate the Irish economy. The initial phase of the campaign is seeking people’s ideas to:

• Preserve and grow employment
• Stimulate activity across the community
• Make it easier for ordinary people to make a difference
• Kick start our construction industry to provide sustainable homes

EVH are hoping it will lead to something much bigger later in the year.

Success on pilot community housing programme

The first students have successfully completed an HNC Working with Communities/Housing pilot programme, created by John Wheatley College in partnership with Easthall Park Housing Co-operative. The course is the first of its kind in Scotland and, supported by 12 housing organisations across the city, the students have benefited from workplace-based practical experience.

BEMIS supports BA in Community Development

Black and Ethnic Minorities Infrastructure in Scotland (BEMIS) and the University of Glasgow have formed a Partnership in which they will facilitate support for willing trainees through a BA in Community Development, complemented by extra direct training days.

Online resources

Scottish Education and Action for Development
Scottish Education and Action for Development’s new 130-page online resource for community action gives groups access to support from all kinds of organisations in Scotland and around the world who can offer the benefit of their experience. The site includes the Climate Action Hub which has links to everything you might want to know about climate change, what we can do about it, examples of community action already happening in Scotland and around the world. The site also has a Community Action Toolkit with information on everything from community involvement, practical solutions for a sustainable society, getting funding, using the media and choosing the best approach to achieve the aims of the group.

Adult Literacies Online
A new look for Scotland’s Adult Literacies Online resource site has gone live. New to the site is a report on the online learning support programme that finished at the end of March 2009.

Community Powerdown
The Community Powerdown consortium website aims to help communities reduce the carbon footprint of their village or town.

Publications

Community Empowerment Case Study Research
Research for the Scottish Government explores examples of community empowerment practice. The main findings are:

• There is already a wealth of community empowerment experience in Scotland; the Community Empowerment Action Plan is not starting from a low base.
• Every community is different and there are many ways in which they can become empowered. They work within a community empowerment spectrum, from participation to control. A one-size fits all approach is inappropriate.
• There is little evidence from the case studies to suggest that movement up and down this spectrum is either straightforward or necessarily an aspiration. Communities can be ‘locked in’, or lock themselves in, to particular forms of empowerment.
• A positive relationship between communities and key stakeholders usually lies at the heart of a successful community empowerment initiative. Local authorities and other external agencies need to be supportive and enabling partners.
• The most successful empowerment initiatives are likely to be those that grow from a strong community base. Government, local authorities and other external agencies can create the right climate for community empowerment, but they cannot make it happen.
• Community control of decisions about some local authority or external agency budgets can be empowering, but only if agencies are prepared to devolve some responsibility to neighbourhood level and avoid micro-management.
• Successful community empowerment depends on investment in on-going support, training and individual capacity building. The commitment and quality of external advisors can be crucial.
• Community empowerment initiatives benefit from regular opportunities for networking and peer group learning.
• Community asset ownership can boost community confidence and status, underpin community sustainability and give a boost to local economies.

A Journal of Youth Work
The Scottish Youth Issues Journal has a new name and format; “A Journal of Youth Work: Research and Positive Practices in Work with Young People”. It is now available free of charge.

Scottish Anti-Poverty Review
The Poverty Alliance has relaunched the Scottish Anti-Poverty Review. The Review is now available online to download for free. The current issue is themed around tackling poverty during the recession.

Tackling Multiple Deprivation in Communities: Considering the Evidence
This report, commissioned by the Scottish government from Andy Fyfe of ODS, reviews the current context for area based community regeneration in Scotland, the impact of the long history of previous interventions, and the future challenges.

Resource Pack on the Scottish Parliament
This pack, aimed at Literacy and Adult Education Tutors has recently been revised and updated. It has been developed by the Workers’ Educational Association, CLAN (City Literacy and Numeracy) Edinburgh Partnership and the Scottish Parliament.

‘A future for community development’
This new report from CDF (Community Development Foundation) examines how the community development field and profession is likely to be affected by the recession, and after a general election.   The paper explores where the opportunities for community development may lie in the coming years, examining the most likely scenarios for 2010, particularly from a policy and economic perspective. To read the report, click here.

The Well-Connected Community
Alison Gilchrist has produced a fully-updated second edition of her widely read book on ‘a networking approach to community development’. It includes new ideas drawn from recent research on social capital and the policy context for community practice. Details and how to purchase.

Building public support for tackling poverty
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a report (free download) examining different ways of building public support for tackling UK poverty. It argues that focusing on the specifics of wage levels, housing conditions or debt rather than the abstraction of poverty is likely to achieve more impact.