Antisocial Behaviour Plan

The Scottish Government has published an implementation plan for the actions previously set out in the antisocial behaviour policy review. The plan:  ‘Promoting Positive Outcomes: Working Together to Prevent Antisocial Behaviour in Scotland’ makes ‘four basic claims’:

• Prevention:  we  should  be  focusing  on  addressing  the  causes  of  the  problem  through preventive work
• Integration: we should be working together better to achieve shared outcomes
• Engagement: we should be engaging communities in a meaningful way in  the development of national and local strategies and keeping them informed of progress
• Communication: we should communicate better as partners to ensure positive, coordinated and evidence-based messages are shared with the public.

Specific points include:

• a new  voluntary  performance  framework , whose objectives include to enable and support local authorities, Community Safety Partnerships etc to better reflect ‘Safer and Stronger’ outcomes in Single Outcome Agreements and local strategies
• developing an evaluation framework (using a ‘specialist supplier’) relevant  ‘to all community safety projects, programmes and processes’
• establishing ‘a  range  of  learning  sites’, which ‘will  bring  together  experience,  knowledge  and learning  specific  to  ASB  and  across  the  Safer  and  Stronger  spectrum’
• the Scottish Government, COSLA and other national partners, ‘will produce shared strategic guidance on partnership working on ASB by the end of 2009’ and ‘will  consult,  by  autumn,  on  the development of shared guidance aimed at encouraging local communities and agencies  to build  their capacity in addressing ASB problems through community engagement and empowerment activities’
• a main part of the actions on ‘community engagement’ will (as previously announced) be the three ‘participatory budgeting pilots focused on dealing with ASB’ that are being led by COSLA, the list of which is to be announced by the end of November.

Anti-bullying consultation

The Scottish Government has published a consultation on ‘a national approach to anti-bullying for Scotland’s children and young people’, which recognises a role for community and youth groups, and Community Learning and Development workers, amongst many others.

Tackling deprivation: new evidence and policy

In face of the impending end to the Fairer Scotland Fund, and thus thirty or forty years of targeted funding for action to meet the needs of disadvantaged areas and groups, the Scottish Government and COSLA have issued a joint statement ‘Equal Communities In A Fairer Scotland’.

This “confirms the ongoing commitment of government at national and local level to addressing the socio- economic disparities that exist between our most deprived communities, entire local authority areas, and the rest of Scotland”. This commitment is based on the following principles:

• “A focus on investment and services that address the root causes of long-standing  concentrated multiple deprivation, not only alleviate its symptoms
• Emphasis on making early interventions in vulnerable communities to address  emerging problems as quickly as possible
• Encouraging effective joint working between community planning partners. This  should include links to the third and private sectors
• Focused action on improving employability and linking residents to employment  opportunities as a key means of extending opportunity and tackling high levels of  local deprivation
• Support for community empowerment, so that local communities become more resilient, can deliver change themselves and influence and inform the decisions made by community planning partners”.

Within the context of the major national social and economic strategies, “a specific focus on improving outcomes for people living in our most deprived geographical communities remains essential”. Although “tailored local programmes aimed at directly assisting the most deprived geographical areas” are usually more relevant to urban areas, the Government still considers “the communities covered by the 15% most deprived data zones [in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)]  as representing the best overall summary of geographically concentrated  deprivation across the country”,  regardless of whether and how SIMD is used locally as a tool for planning investment and the  deployment of services.

The announcement coincided with the publication of the 2009 version of the SIMD. Findings include:

• There have been continued and marked improvements in Glasgow, with reduced numbers of data zones in the 5 per cent, 10 per cent and 15 per cent most deprived categories, but the city still has nearly a third of all deprived areas.
• Multiple deprivation is becoming less concentrated geographically, as improvements have been seen in other Local Authorities as well as Glasgow. Five Local Authorities now contain 57 per cent of the 15 per cent most deprived zones. This is a fall from 67 per cent in SIMD 2004.
• The majority (82%) of areas that moved out of the 15 per cent most deprived in SIMD 2006 have remained out, demonstrating sustained improvement.
• 81% of data zones in the most deprived 15 per cent in SIMD 2009 were also in the most deprived in the two previous versions, showing that there are still major sustained concentrations of deprivation.

Upskilling the CLD Workforce

Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) has taken on the role of managing the first stage of a CLD workforce up-skilling programme using the Scottish Government funding available in 2009-10. Local CLD Partnerships have been offered funding to develop workforce development strategies and improve Continuing Professional Development opportunities for the CLD workforce, across sectors.

Other priorities for the first year of the programme will include a national programme of leadership and management training, and mapping out existing training opportunities and gaps in provision across Scotland. The Standards Council for CLD is leading the establishment of a national framework for workforce development.

The key LLUK contact for the delivery of the programme this year is Moira Stewart, moira.stewart@lluk.org or 0870 756 4970. For issues relating to the overall and longer term development of the up-skilling programme, contact  Colin Ross, Cath Hamilton, Edith MacQuarrie or Kim Smith at Learning Connections, 0300 244 1367. For issues relating to the Standards Council for CLD, contact Rory MacLeod or Karen Geekie.

SOAs and the community sector

Local People Leading reports on its review of references to community empowerment and/or engagement in Single Outcome Agreements in 2008 and 2009.

• The majority of SOAs appear to have some reference to community engagement. Most of these refer to how the SOAs etc have themselves been influenced by various forms of community engagement.
• There are only five references of any sort to community empowerment and only one specific local action is mentioned (Stirling in 2009 refers to the local implementation of the Community Empowerment Action Plan)
• Thirteen authorities include some specific actions regarding improving or increasing community engagement. Only three include a specific local outcome about community engagement. Most of these references are from the 2008 SOAs.

Lifelong Learning and Skills inquiries

‘Learning through Life’, the report of the UK wide Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning talks about a ‘new mosaic of time’, referring to the varied mixes of paid and unpaid work, leisure and of course study time which seem to be emerging.  Ironically, the recession and the employment crisis may actually be opening up new opportunities for such patterns, as companies look for better alternatives than making people redundant. It argues for a new 4-stage model of the adult life-course:   18-25, 25-50, 50-75, 75+.

‘Towards Ambition 2020: skills, jobs, growth’ provides advice from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. It looks at how UK wide approaches could be changed, as well as providing more detailed recommendations on the English system. It recommends that we should “Continue to publicly promote literacy, numeracy and basic employability skills for all adults, and make public investment in basic skills and employability a key priority until such time as the number of low skilled adults in the UK is reduced to the level of our key international competitors”, but says little about community-based approaches.

Voluntary Action Scotland extends scope

Councils for Voluntary Service (CVS) have voted overwhelmingly to open membership of their new national body, Voluntary Action Scotland, to Volunteer Centres (VCs).

John Swinney on role of social enterprise

Senscot reproduces a letter in which Cabinet Secretary John Swinney agrees that “we need to bring social enterprise centre stage in the work of community planning partnerships”

Social Enterprise Mark

The new Social Enterprise Mark will be launched next February. The criteria for its award to organisations have been published.  Qualifying organisations will:

• Be an eligible legal form
• Adhere to certain shareholders restrictions
• Have own constitution and governing  body
• Profit is predominantly used and/or distributed for social/environmental purposes.
• Have traded for a minimum of one year and  earn 50% or  more of its  income from  trading
• Be able to provide evidence that social/environmental objectives are being achieved.

Nobel for work on common resources

In an unexpected move, the Nobel Prize for Economics has been awarded for the first time to a woman, Elinor Ostrom, who has argued for the importance of cooperation and collective action to safeguard local and global ‘commons’: natural resources, like fish stocks, common land etc.  She argues that societies and groups regularly devise rules and enforcement mechanisms which prevent the degradation of nature.  Active participation by citizens, she says, is the most important feature of successful outcomes.

On-line resources

Community capacity building: on-line guidance Learning Connections guidance ‘Capacity for Change, Building Community Capacity: guidance for staff working with communities’ is available online.

SCVO Green Web Pages SCVO’s website now includes ‘green’ web pages. The pages aim to help voluntary organisations understand the relevance of and take action on ‘green’ issues. In particular, the ‘What you can do’ section includes a simple carbon accounting tool which has been developed with Scottish Environment LINK to enable organisations to start measuring their carbon impact.

Publications

A manifesto for rural communities The Carnegie UK Trust has published ‘A Manifesto for Rural Communities – Inspiring Community Innovation’ It builds upon their 2007 Charter for Rural Communities but acknowledges the accelerating pace of economic and social change.  The publication draws upon evidence from forty-four organisations and communities that have explored some of the most pressing challenges facing rural communities over the past four years.

Briefing on Equality duty The Poverty Alliance has produced a short briefing on ‘The Equality Bill and the socio-economic inequality duty: What are the implications in Scotland?’.

Human Rights Enquiry The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published the findings of its Human Rights Inquiry, based on in-depth research, public polling, focus group work and a series of public evidence sessions on human rights in the UK. It found that an overwhelming majority of the British people support legislation protecting their human rights. It is also the first major study into how far public sector authorities have adopted a rights based approach to delivering services, and found that where human rights were put at the heart of the delivery of public services, they delivered successful results.

Ethnic minorities and Community Planning This report is based on a consultation  by  the Black and Ethnic Minority Infrastructure  in Scotland (BEMIS) with members  of  voluntary  faith-based  and  community  organisations  from  diverse  ethnic minority  communities  in Scotland.   The purpose of  the consultation  was  to  seek  their views on  Government  support  for  tackling  poverty  inequality  and  deprivation  through  local  Community Planning Partnerships.

Laying the roots for a multicultural Scotland The Scottish Refugee Council has published a review of the work of its Community Development Team from 2001 to 2009 with approximately 120 organisations, working with around 2,000 people. It concludes that Community development work is of significant value to their partners, refugee communities themselves, receiving communities and internal stakeholders.

Count Us In: newly-arrived young people HMIE has produced a report on what Scottish schools are doing well at to support newly-arrived young people and their families. The report is also aimed at “people who work in partnership with schools including education officers, community learning and development staff, youth work services, as well as voluntary providers, community and faith groups and other educational establishments”.

Building Cohesive Communities The English Department for Communities and Local Government has published “Building Cohesive Communities: What frontline staff and community activists need to know” “a short practical guide for busy activists and frontline staff working on community cohesion”.

Education for Sustainable Development An international review of ‘Contexts and Structures for Education for Sustainable Development’ has been produced by UNESCO as part of the monitoring of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (more on Scottish developments soon).

Evidence Base for Third Sector Policy The Scottish Government  has published ‘The Evidence Base for Third Sector Policy in Scotland: A Review of Selected Recent Literature’ (summary research findings here)

Third Sector: key policy issues  A document containing short presentations on key policy issues for the Third Sector in Scotland by a variety of experts has been produced as a result of an ESRC seminar series. Presentations include, amongst others:

• Geoff Pope, Head of Opportunities for Growth Team in the Scottish Government Third Sector Division on The third sector and the Scottish Government
• Dr Stephen Sinclair, of the Scottish Poverty Information Unit, Glasgow Caledonian University, on findings from a pilot study of Voluntary and Private Sector Influence in Community Planning in Scotland
• Dr Susan Baines, Reader in Social Policy, Manchester Metropolitan University on Co-production and the modernisation of public service: what has it to do with the VCS?
• Dr Philomena de Lima, Director of the UHI Centre for Remote and Rural Studies on Impact of the economic downturn on the ‘rural voluntary sector’ in Scotland
• Professor Stephen P Osborne, Professor of International Public Management, University of Edinburgh Business School on rare research findings on Voluntary and community groups and innovation in public services.

Communities in recession The Joseph Rowntree Trust has produced a short round-up of evidence on what impact the current recession is having on disadvantaged communities and what we can learn from evidence from previous recessions.

Lifelong Learning UK newsletter Lifelong Learning UK is to publish the first edition of its newsletter, Learning Scotland, this November. The publication promotes the sharing of best practice across the different parts of the lifelong learning sector and provides an update on the recent work of Lifelong Learning UK in Scotland. If you would like a copy please contact Kate Sankey.

Community Philosophy The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has produced the report of a three-year experiment using an approach called ‘Community Philosophy’ to promote conversations and develop positive relationships between different groups of people within a community.

Sustainable Livelihoods Handbook Church Action on Poverty and Oxfam have published a Handbook for community groups, based on their Sustainable Livelihoods work. This takes as its starting point not deprivation but assets: the strengths and capabilities of people living in poverty and the strategies they use to get by. Connections are made between people’s own strategies and the wider context. This information is then used to plan and prioritise possible actions to bring about positive change in people’s lives.

Facilitator Guide to Participatory approaches  An existing guide based on VSO’s experience on promoting participation, designed for volunteers, partner organisations and staff has been now been made available online. It collates a range of participatory methods that have been used successfully in the field. Examples are given of methods that can be used for specific purposes such as Participatory Organisational Appraisal and Gender/Diversity Analysis. The third part gives tips on how to choose the most appropriate tools and participatory exercises, and how to organise participatory workshops and small group activity.