Joint statement on Third Sector

A new joint statement on the importance and role of the Third Sector has been produced by a Joint Third Sector Task Group bringing together the Scottish Government, CoSLA, SOLACE and representatives from the third sector, led by SCVO. The agreements that it records include:

• The third sector will organise itself so as to effectively participate in mutually acceptable decision making structures, in a transparent and accessible way.
• As a general rule funders will aim to take a 3-year approach to both grant and contract funding (and several other points on funding)
• A ‘strategic commissioning’ approach, led by local authorities, is a ‘positive way forward for the assessment of need, design, procurement and monitoring of the effectiveness of services’ commissioning strategy. But local authorities must involve ‘the relevant partners including service users and their representative bodies where appropriate’ in the strategy; consider the use of forming public-social-partnerships as a means of planning and delivering services; look to purchase multiple outcomes and maximise the use of Community Benefit clauses. (See: Scottish Government information on CB clauses Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition leaflet)
• Confirmation that the ‘local third sector infrastructure’ (e.g. Councils for Voluntary Service and Volunteer Centres), is expected to establish a single ‘Third Sector Interface’ in each Community Planning area, as ‘an important contributor to improved engagement’ and ‘providing a visible connection and communication channel between the third sector and the CPP’.

Think Tanks Report

In a related development, ‘Framework for the Future’, the report of the Think Tanks project, established as part of the Supporting Voluntary Action Programme, has been launched.  The project aimed ‘to develop a shared vision, purpose and direction for the voluntary sector support infrastructure in Scotland’, concentrating on the national level.

The report suggest that there should be, not one single body, but “a national Congress of all infrastructure support organisations – CVS, VCs, national intermediaries, national social enterprise support bodies and local networks and LSEPs (estimated to be as many as 140 bodies currently)”; that these should be linked through a ‘portal’ IT system; and that there should be a “brand identity for infrastructure in Scotland” and “a ‘badge’ which guarantees a level of quality of service”.

Upskilling the CLD workforce

Learning Connections has issued a paper that outlines the principles that guide the national CLD Workforce Upskilling Programme and the outcomes that it is intended to achieve. The “CLD workforce“ is defined as consisting of those staff whose primary work role focuses on using the competences for CLD, irrespective of employer.

It has also outlined how the first stage the programme of will be delivered.  The Government has awarded a grant of £950,000 in 2009-10 to Lifelong Learning UK for delivery of this stage. LLUK will be providing support to CLD Partnerships to develop local strategies for workforce development. The CLD Standards Council will provide a means for the sector to input to the strategic direction of the programme, and act as the key point of reference and advice on development and delivery.

More action on empowerment?

Local People Leading has welcomed the Scottish Government’s Community Empowerment Action Plan as an important step on the road to greater community empowerment in Scotland, but believes that ‘it is not sufficiently radical or ambitious to achieve significant change’. It has outlined its views on six key areas where further action is needed. We hope to have a chance to discuss these at a future CDAS meeting.

Promoting Community Council democracy

The Scottish Government has launched a pilot scheme involving 13 community councils in Moray to raise community councils’ profile, validate their role in local decision making and show that they are democratic. More people are being encouraged to stand in community council elections. Each pilot community council has received £500 to promote becoming a community councillor, ahead of elections in October. This adds to two existing pilot schemes in which one urban and one rural Community Council has been granted £15,000 each to spend as they wished for the benefit of their community.

Social Enterprise in SOAs

Senscot and the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition commissioned a piece of work to review the Single Outcome Agreements for 2008 and 2009 to assess how far social enterprise was reflected in them.  A summary of the findings reveals that:

• Only one SOA in 2009 (2 in 2008) had references to social enterprise in all four possible ‘information fields’ – context of the area, local outcomes, local indicators and actions required.
• 12 SOA’s in 2009 (up from 10) had no references to social enterprise in any of the four fields and 9 had only one reference (compared to 10)
• Overall, it appears that SOA’s for rural areas –especially those in the Highlands and Islands – are more likely to contain references to social enterprise compared to those in urban areas.

Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress

An international report on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (in effect  ‘Measuring What Matters’) has been produced by a group commissioned by President Sarkozy of France, chaired and advised respectively by Nobel Prize winners Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz and Professor Amartya Sen.

The OECD’s Global Project on “Measuring the Progress of Societies” also provides relevant materials and links.

Do social enterprises exist?

Senscot reproduces a provocative article from New Start in which Michael Finlayson, Chief Executive of social enterprise/social firm Forth Sector, argues that “social enterprises don’t really exist and our social firms have no future”. His reasons, briefly, are that a social enterprise has no legal status, the term refers to an activity rather than an entity, and that social firms are over dependent on grants, and ‘a tool not a cause’, justifiable only if they serve the charitable purposes for which they were established.

Schools Consultation Scotland Bill

The Scottish Parliament has published the stage 2 version of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Bill. Consumer Focus Scotland ‘supports the aims of putting in place a more open, participative and transparent process that is easier to understand’ for changes to schools, but is disappointed that the Bill only extends the statutory consultation period from 28 days to 6 weeks.

A sign of things to come?

‘Community workers protest over cuts plans’ reports the Irish Times. Thousands of workers in family resource centres, youth programmes and drugs projects took to the streets of Dublin on 30 September to protest about current and proposed cuts to their sector. A 15 per cent budget cut has already been imposed on the sector, and further cuts are proposed in the report of a government ‘Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes’, popularly known as ‘An Bord Snip’ (Cuts Board). This concludes that Ireland’s network of 180 Community Development Projects (CDPs) ‘showed no evidence of positive outcomes’.

Getting community ownership back on track

Local People Leading have reproduced an authoritative but trenchant talk by James Hunter on the Scottish experience of community land ownership, why he fears that it is failing to progress and what should be done about it.

On-line resources

CLD Standards Council e-newsletter The CLD Standards Council is launching an e-newsletter, which will be published initially on a quarterly basis. It will contain a mix of news, events and updates from the council and the wider CLD field. It will provide updates from the four Standards Council committees – Approvals, CPD, Registration and Executive – who currently meet every three months.

To subscribe to the newsletter, either follow the link button on the home page of the Standards Council website to take you through to the sign up area, or email your details to contactcld@scotland.gsi.gov.uk . If you have any news or events you’d like to promote in the e-newsletter send an email or tel:0300 244 1369.

Evaluation Support Scotland – support guides Evaluation Support Scotland has recently updated their downloadable support guides. View the catalogue here.

NHS Scotland e-Library The NHS Scotland e-Library has been entirely redesigned. The new service, provisionally entitled Knowledge for Care Scotland, is now available to try. Some search facilities etc are generally accessible, and a wide range of people who work in partnership with the NHS are able to register for full access to services.

Community Food and Health (Scotland) Community Food and Health (Scotland) has launched a newly redeveloped website.  As well as an expanded funding section, the new site also contains information on legal responsibilities; ideas for being business-like; suggestions for networking and making links; signposts to training and development support; and useful tips on how to demonstrate that your work is making a difference.

Publications

Bridging the Gap This report on the links between youth work and schools is jointly published by Learning and Teaching Scotland, YouthLink Scotland and the Scottish Government. It is a significant statement that recognises the existing partnership work and provides a platform for future developments.

Statement on the Nature and Purpose of Youth Work Youthlink Scotland has reissued this brief statement, previously developed with the whole sector, incorporating up to date links etc.

Young Men in Scotland: A conversation YMCA Scotland called together a group of influential policy makers from a wide range of professions and stakeholders with an interest in young men. A number of significant factors were identified in the lives of young men and the group ultimately concluded that there was a critical need for a whole new approach to work with young men in Scotland. The full report, written by Howard Sercombe, can be viewed here.

Economic evidence A report with the unwieldy title ‘Preliminary Case Studies of the application of Economic Evidence of Health Improvement Work in Community led Projects and Organizations’, was launched at the Healthier Lives, Wealthier Communities? conference on 30th September. (Declaration of interest: I wrote this report).

NHS Health Scotland hopes it will be of interest to partners across the sectors, both from a funding/commissioning and a community organization perspective. NHS Health Scotland will be working with a National Reference Group and their partners more widely on drawing learning from the case research along with the feedback from delegates at the conference, to shape the onward agenda regarding Economic Evidence of Community-led Health Improvement.

A report of the conference, including the presentations will shortly be available.  If you did not attend the conference and would like a copy, please e-mail Kirsty.smith@health.scot.nhs.uk.

Pledgebanks The Department for Communities and Local Government in England has published a literature review on community Pledgebanks . A pledge scheme is an invitation from an organisation to an individual to make a public commitment to a behaviour change. Studies of the effect of pledging on recycling, vehicle safety, voting, smoking and environmental behaviour indicate that:

• Asking people to pledge can lead to behaviour change, but there is no clear evidence that it is any more or less effective than other campaigning approaches
• Asking people to pledge seems to work best if it takes a personal approach, but it is unclear whether it is the personal approach or the pledging that has an effect.

Communities and Policing Full reports are available on the recent Scottish Institute for Policing Research conference “Communities and Policing: evidence and innovation in Scotland”

European Social Fund Stories The European Commission has published a book of personal stories from around the continent: “Making a difference in life: the EU investing in people through the European Social Fund”. Download here (click the ‘en’ button).

Voluntary Sector Review, the new journal of the Voluntary Sector Studies Network will publish peer-reviewed, accessible papers on third sector research, policy and practice. Details.

Empowered Communities survey results The Topic Report on ‘Empowered Communities’ from the English 2007-08 Citizenship Survey contains a range of interesting information on subjective empowerment, trust and actual participation. For example, 38% of people in England felt they could influence local decisions, while 20% felt they could influence national decisions. These proportions have not changed since 2003.

Community development approaches to grant giving CDF has produced a report ‘Funding Communities, Adding Value’ on Community development approaches to grant giving, which ‘means an open, transparent and fair approach that meets the needs of the community, as identified by the community that the grant fund is targeted at’.  (free download)

Care Commission Involving People Plan The Care Commission’s Involving People Plan is now available in an easy to read version.