Community Empowerment: key areas for action?
As the work of the Scottish Government/ COSLA working group on community empowerment continues, Local People Leading have issued a short statement outlining their views on the ‘three key areas for action’. CDAS members will probably welcome the way in which this links ‘Extending community ownership of assets’ and ‘Renewing and revitalising local democracy’ with ‘Building capacity and training’, including the proposal for ‘A new programme of training and support for community based development workers and local residents committed to regenerating their communities…’.
Community empowerment research
The Scottish Government’s Regeneration Research team is currently in the process of commissioning research to explore a variety of existing models of community empowerment practice across Scotland. The aim of the research is to explore in detail examples of how community empowerment practice have been planned, implemented and evaluated across Scotland.
Twelve examples of practice have been identified by the Scottish Government and COSLA as fitting the broad description of community empowerment (‘a process where people work together to make change happen in their community by having more power and influence over what matters to them’).
The research will allow 12 selected case studies to fully describe their experiences and tell their ‘story’ of how their community empowerment activity worked, the challenges faced and their successes. It is not intended as an evaluation of the case studies or their activities. The research will be used to help develop and support future initiatives.
Debate on National Standards for Community Engagement
Local People Leading has expressed the opinion that the National Standards “don’t set the bar high enough’ and interpreted the recent independent evaluation of the Standards, by Clear Plan (UK) Ltd, as giving them ‘only a lukewarm endorsement’. However it has also reproduced a letter in reply from Stuart Hashagen of the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC), in which he argues that ‘The real conclusion from the evaluation is that the Standards do set a high bar, but in many cases community planning partnerships have some way to go in working with communities in the way that the Standards recommend.’
Revision of the National Occupational Standards
Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) is carrying out a revision of the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Community Development Work. The first stage of a two stage consultation process is now underway. A consultation questionnaire and guidance are available at:
http://www.lluk.org/community-development-work-nos-consultation.htm.
Although this stage of the consultation has a particular emphasis on the experience of those who have used the existing version of the NOS, people involved in community development who have not used the NOS, are asked to consider completing those parts of the questionnaire which are relevant to them. Learning Connections comments that “it is apparent from early discussions on the revision of the Standards that it is extremely important that views reflecting the policy context and practice experience in Scotland play a full part in the process”.
SOAs and the voluntary sector
SCVO has carried out a review of 29 out of Scotland’s 32 local authority Single Outcome Agreements. This briefing collates findings on the quality and extent of engagement and consultation of the voluntary sector in producing the SOAs – which SCVO’s contacts judged ‘definitely weak’ in a majority of cases – and the extent to which the agreements propose extending or consolidating the role of voluntary organisations in delivering public services – most are judged not to do so.
Using the Learning in Regeneration Skills Pack
The Scottish Government has produced a consultation document on a Patients’ Rights Bill for users of the NHS in Scotland. One of the key areas covered is the ‘involvement and support you can expect in decisions about your own health and about the health services you use’.
Proposals include: “We will work with … groups, including patient and staff representatives, to agree a participation standard for all NHS Boards. This will cover a patient’s right to participate, as well as the involvement of patients, staff and the public more generally. This standard will build on existing guidance on community engagement [including the National Standards] and reflect the needs of Scotland’s diverse population. NHS Boards will be asked to conduct an audit against the participation standard in order to collect systematic, comparable information on good practice and inform the future development of their approach to participation. We will include a target for performance against this standard amongst the key measures for NHS Boards by 2009.”
The consultation runs until 16 January 2009.
Scottish Consumer Council
Publications:
‘Strengthening Scotland’s Communities’ report
SCDC has reported to the Scottish Government on the outcomes from its ‘Strengthening Scotland’s Communities’ programme of consultations on community capacity building (CCB). It reports that ‘participants understanding of CCB and their practice abilities varied quite considerably, ranging from those with extensive skills, knowledge and experience, to those with little exposure to CCB theory and practice’. It therefore recommends that ‘the development of a common practice framework would contribute to CCB skills development and potentially a more consistent approach to CCB across a range of sectors’ and calls for ‘a Scottish CCB resource that would set out a clear understanding of the components of effective community capacity, and the actions required at policy, management and practice levels to lead to improved outcomes.
Community health ‘logic model’
SCDC has made generally available ‘Understanding a Community Led Approach to Health Improvement’, its detailed investigation and ‘logic model’ of the character of the community led approach and the contribution that it makes to health improvement and addressing health inequalities. It gives particular emphasis to understanding the central role of development support that seeks to empower communities as architects of actions that impact on their own health.
Children’s Participation in Culture and Sport
The Scottish Government has produced a report on ‘Children’s Participation in Culture and Sport’. It commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct research among young people to complement information on adult participation available from the Scottish Household Survey.
Making Spaces for Community Development
The Community Development Foundation and the Policy Press have published this new book by Michael Pitchford and Paul Henderson. Based on interviews with 33 practitioners whose combined experience totals over 800 years of practice, from the late 1960s through to the present day, it distils the learning of highly experienced community workers and sets it in the context of opportunities, dilemmas and tensions in communities today.
