The Communities Team at Learning and Teaching Scotland has published ‘A snapshot of community capacity building in Scotland’, the reports of a survey carried out in December and January. Though not 100% comprehensive, this gives an up to date picture of the delivery of community development and related activity in Scotland. Findings include:

• The responses indicate a strong and growing demand for community capacity building support. They also demonstrate the range and breadth of community capacity building activity being carried across the country. This is further emphasised by the number and range of national and local outcomes that this activity is seen to contribute to.
• CCB is more likely to be seen as part of what people do than all of what they do.
• The lack of resources seemed to be getting particularly acute at a time when demand for capacity building was growing.
• There is a need for a broad, shared understanding of the contributions that different community activities make to building community capacity, the range of different pathways that people take into community involvement and the connections needed between different types of support for communities.

The Team hopes to hold wide discussions based on a list of suggested questions, which will inform future national developments. There is an opportunity to contribute further through a blog.