Strategic guidance for community planning partnerships: community learning and development

This guidance will help promote a more integrated approach in supporting active community participation in planning and delivery of services.


5. Implementation and Support

5.1 The implementation of this guidance provides the impetus for CLD to be delivered as a consistent, central element of public services in Scotland and will be based on a continuing dialogue with key stakeholders.

5.2 Throughout this guidance, we have laid out what we expect from community planning partners, with local authorities providing clear leadership and direction. We have also asked Education Scotland to develop an implementation framework, ensuring its own programmes of policy implementation, inspection, self-evaluation and practice support provide the necessary challenge in order to secure change.

5.3 This approach will achieve greater consistency in the provision and practice of CLD across Scotland, continuing to foster local flexibility in establishing priorities and delivering services, whilst improving outcomes. The implementation process should ensure that:

  • the core purpose of CLD is closely aligned with developments in post-16 education reform and community empowerment policy;
  • CLD services will help to deliver the new partnership with communities envisaged by the Christie Commission reforms;
  • the roles of all partners are clarified both within core services and wider CLD landscape;
  • local authorities will be supported to audit the need for CLD, in line with the proposed duty in forthcoming legislation.

5.4 We recognise that the current financial climate means, while there is increasing demand for CLD intervention and expertise, there is limited current scope for additional investment. We hope that Community Planning partners approach this challenge by focusing on prevention and seeking to innovate in their use of existing resources, including Change and Regeneration funding.

5.5 Specifically, we see the following responsibilities as being necessary.

We expect CPPs to:
Ensure that systematic assessments of community needs and strengths provide the basis for SOAs and service strategies and plans.
Ensure this assessment is based on engagement and continued dialogue with communities, utilising CLD expertise, as well as on analysis of other data.
Ensure SOAs have a clear focus on prevention and community empowerment as the foundation of reformed public services and utilise CLD provision and methods for these purposes.
Review current partnership arrangements for planning, monitoring and evaluating CLD and ensure that they are fit for the purposes set out in this Guidance.

Education Scotland will:
Raise awareness of the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities outlined above.
Ensure its own CLD activities have a clear focus on implementing this Strategic Guidance and build and maintain a national overview of the impact of CLD. This will include:
  • policy implementation;
  • practice development;
  • support and challenge to local authorities and their partners;
  • support for self-evaluation; and
  • evaluation and scrutiny including inspection.
Promote the national CPD strategy and the i-develop framework.
Promote high standards of practice underpinning CLD.
Contribute to delivering the implementation framework and subsequent action plans.
Highlight to Scottish Government any issues arising relating to workforce development.

Education Scotland, working with key national partners, will:
Establish an implementation framework, ensuring that issues identified in this Guidance are addressed and that existing and proposed strategic developments in the broad CLD field are integrated with this implementation process e.g. ALIS 2020
Ensure learning from the implementation process is shared by local and national partners, and informs its continuing development.
Keep under review the progress in implementing this Guidance and report to Scottish Government annually or with specific issues.
Support the CLD Standards Council to become an independent registration body for practitioners.

We expect the CLD Standards Council for Scotland to:
Establish a registration system for practitioners delivering and active in CLD practice.
Deliver a professional approvals structure for qualifications, courses and development opportunities for everyone involved in CLD.
Develop and establish a model of supported induction.
Convene a CLD employer group for Scotland and explore options around workforce, including links with UK wide work on National Occupational Standards.

The Scottish Government will:
Explore legislative powers for CLD and communicate progress with partners.
We will pursue improving the involvement of colleges in community planning as part of implementation of the recent SG/COSLA review.
Examine the need to consider further the future of pre-service training.
Continue to involve CLD stakeholders in its post-16 Education Reform Programme.
Continue to promote the benefits of CLD methods across a wide range of policy areas.
Support Third Sector national organisations through the distribution of core funding.
Fund the SCQF Partnership to allow it to support and credit rate CLD courses.
Continue with plans to refresh the current youth work strategy, Moving Forward, in partnership with national youth work organisations.
Work with the Improvement Service and Education Scotland to develop improved indicators for the impact of CLD work as part of the on-going Local Outcome Indicator Project which supports CPPs in Scotland.
Commission Education Scotland to provide an evaluative report on the impact of the guidance, based on inspection evidence and any other thematic evaluative activity.

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