Community Learning and Development Plan 2021-2024

Community Learning and Development (CLD) is a way of working with individuals and communities which empowers those individuals and groups to address issues of importance to them; promoting social or educational development. 

CLD takes place with young people, adult learners and community groups and involves a range of partners that operate in our communities. CLD focusses on those who need our support the most and this plan looks to overcome disadvantage whether that is from having a protected characteristic under the Equality Act (2010) or whether it is from socioeconomic disadvantage.

East Dunbartonshire’s third plan for Community Learning and Development (for 2021-24) has been undertaken during the time of a global pandemic (Covid-19). The world has changed, impacting the economy, jobs and people’s physical and mental health. A recent Audit Scotland report (May 2021) outlined that Councils and communities worked well together to address unprecedented challenges created by Covid-19. This has been achieved due to the resilience of local services and communities alongside our adaptability and innovation e.g. delivering some services virtually or taking on new roles altogether.

Read the Audit Scotland Report (May 2021)

East Dunbartonshire remains a high performing Council for life expectancy, educational and employment outcomes, as shown in the East Dunbartonshire Area Profile. Recent national statistics relevant to how we plan for CLD in East Dunbartonshire are as follows:

• East Dunbartonshire has a higher percentage of its population over the age of 65 (22.5%) compared to Scotland as a whole (19.1%).
• East Dunbartonshire has a lower unemployment rate (3.2%) than for Scotland as a whole (4.3%) – with 77.3% of the population economically active. There were still 4,200 workless households (13.8%) in East Dunbartonshire however and unemployment increased slightly on previous years. View the Labour Market Profile for East Dunbartonshire for more information.
• School leavers participating in education, training or employment was 96.5% which compared well, to the national average of 91.6%.
• East Dunbartonshire pupils perform well at school and achieve high levels of attainment with 82% of S5 pupils achieving 1+ Level 6 (Higher Level and above).
• A relatively high proportion of working age adults are degree qualified in East Dunbartonshire, however 4,900 people have no qualifications.
• A relatively high proportion of East Dunbartonshire’s population (84.9%) enjoy very good health. However 9.6% of people had their day to day activities limited a lot by poor health, which is higher than the national average of 7.8%.
• Certain groups can experience poorer outcomes than others due to disadvantage or inequality e.g. families are more likely to be in poverty if it is a lone parent family or one or more people in the family has a disability, or indeed any other protected characteristic under the Equality Act. Visit the Child Poverty Action Group for poverty facts and figures.
• Work does not provide a guaranteed route out of poverty in the UK. 75% of children growing up in poverty live in a family where at least one person is working. Visit the End Child Poverty website for more key facts. Certain geographical areas of East Dunbartonshire experience inequality e.g. the Hillhead area of Kirkintilloch and also Lennoxtown have datazones that are amongst the 5-10% most deprived in Scotland within the Income, Employment and Health Domains.
• The 2019 Scottish Household Survey suggests that home internet access has increased steadily and is now at an all-time high. Home internet access from deprived areas is however lower (82%) than in the most affluent areas (96%).
• Other studies also suggest that the digital divide exists across generations. While the number of adults in Scotland over 60 using the internet has increased significantly since 2017, it is lower than the total number of all adults in Scotland (66% for adults over 60; 88% for adults of all ages).
• Scottish Household Survey 2019 outlined that “One in five adults (18 per cent) agreed that they can influence decisions affecting their local area, while 30 per cent said they would like to be more involved in the decisions their council makes, a decrease from 38 per cent in 2007”.

This ongoing performance is supported by a strong voluntary and community sector that underpins this plan. The CLD plan is guided by our Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP) for East Dunbartonshire which has the long term vision of: “Working together to achieve the best with the people of East Dunbartonshire.”

The statutory framework for CLD was established in 2013 in the Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations. This means that all of Scotland’s Councils must prepare a plan for CLD every three years – ensuring it meet the needs of local communities. There is a formal inspection of services undertaken regularly and the latest inspection by Education Scotland (2017) found that there was a shared sense of purpose, underpinned by workforce development across the CLD partnership in East Dunbartonshire, with well-planned and targeted provision tailored to individual and community need that is improving life chances. The inspection also provided two key recommendations around strengthening governance arrangements, monitoring and reporting progress against the CLD Plan at all levels.

Scottish Government published a new guidance note for CLD Plans in December 2020. Further to the 2017 Guidance, it outlined the key stages to be adopted for developing the CLD Plan:

• Involvement
• Shared CLD Priorities
• Planning
• Governance
• Workforce Development.

The new Guidance note takes account of the global pandemic and outlines that CLD practitioners will have a vital role to play in rebuilding from the pandemic and responding to the new challenges ahead. There is an expectation that communities need help to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. Disadvantaged learners and communities may need ongoing assessment to embed priorities for recovery and renewal.

The LOIP sets out a range of data we collect and analyse for our plans in East Dunbartonshire. This includes information from the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. This brings together a range of data for each area of Scotland on: Housing; Access to Services, Income, Education, Health, Crime and Employment. From this we can see that some areas need more support than others and it is for these areas that we have developed Place Plans (Locality Plans). Locality Plans are required from each Council as outlined in the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. This Act outlined a range of measures put in place to support people to engage in community planning including: Participatory Budgeting; Asset Transfer Requests, and Participation Requests.

The National Performance Framework for Scotland has 11 outcomes that are for all public and third sector bodies in Scotland and CLD activity contributes to a number of these including:

• We live in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe
• We are well educated, skilled and able to contribute to society
• We are healthy and active.

There is a commitment in this plan to look at how data and evaluation can be used by the CLD Partnership to improve key CLD outcomes. Officers are involved in national groups on CLD that are working on improving key performance indicators for CLD and how we look at this on a pan-organisational level to monitor progress and continuity of support to East Dunbartonshire residents. The CLD Partnership aims to look at a few indicators that are most helpful to collect to reach key CLD outcomes. Many of these indicators exist already in the Local Outcomes Improvement Plan that the Council and partners have agreed e.g. ‘school leavers participating in education, training or unemployment’.

The LOIP contains six strategic outcomes that partners in East Dunbartonshire have agreed to work towards until 2027. Albeit the global pandemic has had an impact on our work, these outcomes set the existing framework for our CLD Plan.

Local Outcome 1: East Dunbartonshire has a sustainable and resilient economy with busy town and village centres, a growing business base, and is an attractive place ibn which to visit and invest.

Local Outcome 2: Out people are equipped with knowledge and skills for learning, live and work.

Local Outcome 3: Our children and young people are safe, healthy, and ready to learn.

Local Outcome 4: East Dunbartonshire is a safe place in which to live, work and visit.

Local Outcome 5: Our people experience good physical and mental health and wellbeing with access to a quality built and natural environment in which to lead healthier and more active lifestyles.

Local Outcome 6: Our older population and more vulnerable citizens are supported to maintain their independence and enjoy a high quality of life, and they, their families and carers benefit from effective care and support services.

Community Planning Partners that are integral to this CLD plan include East Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP), Skills Development Scotland, New College Lanarkshire, East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust and local strategic partners such as East Dunbartonshire Voluntary Action and East Dunbartonshire Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

The LOIP outlines a community development approach that has been agreed by partners in East Dunbartonshire. Local Outcome 2 Group of the East Dunbartonshire Community Planning Partnership has further developed and will monitor this plan under the outcome ‘skills for learning, life and work’, although there are also close links with all the other outcomes, particularly Local Outcome 3 ‘children are safe, healthy and ready to learn’ and the health and wellbeing indicators.

Equalities and Sustainability are guiding principles in our LOIP and are also adopted throughout this plan. In addition, the extensive engagement and research undertaken for the LOIP identified geographical areas where we would focus our efforts i.e. Lennoxtown, Auchinairn, Hillhead and Harestanes and Twechar. These were identified as the areas where our support was most needed. By adopting an early intervention and prevention approach, and working with local communities; it is hoped that we can improve outcomes in these areas within the lifetime of the LOIP.

This plan covers all of East Dunbartonshire however the need to prioritise resource on these areas (and on vulnerable groups) may lead to ‘unmet need’ in other communities. CLD is an approach which aims to work with disadvantaged communities to empower action and advance improvements.

Since the global pandemic, CLD Partnership meetings have highlighted the following priority areas:

• Digital skills
• Outdoor learning
• Involvement and engagement
• Improving mental health
• Volunteering
• Employability
• Community renewal and resilience
• Equalities

EDC and Partners have continued to deliver vital services throughout the pandemic. Our key service areas relate to Community Planning, Employability and Skills, Early Years and Family learning, Public Health and Leisure and Culture services. A summary of relevant key policies that contribute to CLD are at Appendix One. A number of the outcomes from these plans overlap with this plan – there are various different organisation plans - for example adult learning is a key priority for the local Colleges and East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust, alongside several council teams.

East Dunbartonshire Council has its own How Good Is Our Service annual planning and review process. Early in the year when budgets are set, the priorities are developed for Business Improvement Plans across the Council.

East Dunbartonshire Council has adopted Scotland’s National Standards of Community Engagement (updated in 2020) as parts of its Consultation and Engagement framework.

The Community Planning Partnership is also keen to look at an engagement strategy in the upcoming period. Clearly large scale digital engagement with communities is now more relevant than ever and technology and practice in this areas has progressed significantly in Scotland and has been important during the pandemic. We are clear we also need the qualitative data that face-to-face engagement brings, as part of our overall approach.

Communities of Place and of interest are key areas where we want to focus and improve our engagement.

The locality plans for Lennoxtown, Auchinairn, Hillhead and Harestanes, Twechar are currently being reviewed and face to face engagement with partners and communities around that is planned to take place when COVID restrictions allow. Development workers utilise a range of methods including phone and video calls during ongoing restrictions.

The accredited Health Issues in the Community Course is one of the ways we engage our Place communities and encourage them to take action. We have delivered this course in Hillhead and Harestanes – the 2020-21 course had to be delivered digitally due to the pandemic. Working in partnership with health and family learning colleagues via the Place approach will continue as we review and monitor the Place/ Locality Plans over coming years.

We have recently undertaken a survey of young people to gain their views on issues that matter to them and this will help inform future services for young people and ongoing CLD planning.

A public consultation on this plan took place From November 2021 – March 2022. Respondents to the survey endorsed the six priority themes and underlying objectives of the three year plan.

Local support provided to individuals and groups was important to those that responded however they felt there was a need to sustain future provision and to ensure that progress against the objectives was met.

Improvements were suggested around facilitating more systematic information and opportunities for community groups to come together and learn from one another, share resources and skills. Inclusion, access and equality was a recurring theme particularly for more isolated or rural individuals (especially further to pandemic).

People commented on a need for different plans and streams of work to be more joined-up e.g. community groups linking more with Active Schools and adult learning – providing more meaningful volunteering opportunities in partnership with the third sector and social enterprises.

Reaching out to those families in the greatest need and overcoming barriers to accessing services was another recurring theme e.g. empowering groups to learn how to access funding. There was also a feeling that some key learning will have been missed during COVID e.g. learning to swim.

The effect of the pandemic on health and wellbeing across all age groups was noted – and how community support can alleviate this. Addressing anti-social behaviour through youth work was also a priority for a few respondents.

The CLD Partnership see this as a live document and further consultation will be ongoing to help shape services as we emerge from the pandemic and further community needs are identified.

Over the course of the next three years, the CLD Partnership will work with local residents and community groups to review priorities and monitor performance as well as review potential unmet need. There are many factors which influence unmet need including changing political focus, service re-design, changes to funding and changes to communities themselves. A key focus of the CLD Plan is to build the capacity of communities to meet needs themselves, for community groups to maximise their use of community assets and to access funding where there are gaps in public sector resource.

It is important that our employees and volunteers across East Dunbartonshire are able to access high quality, relevant and role appropriate training and development opportunities. We also recognise that workforce development is a changed landscape with the recent necessary focus on online delivery during ongoing Covid-19 restrictions. Ensuring that consultation and engagement is undertaken in accordance with National Standards of Community Engagement also becomes harder without face to face interactions.

Growing the Learning Culture in CLD, the professional development strategy published by CLD Standards Council for Scotland, looks to promote learning activity and an engaged workforce, both of which are key priorities for successful delivery of this plan. Over the course of the next three years the CLD Partnership plans to develop and evaluate a joint calendar of learning activities. This is alongside learning opportunities made available by national CLD bodies such as Education Scotland.

East Dunbartonshire has a strong base of CLD workforce development to build upon. Although delivery has been impacted by the pandemic, we have a history of CLD Learning Lunches with staff and partner engagement / participation; that has been evaluated well. Volunteers are regularly engaged in Council business and training sessions are offered by the council and the local third sector.

Community Groups continue to evidence needs for training in terms of fundraising skills, marketing and promotion and partnership working. (via the Community Grant Scheme monitoring forms we ask about training needs – holding data from over 130 community groups 2017-20).

The majority of East Dunbartonshire CLD staff are registered with the CLD Standards Council for Scotland. The values of the CLD Standards Council, which the CLD plan incorporates, expound inclusion and diversity and engaging with those who have barriers so that learners are empowered to achieve their own learning or development outcomes.

The CLD strategic group, which is a sub-group of the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) will be responsible for governance of the new plan, monitoring its performance and progress within the LOIP and the progress of Locality Plans (alongside equalities planning). Community learning and development partners will continue to use self-evaluation to evaluate progress, strengths and areas for development. External scrutiny of community learning and development work will also continue to take place through inspection models including: How Good is our Community Learning and Development.

The partnership will develop action plans and performance measures under the strategic objectives outlined in Table 1. This will be reviewed annually by the CLD Partnership as there is evidence of widening inequalities, further to the pandemic