City of Edinburgh Community Learning
and Development Plan
2015 – 2018
8/4/2015
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City of Edinburgh Community Learning and Development Plan 2015 – 2018
What is our vision for CLD in Edinburgh?
The vision for CLD in Edinburgh is to support citizens to improve their life chances through learning and to create
stronger, more resilient communities. Realising this vision will support our belief that CLD should focus its resources and
energy on working with those individuals and communities adversely affected by poverty and inequality.
Community Learning and Development (CLD) is a community of practice. For the purposes of this document, CLD is a term
describing the sector, made up of a range of voluntary and public sector organisations, which provides community learning and
development activities across the city. The sector is represented in community planning by the Edinburgh Community Learning and
Development Partnership. Appendix 3 shows the relationship of ECLDP to the Edinburgh Partnership.
It is clear that, in a time of constraints on resources and a need to focus them where most required and likely to make a difference,
CLD will need to reconsider its priorities and ways of working in order to maximise outcomes. There will need to be a continued
strong emphasis on partnership working across a broad spectrum of service providers and with communities.
More specifically, transitions at various life stages are often a time when most support is required. CLD should prioritise its ability to
intervene at these stages, either alone or in partnership with others.
Edinburgh Community Learning and Development Partnership
The Edinburgh Community Learning and Development Partnership (ECLDP) is a strategic partnership of the Edinburgh
Partnership. Its membership is drawn from the public sector - City of Edinburgh Council (Children and Families, Services for
Communities including Libraries, Economic Development, Health and Social Care), Police Scotland, Skill Development Scotland
and NHS Lothian; the voluntary sector - Edinburgh Youth Work Consortium, Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council, Volunteer
Centre Edinburgh, Edinburgh and Lothian Regional Equality Council, Four Square, Granton Youth Centre, LAYC and Workers’
Educational Association; and Further/Higher Education – Open University and Edinburgh College.
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The ECLDP’s purpose is to oversee the strategic development of community learning and development provision across the city,
and ensure that it builds towards the vision of the Edinburgh Partnership: Edinburgh is a thriving, successful and sustainable
capital city in which all forms of deprivation and inequality are reduced.
The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill will provide CLD with an opportunity to raise its profile and demonstrate its central
role in building the capacity of communities to exercise greater influence in the local decisions that affect them and the local assets
available for their use.
Purpose of the Plan – why have we produced this Plan?
The three year plan is required to show that CLD in Edinburgh:
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Ensures the systematic assessment of community needs and strengths;
Ensures that assessment involves continuing engagement and continuing dialogue with communities;
Ensures a focus on prevention, early intervention and community empowerment as the foundation of practice;
Establishes joint planning and evaluation arrangements.
The purpose of CLD, as set out in the Scottish Government’s Strategic Guidance, is about empowering people, individually and
collectively, to make positive changes in their lives and their communities, through learning. Its focus, therefore, should work
towards the two national outcomes:
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Improved life chances for people of all ages, including young people in particular, through learning, personal
development and active citizenship;
Stronger, more resilient, supportive, influential and inclusive communities.
The Strategic Guidance identifies those most likely to benefit from CLD provision as targeted individuals, geographic communities,
communities of interest and existing community or learning groups. CLD is an approach that can be applied in a wide variety of
settings, and its practitioners and partners will be engaged in activities which include:
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Community development (building the capacity of communities to meet their own needs, engaging with and influencing
decision makers);
Youth work, family learning and other early intervention work with children, young people and families;
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Community-based adult learning, including adult literacies and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL);
Volunteer development;
Learning for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in the community;
Learning support and guidance in the community.
The Plan will be an evolving document that is reviewed annually and amended in accordance with changing priorities and
circumstances.
Context – what changes are taking place that inform the Plan?
This plan should be seen in the context of a number of recent and/or significant policies and strategies which inform the focus and
direction of CLD. Central to these are the Public Service reform (as set out in the Christie Commission), confirming the growing
emphasis on prevention, early intervention, increased partnership working, greater empowerment and engagement of communities,
and the integration of Health and Social Care. This strongly reflects the core principles for CLD and this plan provides an
opportunity for CLD to re-state its place at the heart of this new approach.
National policy drivers for adult learning and youth work in Scotland include two recent publications which guide the direction of
adult learning and youth work in Scotland. These are ‘Adult Learning in Scotland: Statement of Ambition’ and ‘Our Ambitions for
Improving the Life Chances of Young People in Scotland: National Youth Work Strategy, 2014-2019’. CLD practice is also guided
and informed by Getting It Right for Every Child.
The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill is a key driver for community capacity building. It will support communities to achieve
their own goals and aspirations through taking independent action and by having their voices heard in the decisions that affect their
lives. This will include strengthening community participation, giving people a greater say in how services are planned and
delivered, and empowerment through asset transfer.
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Within the context of changes in Edinburgh, the transformation programme underway at the Edinburgh Partnership, the City of
Edinburgh Council and NHS Lothian will see the creation of four new localities with co-terminous boundaries. The new locality
model will provide greater integration of service delivery operating in line with the core principles of the Christie recommendations.
As a strategic partnership of Edinburgh’s Community Planning Partnership (the Edinburgh Partnership), The CLD Partnership Plan
must ensure that its work is in line with the vision, outcomes and strategic priorities of that Partnership. These are:
Edinburgh is a thriving, successful and sustainable capital city in which all forms of deprivation and inequality are reduced.
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Edinburgh’s economy delivers increased investment, jobs, and opportunities for all.
Edinburgh’s citizens experience improved health and wellbeing, with reduced inequalities in health.
Edinburgh’s children and young people enjoy their childhood and fulfil their potential.
Edinburgh’s communities are safer and have improved physical and social fabric.
Appendix 4 provides a list of key policy drivers for CLD
Assessment of Need and Evidence Gathering – how do we know what learners want?
In order to design this plan, evidence was gathered from a range of different sources in order to assess the degree to which the
needs of target CLD participants are already being met. An audit of existing CLD activity across the city, completed by 30 providers,
presented a picture of a vibrant and varied sector working with a wide range of groups and individuals as well as providing an
informed view of potential gaps and duplication, and the role of learners in influencing provision. This was reinforced by a series of
21 focus groups held with representative groups of participants from adult learning, youth work and community capacity building.
This included over 100 young people and over 100 adults.
In addition, this was supported by a desk-based analysis of existing work. For example, the twelve Neighbourhood Partnership
Local Community Plans all contain CLD-related actions, including activities for children and young people, older people and
parents, increasing community engagement and challenging social isolation. The plans set out the priorities and action needed to
improve the quality of life in each area based on community identified aspirations and needs. They form a key element of the
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Neighbourhood Partnerships’ work and are central to their role in enabling inclusive and integrated partnership working and
community engagement in the city.
In order to ensure the Plan is inclusive of all relevant groups, an Integrated Impact Assessment was carried out on 16 March 2015
(Appendix 2).
The principal findings from participants involved in the consultation are:
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The need, and desire, for more CLD provision to be made available;
The quality of accommodation for provision needs to be better in many cases;
The desire to be more involved in local decision-making, and for more awareness of how to influence decisions;
The need for creative and varied means of promoting CLD, with the learner voice being prominent. Participants are the best
advocates for this work;
Attending CLD provision is viewed as highly beneficial for employability, confidence, self-esteem, happiness, friendships and
positive relationships, opportunities to try new things, learning and challenging oneself, assuming responsibility, general
health and wellbeing, having your say in your local community, bringing different people together and breaking down
barriers;
Some provision needs to be more affordable;
Improved co-working between schools, youth work and adult learning providers would be beneficial;
Physical access for disabled people could be improved;
CLD should raise its profile with senior decision-makers to promote its success and contribution to key outcomes, and to be
more highly valued;
Changing the names of parts of provision has led to some confusion for some participants, e.g. ABE to CLAN to Adult
Literacies;
CLD practitioners have a crucial role to play in signposting learners to progression opportunities.
Additionally, Edinburgh Youth Work Consortium and Edinburgh University have recently conducted a major literature review of
research focussing on the impact of universal youth work. This highlighted the value of universal youth work and its important
contribution to improving outcomes for young people.
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The findings from all of these activities will contribute to the identified actions that follow. Sustaining the place of the learner/citizen
voice in influencing CLD policy and practice will be a priority for all partners involved with the Plan.
The provision of ‘adequate and efficient’ CLD will differ between local communities and be influenced by the policy context,
community and partner views, community profile data and evaluation.
Implementing the CLD Plan – how will we take it forward?
All partners involved with designing the Plan have their own planning arrangements. This Plan, therefore, concentrates on
addressing cross-cutting areas for action identified by local people and learners, organisations involved in the audit exercise and
partners involved in the Plan design group. Central to this will be strong partnerships.
In order to deliver this Plan, it will be essential to have in place a partnership planning and delivery structure that is ‘fit for purpose.’
The existing Edinburgh Community Learning and Development Partnership will therefore need to review its current operation and
membership in order to deliver effectively this action plan. Ownership of this Plan will rest with this revised structure (see Appendix
1 for the Action Plan).
The priority action for the Plan – what are we trying to achieve?
CLD providers and practitioners will build on existing strong partnerships and, through shared interests, jointly plan and
better co-ordinate CLD provision across the city in order to achieve better outcomes including improved attainment,
employability (especially for young people and for adults with few or low qualifications) and health and wellbeing. CLD’s
priorities for the people of Edinburgh are in line with the two National Outcomes as follows:
Improved life chances for people of all ages, including young people in particular, through learning, personal
development and active citizenship:
Outcome Indicators:
i) There is an improved variety and choice of adult learning across the different ages, stages and circumstances that learners
find themselves in;
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ii) There is evidence of greater accessibility to provision for learners;
iii) Literacy provision responds to the wide range of interests and purposes of learners, including financial capability, literacy,
numeracy, language (especially ESOL) and digital literacy;
iv) Family learning contributes to raising the attainment of the lowest achieving children in nursery and early primary through
working with parents;
v) Universal youth work services across the city reflect the needs of young people on a spectrum stretching from open access
work to a focus on specific intervention outcomes;
vi) Evidence of an increase in the levels of participation in attendance, involvement and decision-making in relation to
community and city wide youth work, capitalising on the engagement by young people during the Scottish Independence
referendum;
vii) Evidence of more opportunities to improve wellbeing and health, learn about health improvement, minimise ill health and
reduce health inequalities.
Stronger, more resilient, supportive, influential and inclusive communities
Outcome Indicators:
i) Evidence that CLD plays an integral part in the work to develop Edinburgh as a Co-operative Capital and community
planning in the city, leading to greater engagement of citizens in designing, developing and delivering services;
ii) Evidence that CLD contributes to improving the social capital of more deprived communities, reducing social isolation and
building community cohesion;
iii) Increased engagement with volunteering in communities, in line with the city’s strategy for volunteering;
iv) Evidence of CLD supporting community aspirations relating to the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill;
v) Evidence that CLD engages communities in decision-making processes, and develops initiatives which engender meaningful
involvement and support independent action.
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What else needs to happen to help us achieve this Plan?
In order to achieve these outcomes, the CLD Plan will be underpinned by six key areas for action to be taken forward by the
Edinburgh Community Learning and Development Partnership. The CLD sector will:
1. Demonstrate its impact, with particular reference to prevention and early intervention
CLD must be able to argue strongly from an evidence-based approach for the difference it makes to people’s lives and
improve public awareness of its impact in priority policy areas. CLD should develop and prioritise its role in the evolving
public sector reform focus on prevention and early intervention.
2. Improve its visibility
More people need to know about CLD and what it does. It needs to raise its visibility with potential learners and participants
who can benefit from the services it offers. It also needs to make sure that other services which look to ‘signpost’ or refer
clients know what CLD can offer and who to contact.
3. Place learners/citizens at its centre
The ‘learner voice’ is essential in challenging and influencing the focus and content of CLD and ensuring it is responsive and
relevant.
4. Work with communities (of interest and place) to build on their strengths and increase their influence
To maximise impact, CLD must build trusting relationships with individuals and communities and reinforce existing strengths
of knowledge, experience and resources in order to increase social capital and, hence, build community empowerment and
capacity.
5. Improve the use and sharing of information and research
In order to target resources most effectively and ensure provision is relevant and responsive to both participants and nonparticipants, regular and accurate data need to be gathered, shared and interpreted by and for CLD providers.
6. Implement a CLD professional development framework and model for all paid and voluntary practitioners, leaders
and partners.
CLD should prioritise the professional development of its staff as a central and established part of practice.
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The Learner/Citizen Offer – what can learners expect from CLD?
Learners/citizens engaged in CLD in Edinburgh, with whichever provider, can expect:
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Support to develop their own personalised learning;
Encouragement and support to influence their learning and curriculum;
Access to the full range of CLD activity – youth work, adult learning and support for community capacity building;
Learning programmes which promote challenge and enjoyment, breadth, depth, coherence and relevance;
Guidance and progression opportunities, including access to accredited learning;
Activities to be available at suitable times, venues and prices (where applicable).
Learning programmes will be designed in partnership with participants, families, communities, local practitioners and wider
stakeholders.
CLD needs that will not be met through this plan – what won’t we be able to do?
The scale of activities will be affected by resource limitations (although joint planning will ensure that resources are used effectively
and efficiently). Improvements will be made in gathering intelligence on local and strategic priorities to drive the efficient use of
resources. The need for CLD is always likely to outstrip supply, both in the provision of universal and targeted services. Increased
resourcing and improved quality of accommodation are unlikely to be achieved as a result of this Plan.
Further unmet needs as yet unidentified will emerge during the lifetime of this Plan, and will be responded to as resources permit or
as a result of local or national re-prioritisation.
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Monitoring and Evaluation – how will we know whether we’ve been successful?
The monitoring and evaluation of identified actions and their impact is critical to the success of the CLD plan and therefore:
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The Action Plan will include key performance measures against which to evaluate progress towards outcomes.
An Annual Review will be carried out with stakeholders to review progress and set priorities for the following year.
Learning Community Inspections will make reference to the Plan in their reporting.
The Integrated Impact Assessment will be monitored annually to ensure it continues to fulfil its requirements
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