Community development in a different Scotland The new regulations and guidance are both an opportunity and a challenge for Community The new regulations and guidance are both an Learning and Development (CLD) to be in the opportunity and a challenge for Community Learning forefront of helping to shape the future for and Development (CLD) to be in the forefront of Scotland s communities. helping to shape the future for Scotland s communities. Opportunity and challenge for Community Learning & Development planning and practice
These are challenging times for communities, but the introduction of the CLD Regulations and Guidance provide a not to be missed opportunity for CLD to make a real difference knowing what communities need to thrive and grow, and playing a leading role in the effort to make it happen. With the independence debate and referendum, the progress of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill through the Scottish Parliament; the report from the Commission on Strengthening Local Democracy; public service reform and many other changes, there has rarely been a more important time for community development to have a significant impact, and rarely a greater need for focused community development practice if these ideas are to lead to any lasting change. The CLD guidance and regulations provide the needed permission and authority for those involved at all levels to step up to the plate and ensure that our most disadvantaged and excluded communities are supported to become engaged and active. This has to be the central focus and key priority for CLD. Eight big picture reasons for strengthening community development 1. Local democracy and engagement The report of the Commission on Strengthening Local Democracy found that the smallest tier of local government in Scotland is 45 times as large in area than the European average, and that local taxes contribute only 18% of all revenue, compared to a European average of 40%. The average population size of a local authority in Scotland is 165,000. The Commission made several strong recommendations to tackle this deficit in democracy, including that in each area of Scotland there now needs to be a significant and systematic reinvestment in community development, and in the codesign of democratic decisions that follow. It argues that, at the same time as powers have drifted to the centre, governments at all levels appear to have dis-invested in supporting communities to learn and develop. If democracy is to stand any chance, it is time to turn that trend around and recognise that continued failure to invest in participation is a failure to invest in democracy itself. 2. Human rights and social justice Community development is fundamentally about protecting and extending these principles from the ground up. All practice should be driven by these values, as now enshrined in the Scottish National Action Plan on Human Rights. 3. Civil society A healthy democracy has a wide range of groups, networks and organisations, both formal and informal, that link people together, provide opportunities and support, bring about change and contribute to a good quality of community life. It is an important part of community development to initiate, nurture and sustain civil society, especially in areas where there is a weak community infrastructure. 1
4. Reinvigorating the local economy and tackling poverty Austerity has a multiple effect on our most deprived communities: far less money coming in to families from wages and benefits; cutbacks in needed public services as Councils have to find savings and cuts in grants and other developmental supports to communities. People still working in community development have a significant role in working to establish initiatives to ameliorate the worst effects of these threats and realities. 5. Equalities, inclusion and cohesion Many communities are diverse, with different population groups, sometimes in conflict with each other. Communities with a high turnover of people often have weak infrastructures, a weak voice, and are consequently an adverse environment in which to live. Building community networks, celebrating different cultures, and engaging actively with excluded people and groups are important elements of local level community work. 6. The quality of community life-meeting community needs and issues In recent years we have seen the emergence of community development trusts, community based housing associations, some community councils and certain other organisations active in developing and providing needed community services and supports, running projects and activities and representing community needs and issues. Such anchor organisations can campaign for change, set up social and community enterprises, and collaborate with public services in a way that engages and benefits their communities directly. It is an important part of the community development task to support the emergence and work of such organisations, while ensuring that they act for the benefit of the whole community and are accountable for what they do. 7. Wellbeing and coherence the public health case It has been quite convincingly established in the fields of public health and health improvement that communities with a good infrastructure play a critical role in people s feeling of wellbeing and resilience, and their own sense that they can control important parts of their lives and that they are not simply dependent on unreliable or inadequate public services. This sense of coherence is important to people s mental and physical health and the move towards asset-based approaches to health improvement and tackling health inequalities are based on this thinking. 8. Modelling and processing different ways of delivering services and local governance Community development can contribute to the development and implementation of new ideas, products, services and models to meet social needs and create new social relationships and collaborations. In general such social innovation is characterised by being demand-led rather than supply-driven; multi-disciplinary and integrated problem solving; participative and empowering; bottom-up rather than top-down, and tailored rather than mass-produced. 2
The challenge In order to have communities actively involved in these challenges, there needs to be effective community organisations and groups, strong networks, and engagement with the wider world. Such arrangements have to be effective, inclusive, accountable, and participatory in the way they function. Through community development and capacity building, CLD should have a leading role in supporting communities to work in this way. It is a challenging and exciting responsibility! Each of the above changes has significant implications for community development, and in most cases they argue for significant investment in the provision and quality of community development and capacity building support. Earlier policies including Scotland s regeneration strategy Achieving a Sustainable Future and the Scottish Community Empowerment Action Plan convey the same messages. Mobilisation can happen From the perspective of community development, the most remarkable part of the recent referendum on independence was, by almost all accounts, the engagement and mobilisation of the electorate, resulting in an unprecedented 85% turnout and equally unprecedented debate and discussion across the country. Equally remarkable was the recognition that this mobilisation was largely in the cause of the core values of community development: social democracy, equality and participation, challenging the power of vested interests and holding a vision for a better future. These observations challenge us to pose some critical questions about community development practice including: Why did it take a referendum campaign to bring out and debate such critical issues in the country's circumstances? Why do we hear so little about them otherwise? Can the level of mobilisation be sustained? What can community workers do to help? How can the people who were energised turn their attention to seeking the same ends by different means? Do social media change the way people are involved - and who is involved? And does all this mean that CLD and community development should engage in critical analysis about the ways in which it works with communities, particularly those communities that are non-geographic but networked though social media? 3
Where does CLD fit? CLD could and should see itself as a catalyst for empowered, active communities. There are many ways in which it can respond to the current context and challenges to support the delivery of better outcomes for our most disadvantaged communities through; 1. Doing or commissioning basic community, or neighbourhood, work where there are few connections or supports between people 2. Assessing community strengths and negotiating priorities for support, so that capacity building can be properly focused and co-ordinated 3. Assessing and enhancing the availability of community development support, and linking communities to the support they need 4. Mentoring and supporting community organisations to enhance their confidence and effectiveness 5. Resourcing and supporting community capacity including the basics of administrative support, meeting spaces, seedcorn funding, access to IT and other communication tools 6. Providing mentoring and training support for a community development approach with colleagues in local government and other public services, and with the third sector, so that community planning can in future be more relevant in meeting community needs 7. Showing the way by demonstrating and modelling good practice in coproduction, social innovation, empowerment and engagement 8. Supporting networks, inter-community learning, and new initiatives to encourage a more robust, interactive community sector 9. Mediating between communities and community planning and other policy delivery mechanisms 10. Challenging exclusion, inequality and oppression within communities as well as in the way services and supports to people and communities are channelled The forthcoming 3-year CLD plans provide a critical opportunity to consider these roles and to build them into a wide ranging process with the aim of helping communities become sustainable, equitable, cohesive and engaged. The new Regulations stipulate that CLD activities should be planned on a systematic basis. One important component of this is that plans can be put in place to ensure that CLD builds the capacity and motivation of the workforce (both directly and indirectly deployed) to undertake the community development and empowerment roles described above. The Scottish Community Empowerment Action Plan set out the longer term ambition of Scottish Government, looking ahead to the day when communities will be in control of assets, in control of budgets, have the confidence to take action over injustice and able to influence income and investment into the community. The next steps in providing a legislative and policy framework for community empowerment is the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill which, when passed will set out new duties to support communities to play an active role in shaping 4
services and to have a greater influence over how decisions that impact locally will be made. CLD has a crucial role to play in helping create the conditions and infrastructure around which such ambitions can be realised. This key role to play in helping bring this about must be concerned with providing direct support to communities, and acting as a bridge between community needs and community planning, as envisaged in the Regulations. The particular contribution of CLD includes providing leadership in: 1. Analysing, mapping and gathering intelligence and insight into community strengths, issues and opportunities, with direct community participation 2. Prioritising the key issues and needs in each locality, recognising the assets that exist as well as the challenges faced 3. Disseminating this intelligence to community planning partnerships, third sector interfaces and other initiatives and structures with a role in supporting community well-being 4. Seeking to build and support effective collaboration for change with community, third sector, and public service players 5. Having all this specified, visible and monitored in the CLD Plans, with regular stock-taking in equal partnership with communities. SCDC can help with ideas, tools and advice for more information check out the website at www.scdc.org.uk 5
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