Scottish Government

THE EXISTING DELIVERY LANDSCAPE FOR CLD AND LEARNING CONNECTIONS ROLE WITHIN THIS.

Staffing and resources available to Learning Connections

At the time of the review, Learning Connections had 28 staff including admin staff. These are in three main teams (the administration staff work across all teams and are not included in this diagram):

The total direct running costs (drc) for Learning Connections for 2009/10 is £1,120,000. Learning Connections also has programme budgets of £3,900,000 for 2009/10.

LandscapeCLD

The current landscape for CLD and key stakeholders is mapped diagrammatically in Appendix 4. It can be thought of in three groupings:

• Policy development
• Policy implementation
• Practice development

Policy Development

Learning Connections provides policy advice to Ministers on matters relating to CLD, linking with colleagues across the Scottish Government. However, policy responsibility for adult learning (including ALN and ESOL), lies within the skills and staffing team in FAED Division in LL Directorate. Policy responsibility for youth work lies within the Positive Futures Division in Children, Young People and Social Care Directorate. There is no identified policy lead for building community capacity, though those with a key interest include Learning Connections, Third Sector and Social Economy, Housing and Regeneration.

In addition CLD impacts on a range of other policy interests, which it requires to maintain contact with, such as community empowerment and MCMC. HMIE also reports the significant contribution that CLD makes to health, in particular mental health.

Policy Implementation

The CLD team supports implementation of Scottish Government policy, for example through a programme of support to CLD partnerships to assist implementation of Working and Learning Together to Build Stronger Communities ( WALT).

The ALN and ESOL team support the local ALN Partnerships, CLD Partnerships, the voluntary sector, colleges and workplace stakeholders (including unions and Sector Skills Councils) in developing and implementing a literacies curriculum framework for Scotland and implementing the adult ESOL strategy.

Practice Development

The majority of the work of Learning Connections falls under the heading of Practice Development.

Learning Connections hosts the development engine for adult literacy and numeracy. The 2001 ALNiS report made 21 recommendations for establishing a 'world class' adult literacies service in Scotland. The ALN and ESOL team is composed of specialist literacies and ESOL development coordinators and managers, whose role has involved:

• developing and implementing professional development structures for the ALN and ESOL workforces (including developing training and qualifications),
• developing learning and teaching resources
• supporting ALN and ESOL partnerships, CLD Partnerships and colleges in each of the local authority areas in Scotland
• promoting and sharing effective practice (including facilitating national and regional networks of managers and practitioners and hosting national conferences and seminars)
• commissioning and communicating adult literacies and ESOL research
• raising awareness including leading a national awareness raising campaign (The Big Plus)

The CLD Team's role has involved:

• developing good practice in CLD,
• supporting the development of training in CLD,
• promoting the use of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework ( SCQF).

The team works in partnership with, and aims to support, a number of key networks for the community learning and development field:

• Community Learning and Development Lead Officers meetings
• Community Learning and Development Managers Scotland
• Community Development Alliance Scotland
• CLD Standards Council

Its work has included:

• A programme of support for outcome-focused practice;
• A programme of work to strengthen the community capacity building role of CLD;

Other stakeholders supporting practice development for CLD outwith Scottish Government include Youthlink Scotland, which has a development role for youth work funded by Positive Futures. Other key agencies in youth work include Young Scot, Scottish Youth Parliament and Youth Scotland. Youthlink, Scottish Youth Parliament and Young Scot are co-located to improve synergy and reduce administrative costs. They are regarded as the three key planks of youth work development infrastructure. All of these receive Headquarters funding from their sponsoring department, as do organisations such as the Guides, Scouts, Fairbridge Scotland and the Boy's Brigade. Along with local authorities, these form the membership and delivery organisations. All of these are subject to review by HMIE.

In adult learning key organisations include Learning Link Scotland, an umbrella body for voluntary sector adult learning organisations, Scotland's Learning Partnership, a national partnership of learners and providers who run Adult Learner's Week and the Workers Educational Association ( WEA). These organisations amongst others receive grant funding towards their Headquarters costs from FAED. In addition some voluntary organisations receive funding from Learning Connections for ad hoc projects. The infrastructure support in adult learning is more disjointed than in youth work. Again, all of these are subject to review by HMIE.

In capacity building there are a wide range of bodies. SCDC have received contracts from Learning Connections and other parts of SG to develop resources such as LEAP⁹ and VOICE¹⁰ to support improvements in CLD planning and evaluation. The Community Development Alliance ( CDAS) is a partnership of professional organisations involved in community development. However, there are a wide range of other agencies involved in areas such as regeneration and community representation and advocacy. Infrastructure support in capacity building is also disjointed. Many organisations, some inside government such as the Scottish Centre for Regeneration and some outside such as the Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum, work in this area with sometimes limited links to the membership organisations such as Housing Associations, Tenants groups, Development Trusts and Local People Leading. At present, none of these organisations are subject to review by HMIE.

In addition, practice development bodies such as LTS and Scotland's Colleges have involvement in CLD in areas such as youth work and schools, ALN and ESOL. Significant amounts of other activity by colleges takes place under the banner of community outreach that may target vulnerable and/or hard to reach learners. There is also a particular emphasis on work in colleges relating to easing transitions from Community-Based Adult Learning Settings to College Based provision. This is a key priority for The Scottish Funding Council supported through the work of The Access and Inclusion Sub-committee.

Overall, there is a lack of coherence between the support organisations, intermediaries, membership organisations and delivery organisations in CLD. This landscape is shown diagrammatically in Appendix 4. Outcomes of the Strategic Review of Learning Connections have suggested that the relationships between policy development, policy implementation and practice development is not always clear and working well.

This can result in the practice development activities and interventions not being clearly prioritised and not being aligned with the policy priorities.

Added value of Learning Connections

Policy Development

As will be seen later in this report, stakeholders were generally supportive of the added value that Learning Connections has made, particularly before its transfer into LL Directorate. Learning Connections has been engaged across a range of Government departments and external agencies to develop policy for CLD and to help other policy areas recognise the contribution CLD can make to their portfolio. Examples include ensuring the contribution of CLD was recognised in:

• Early Years Framework
• More Choices More Chances
• Community Engagement
• Adult ESOL National Strategy
• Skills for Scotland

However, during the review most stakeholders reported that whilst they recognised the important contribution CLD could make to their policy area, they were confused about the exact nature of that contribution and who to contact about it.

Policy Implementation

This has generally been a weaker area of work, with less attention placed on it compared to practice development. However, notable developments have included:

The Curriculum Framework for ALN

ALN has a unique approach in Scotland by using a social practice model as integral to the principles of CLD. Learning Connections developed the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Curriculum Framework for Scotland.

The CLD team has undertaken a number of key initiatives in policy implementation, including the establishment of the Standards' Council and the development and delivery of the CLD Performance Information Project.

Learning Connections has also undertaken a range of research including a workforce survey, literature review of the outcomes of CLD and scoping equalities work in CLD. It is also currently working to deliver a CLD Workforce Upskilling programme.

Practice Development

Stakeholders recognised that a lot of the added value of Learning Connections related to its development of a number of resources to help practice development across Scotland. Some of these are highlighted below:

The Wheel:http://wheel.aloscotland.com

This is a visual representation of the principles outlined in the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Curriculum Framework. The Wheel itself is a visual tool ( CDROM and online) to help learners and tutors plan learning and to review progress.

Delivering Change

This document aims to set out for the first time the range of outcomes that Scottish Government expect CLD to bring about or contribute to. This resource is a useful tool for people who work in this field, as it can help them to explain to others (for example, community planning partnerships) what their work achieves; help CLD providers and those people that use their services (for example, learners or community activists) to discuss what the outcomes of their work together should be; and provide a solid basis from which we can use our improved understanding of outcomes to develop better ways of identifying and recording them, where this is appropriate.

Adult literacies Online: hhtp://www.aloscotland.com

Scotland's online resource bank for adult literacies providing resources for adult literacies practitioners and trainers.

Financial Learning Online:http://money.aloscotland

A resource for workers in a range of organisations and sectors who support adults with financial education. The site's core is the set of case studies entitled "Sharing a wealth of experience".

Same Difference?

An online guide for people working in CLD. It offers guidance and support to help CLD practitioners work effectively and confidently with equalities groups (groups promoting equal opportunities regardless of age, disability, gender, ethnicity, religion and beliefs and sexual orientation). This guide was commissioned by Learning Connections and has been written with the involvement of CLD staff and equalities groups.

CoPAL - the online forum for Scotland's Communities of Practice in Adult Literacies.

An online resource facilitated by Learning Connections and Scotland's Colleges that supports practitioners across sectors who work in the literacies field. It allows users to exchange information and share practice, find out about local and international events, and discuss matters affecting adult literacies in Scotland.