Community Learning and Development - new national short life working group
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An important part of what we do is influencing national policy, legislation and practice development, and all of our policy and influencing work is informed by the knowledge, insight and experience of the practitioners, activists, volunteers and organisations in our network.
SCDC and CHEX were recently invited, along with other national and local public and voluntary sector organisations, to participate in a new national short life working group, established following the publication of the Learning: For All. For Life. report, which set out findings from the recent independent review of Community Learning and Development (CLD).
Community development is one of three strands of CLD, along with adult learning and youth work, and as community-led health work is underpinned in practice by a community development approach to tackling health inequalities, the work of our network and the wider sector is an important facet of CLD.
The CLD Developing the Workforce and Standards Group reports to the newly established national strategic leadership group for Community Learning & Development, which has a wide membership linking it to broader Scottish Government agendas, and aims to provide sustainable leadership and deliver a clear plan for the sector's development.
At a recent meeting in May Sarah was delighted to share insights and views from the CHEX network on what we feel the workforce development needs and priorities will be in the future.
She was joined by Wendy Johnstone from VASLAN and Kirsty Chapman from Castlemilk Youth Complex, along with five Board Directors. (Aiden Burke, Dominik Hanley, Carter Leiper, Lukas Morton, Kayley Satti).
Our group gave powerful and insightful presentations on the realities of undertaking meaningful workforce training, development and succession planning and the difference a skilled, knowledgeable and experienced community development workforce makes in our communities.
We were really inspired by the brilliant examples they shared of how they are making it work in challenging circumstances, and their positive and practical recommendations for key decision makers.
Work is ongoing and we'll keep you updated on how the national CLD workforce plan progresses as soon as we have more to share.
If you would like to find out more about our policy work and how you could get involved, you can email Sarah.