Adult Learners Week 2020

This is Adult Learners Week and not even a global pandemic can keep Adult Learners Week down! Have a look on Twitter for all the latest goings on. Use the Hashtags #ALW2020 and #AdultLearningMatters to hone in on all things adult learning. Why not follow some of these amazing adult learning organisations and supporters:

Scotland’s Learning Partnership @SLPLearn
Learning Link Scotland @LearningLinkSCO
WEA Scotland @WEAScotland
Lead Scotland @leadscot_tweet
Education Scotland @EdScotCLD

You can also have a look at the Education Scotland Adult Learning Wakelet

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Join Us at the Scottish Charity Awards Ceremony!

The Scottish Charity Awards recognise and celebrate the best that Scotland’s voluntary sector has to offer and CLD Standards Council is proud to be sponsoring the Celebrating Communities Award at this year’s #ScotCharityAwards. Sally Magnusson is presenting live and there will be surprise special guests too. The six finalists in the Celebrating Communities category are listed below:

• Cyrenians – Flavour and Haver Community Cook School – improves health and wellbeing by helping people develop skills and confidence around cooking through free cooking classes, supper clubs and community cook clubs across Edinburgh, Fife and the Lothians.

• Headway East Lothian SCIO – supports brain injury survivors and their families/carers. To increase community engagement and improve health and well-being levels the team devised an art project with participants and art tutors, using inspiration from nature to create a two week art exhibition.

• Milan Senior Welfare Organisation – delivers essential services meeting the social, cultural, language and care needs of older people in Edinburgh. Milan provides the only registered day care provision specifically for South Asian communities in Edinburgh, as well as a carers support group.

• Perth Autism Support (PAS) – supports autistic young people and their families and delivers training across Scotland, with services based on listening to children and families and ensuring resources are what they want, at a time that is right for them.

• Space & Broomhouse Hub – addresses poverty in South West Edinburgh, last year opening a new community hub and developing Broomhouse Home Farm to create the opportunity to grow high quality local food on a site, run by local residents, bringing in young and old, to community growing activities.

• Supporting our Community – a community hub in South Lanarkshire helping families struggling to access support and offers intergenerational activities that encourage community participation, reduce isolation and signpost to other agencies.

The ceremony is being held online on Friday 25 September and we’d like to invite you to join us for virtual pre-ceremony drinks reception at 6pm. Get your glad rags on, top up your glass and join fellow CLDSC members to celebrate the work of CLD in the voluntary sector. The ceremony is scheduled to take place form 7-8pm and we hope to watch together as it will be live streamed on YouTube.

To join us on the night, register on Eventbrite

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SCVO Webinar Q&A with Professor Jason Leitch

The webinar is now available to watch online here: SCVO Webinar Please feel free to share with colleagues.

There’s also a blog on the SCVO website summarising the key messages from the webinar and helpfully highlighting key answers to commonly asked questions by taking you to the exact spot on the webinar e.g. Can our organisation’s AGM be held indoors?; What is the advice for reopening community centres?; Are community support groups allowed to restart and meet?

Upcoming Webinars from SCVO include:
Access to Community Facilities – 15 September
DigitShift – Delivering effective online learning – 17 September

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Virtual meet-up 11 September 1-2pm – Put the Kettle On for MacMillan

Don’t forget to register for our next virtual meet up which will combine a good old blether about anything and everything related to CLD while raising a coffee cup and a few pounds for Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning.

A chance to catch up, share stories, get support. There’s a lot going on at the moment, so we’re pretty sure we won’t run out of things to talk about! So, grab your cuppa and cake, consider making a donation. You can register and donate on on the Macmillan site. Please email us at contact@cldstandardscouncil.org.uk to join in.

Thank you.

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Free online course for learners from Lead Scotland

Lead Scotland have announced a new free online course, ‘Everyday computer skills: a beginner’s guide to computers, tablets, mobile phones and accessibility’, produced for and by disabled learners, in partnership with Open University in Scotland (OUiS). The course is designed for beginners and may be useful for participants receiving digital devices as part of the Connecting Scotland initiative.

To learn more and register for the course, please go to the Lead Scotland website.

On 29th September at 11am, LEAD will be hosting a webinar demonstrating ‘Everyday computer skills: a beginner’s guide to computers, tablets, mobile phones and accessibility’. You’ll hear from the people involved in its creation about what the course has to offer, how to support people to use it and have a chance to ask any questions.

Register for this webinar on Zoom.

The CLD Standards Council notes with interest the Deputy First Minister’s statement to Parliament yesterday in respect of the proposed Education Reforms. Firstly, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to the hundreds of CLD practitioners across Scotland who participated in the consultation programme over the last year. Whilst our Members understood the rationale for the co-creation of an Education Workforce Council they were adamant about the clear value and benefits of the CLD Standards Council. We will now continue to expand and strengthen professional learning and support for CLD to ensure that all of Scotland’s young people, learners and communities have access to trained professionals in education programmes across all contexts and look forward to our continued engagement with the Scottish Government and Education Scotland.

https://beta.gov.scot/publications/draft-education-scotland-bill/

The QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) are seeking comments on the revised Subject Benchmark Statements for –

• Social Work – View Draft for consultation
• Youth and Community Work – View Draft for consultation .

This consultation is likely to be of interest to employer organisations and their members; staff involved in education and accreditation activities of professional, statutory and regulatory bodies; Staff involved in the design, delivery and review of academic programmes; academic support staff; students and their representatives

View the full consultation invitation information.

Feedback should be submitted via the consultation surveys by 17 June 2016:

• Social Work – consultation survey
• Youth and Community Work – consultation survey

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on draft guidance and regulations on three aspects of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act:

• Participation Requests (view consultation paper);
• Community Planning (view consultation paper); and
• Asset Transfer (view consultation paper).

The consultations will be open until June, specifically they will close on the 15 June for Participation requests, 13 June for Community Planning and 20 June for Asset transfer.

These are important opportunities for community organisations and CLD practitioners to engage with the implantation of this key legislation. Members of the Standards Council can play a significant role in raising the awareness of colleagues, community organisations and other partners – please consider what you can do!.

The Standards Council will be responding to this consultation process from a CLD perspective and in particular focusing on the issues and implications for workforce development. It is important that the response is directly informed by the experience of members; if you would like to be involved in developing it, please let us know and pass on any initial comments you have at this stage.

The Scottish Community Development Centre has produced a briefing on the participation requests consultation and is running a series of focus groups; information is available on how to get involved.

Blue Sky thinking… is it really just another hackneyed phrase? I would argue not.
For the CLD Standards Council, Blue Sky thinking has been a fact of life in recent months. As the sun shines stronger, inspiring fabulous views of Glasgow from the 9th Floor of The Optima Building, spring bright blue skies have marked some key developments. Through a winter of change, the Team, Council Chairs and Members have sought to secure, strengthen and grow the base of our Standards Council.

Natasha Zachary-Docherty has returned from Maternity Leave with a spring in her step and has bounced over to a new post within the Communications Team of Education Scotland, where we wish her lots of luck. We are delighted to welcome our new member of staff, Lorna Renton, who, with a wealth of experience will be working to further develop our web presence and support i-develop.

We are thrilled to announce that we now have more than 1300 members and it will be Lorna’s job to maintain and support the Professional Register. With our new and refined registration process now being operated via i-develop, our growing numbers mean that the CLD Standards Council’s membership is similar in size to the Scottish Institute of Directors – the professional body for Chief Executives. Onwards and upwards for us!

Importantly, April 2016 marked a new stage in the relationship between Education Scotland and the CLD Standards Council. Signed by Dr Bill Maxwell, Chief Executive of Education Scotland and Ashley Pringle, Chair of the CLD Standards Council, the new Framework Agreement sets out the strategic goals, roles and responsibilities of both organisations whilst accounting for operational requirements. Already one positive off-shoot is an agreement with HMI. Pre-inspection work will now include data gathering in relation to the number of professionally registered CLD Standards Council members included in an organisation’s complement of staff and volunteers. For both parties, this significant development signals for the first time ever, the inclusion of the CLD Standards Council alongside other professional bodies operating within education and community work sectors. One other budding development is a ground-breaking partnership agreement with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS). This draft agreement will recognise and reaffirm the role of CLD Standards Council Registered Professionals, GTCS Registered Teachers and the unique but complementary work of both professional associations and help us to grow and tend relevant professional networks and learning opportunities.

Council members have been toiling in our new meeting venue, The Prince’s Trust Wolfson Centre in Glasgow. Having agreed our organisational purpose, mission, vision and refined strategic objectives, the Committees are working hard to plant Council plans, strategies and governance procedures that will mature over the next three years. Recent work with the University of the West of Scotland, which pending sign off from the Approvals Committee, will professionally validate their BA/BA(HONS) and PGCE in Community Education, and further to a refresh, the subject benchmark statements for Social Work and Youth and Community Work are now open for consultation. Additionally, the CLD Standards Council will now be represented on the Quality Committee of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework.

Other things to look out for over the coming months include plans for a new Standards Council constitution, programmes of work and yes – another new member of staff! Interviews will be held at the end of May for the new Members’ Services post. The successful candidate will have the pleasure of getting to know our Membership in detail to secure services that will meet and enhance our professional practice needs.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone involved for helping to drive the Standards Council forward over the last few months. I am truly heartened by the co-operative nature, wisdom, passion, and sheer hard work of our Members and partners. Sadly the Glasgow evening sunshine, is now is not so warm, but the skies are still clear, hinting at clement days ahead.