I am writing to all supporters of the Scottish Community Alliance to both draw your attention to, and enlist your support with, the above research.

DTAS members and board have always recognised the value of, and called for more resourcing for, peer learning and support programmes. Given that much of the work of community-led networks in Scotland is premised on the fact that a great deal of the knowledge and expertise lies within our member organisations, I would imagine that this is a view shared by most of you, and some networks  (such as Community Woodland Association) have successfully managed to fund this kind of activity.

We feel that despite the community sector having consistently made the case for peer learning and support, the largely untapped potential of this resource seldom gets the recognition it deserves, and there is, consequentially, limited funding to support peer learning and support activity. 

Encouragingly, the issue has been recently picked up by the BIG Lottery at a UK level, who have commissioned our sister organisation – Locality – to carry out research across the UK. DTAS has agreed to help capture some of the Scottish experience, and would appreciate any support you can give us in the following 2 ways:

1. Locality is keen to capture the experiences of small (turnover £50k-£200k) community organisations and have set up an on-line survey – Complete the survey . It would be great if those of you who put out regular member bulletins could promote this link and encourage members to take part in the survey

2. DTAS has also been asked to identify a number of bigger Scottish case studies. The Knowledge and Skills Fund which we ran through Local People Leading a couple of years ago and CWA’s ‘member delivered’ training programme are 2 examples which immediately spring to mind, but if you can think of any others, please let me know.

I have attached some general information about the research which Locality has provided to assist you in this process. You can access this information here

This is a great opportunity to demonstrate the value of Peer Learning and Support and get it properly resourced, so any support would be much appreciated.

Best wishes

Ian 

Ian Cooke

Director

Development Trusts Association Scotland

54 Manor Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7EH

Tel:    0131 220 2456

Web: www.dtascot.org.uk

Development Trusts Association Scotland is a registered Scottish charity no. SCO34231

The A-listed Picture House in Campbeltown is an amazing survivor and holder of several records. It is now the oldest purpose-built cinema in Scotland still showing films, the only cinema in Scotland still with atmospheric-style decoration, and one of the few cinema buildings that remains undivided, allowing films to be seen from a choice of stalls or balcony. It also unusually has never had a name change!

The Picture House opened on 26th May 1913, the first cinema in the town. It was designed by prolific cinema architect AV Gardner (later to design such cinemas as the Grosvenor and the Kelvin, and better known now as one half of the partnership of Gardner and Glen) to seat 640.

His design for the building was quite unlike any other cinema building of the time, which, when viewed in plan projection, are clearly based around a series of concentric ovals, the highest and narrowest of which consisted of the projection box, with a larger oval below that at balcony level, with another curved frontage and foyer area below – the curved walls are very noticeable on the exterior facade, and, in another unusual touch, were mirrored on the back wall of the auditorium.

The Centenary Project will breathe new life into this historic building. The unique interior will not only be restored to its former glory but also thoroughly modernised to provide an exceptional night out. Comfortable seating and an expanded kiosk will enhance the ability to watch the latest digital technology, including live downloads of opera, drama and ballet etc. Exhibition areas will also be created to tell stories of Campbeltown’s interesting history.

For more information on the Centenary Project click here

Campbeltown Community Business Ltd was formed in September 1987 with the object of purchasing and refurbishing the cinema. It was created as a charity and a massive fundraising campaign followed which raised £38,000 in four months. This was then matched pound for pound by the Highland and Islands Development Board.

The Picture House was rewired and redecorated with new lighting. The refurbished seating was reorganised to provide better visibility and legroom, dramatically lowering the total capacity from 640 seats to 285.

This non profit making community business is the parent company that runs the commercially organised Picture House, which unlike its parent body can operate as a profit-making concern. The community business however is a charity and because of this, tax can be reclaimed on members’ subscriptions. This local support also attracts grants from public bodies and trusts, which in turn ensure that refurbishment can be addressed when needed.

Another objective of this community business is to create jobs and additional amenities. It currently employs two people full time and five part time. Through them and by using local traders over £50,000 is put back into Kintyre’s economy annually.

Citizen engagement has become increasingly important in the last ten years, but we have barely scraped the surface of what innovative public engagement can do for public services, communities and citizens. Part of what is holding us back is outdated myths about citizen engagement.

“From Fairy Tale to Reality: Dispelling the Myths around Citizen Engagement” is a collaborative venture by Involve and the RSA. The pamphlet debunks common misconceptions of public engagement such as fears of spiralling costs and dwindling prospects of success, and provides evidence to the contrary. Drawing on six innovative case studies from Croydon to Tuscany and Estonia, the pamphlet offers much needed alternatives to the way in which we deliver our public services.

Full pamphlet: From Fairy Tale to Reality: Dispelling the Myths around Citizen Engagement

(PDF document)

To read full report click here : Control Shift

We live in a society that has become used to nationalising risk– be it through the welfare state, the NHS or the expansion of universal public services. This shift from the personal and civic to the national has mostly been welcomed by a society that recognises its obligations to other citizens. But recent social attitudes surveys – and a growing political consensus –contribute to an impression that personal and local responsibility and agency are insufficiently rewarded. At a time of austerity, and with demographic changes leading to greater demand on the public purse, a new settlement between the state, the individual and communities is needed.

Control Shift is the final output of a project which was designed to reach some consensus over what ‘responsibility’means in terms of policy – based on a series of expert roundtables, analysis of public polling and attitudinal research. It looks at what levels of personal and civic responsibility people yearn for, where such reciprocity throws up political discomfort and what might be achievable in terms of rebalancing the individual’s relationship with the state.

This report makes the case for embracing so-called ‘nudge-plus’ proposals, incentivising healthy behaviour and making it easier for people to make informed decisions and take greater responsibility. By implementing ideas such as creating an independent Risk Commission, making better use of data and rewarding proactive local authorities with a community cashback scheme, the report argues that the Government can support individuals, families and communities in making better choices without being heavy-handed.

For copy of full report click here 

By Julian Dobson 

Politicians of all shades should be pleased that the latest report from the think tank ResPublica is about Britain’s strivers. While researching it I was struck by the amount of striving that goes on, often in unexpected places.

In half-abandoned streets in west Hull, for instance, families are striving to make ends meet and bring up their children. In Rochdale’s social housing estates volunteers are striving to support their local communities in the face of the loss of local services and personal benefit entitlements. In Lostock in southwest Manchester residents are striving to support their neighbours, sharing skills and talents.

Look behind the stereotypes of poverty and depression and you’ll find plenty of striving. Often, in the face of rising costs of living, lower incomes from work, real-terms cuts in benefits and a job market so desperate that 1,700 people recently applied for just eight jobs at a Costa coffee shop, getting from one end of the week to the other takes all the striving a man or woman can muster.

Incomes and standards of living have not recovered as they did after previous recessions. The Office for National Statistics recently found that net national income – the total income available to citizens – had fallen by 13.2 per cent four years after the onset of the 2008 recession, whereas in the early 1980s and 1990s it had returned to pre-recession levels at a similar stage.

More than one fifth of British workers are low-paid and the proportion is higher than in comparable economies. Nearly 10,000 more working families every month require housing benefit to help pay their rent. The Trussell Trust, which provides food banks helping people in crisis, fed twice the number of people in 2011/12 as it did the previous year.

In these circumstances, bullish talk of economic growth and investing in infrastructure is not enough: the benefits will take too long to reach those living in and on the edge of poverty. Neither is it enough to expect the policies of localism alone, which seek to devolve powers to local communities, to make a difference in our most deprived neighbourhoods. We need localism that creates work and opportunity, rooting recovery in the communities that are most crying out for it.

The route to a more productive, dynamic and sustainable economy in the UK begins when people can live lives that fulfil their potential and sustain their wellbeing. That will not happen when many are unable to contribute fully to the public good.

ResPublica’s report is called Responsible recovery: A social contract for local growth. The title takes the current political debates about fairness and places them in the context of real people’s lives, arguing that reciprocity and contribution are at the heart of any sustainable recovery, and that government policy needs to be geared to enabling all to contribute to the best of their resources and abilities.

For that to happen, policies need to be people-centred, locally accountable and locally responsive. The report takes the ‘sustainable livelihoods’ model that has been tried and tested in the context of international development, and picks up on work by Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty to apply it in the UK. It views the journey out of poverty as a shift from surviving to coping, from coping to adapting to change, and from adapting to accumulating.

The assets people need to accumulate to escape poverty are not just material. They include social assets such as family, friends and neighbours; human assets such as practical skills; and public assets such as local services, infrastructure and community organisations.

Undermine one set of assets through policies such as the ‘bedroom tax’, which forces individuals with ‘spare’ bedrooms to move or lose benefit entitlement, or through funding cuts to local voluntary organisations, and it becomes harder to build the others. The loss of affordable childcare, for example, can make all the difference between a job being worthwhile and becoming a poverty trap.

The report proposes three interrelated approaches designed to build and sustain individual and community assets in order to enable people to contribute fully to society.

Secure and affordable housing is the first building block. By developing intelligently, with a view to long-term community sustainability rather than short-term completion targets, housing providers can lay the foundations for well-functioning communities.

Second, the public services that support poorer communities need to be opened up to them, providing job and training opportunities for those who are on the edges of the labour market. The Fresh Horizons social enterprise in Huddersfield shows how local people with limited experience and qualifications can provide locally sensitive and accountable services such as home repairs, childcare and youth work, and managing community facilities. In doing so they bring income into the community and provide positive role models for friends and neighbours.

Third, government needs to localise employment support and the Work Programme so that it is sensitive to local labour market conditions and trusted by local people. Current policies make little distinction between looking for a job in Surrey and trying to find work in Sunderland. Local accountability and conditionality must be coupled with an approach that encourages all to contribute to their communities, valuing the time spent volunteering, not just the time spent filling out job application forms.

The paper puts forward a raft of recommendations to help put these approaches into practice. These include extending participatory budgeting schemes; ‘community deals’ devolving services to locally accountable organisations; selecting housing providers on the basis of their long term investment in communities; and using procurement and contracting to create local social and economic value.

None of these proposals are magic bullets. But all involve a shift of mindset that values and supports people living in our poorest communities and views them as equals. That’s why we call it a social contract for local growth.  

by Jane Gray, originally published by Transition Culture   

In Scotland at least, rural areas are politically ‘soft’. It’s a critical mass thing – we simply don’t have enough bums on seats to bring in the big guns. Market-based approaches don’t give the necessary returns and publically-funded initiatives don’t justify a particularly high level of investment when you’re lucky to have a population density of a third of the national average.

Don’t get me wrong, there are rural investments and there are rural initiatives, but they tend to be sectoral – you can run a project for older people or younger people or business people or just about any other ‘people’ you care to mention. But it’s a hard sell to persuade those holding the purse strings that rural areas deserve an integrated, holistic approach, an approach based on geographies rather than targeted bits of the population. This piecemeal approach to rural development gradually undermines the sustainability of rural geographies and chips away at our understanding of geographical identity and belonging. As a result of this, power and money and skills and resources have haemorrhaged away from rural communities over the decades, to be only partly replaced by the energies and aesthetic of a legion of culturally creative incomers.

By contrast, investment and funding seemingly pours into urban communities, especially those in multiple deprivation, layer upon layer of initiative and innovation delivering ‘outputs’ and ‘outcomes’ and ‘metrics’ and endless reports and evaluations. Hopefully, along the way, a little seeps through to improve the lives of those people actually living in the communities, not just the project worker’s salary grade.

Does this sound like sour grapes? It isn’t, honest. Just an irritation that we continue to use an outdated ‘development through growth’ paradigm that sees urban and rural areas as separate and in competition with each other for resources and that each new batch of funding serves only to reinforce the separateness and the stereotypes each area holds for the other.

To read the full article click here 

YMCA Scotland set up the first social impact bond in Perth & Kinross, last year partnering with local investors and with the Department for Work and Pensions in seeking to support 300 vulnerable young people into education, employment or training.

We changed the social impact bond approach used in Peterborough to create a more localised community model that would enable local relationships to grow between investor and provider and participant. We wanted to engage the investors in the delivery of the project, to introduce them to the young people so that they could consider how together we could improve our efforts to enable them to achieve their fullest potential.

YMCA evaluated the first six months demonstrating the following outcomes:  

From April to December 2012 we worked with 86 young people and alongside seven  Secondary Schools

* 61 % helped into employment

* 100% retained employment

* 60 on target to complete Level 2 Qualification

* 45 on target to complete Level 1 Qualification

We do this through a series of activities with a strong focus on social enterprise (we have three small businesses now established creating employment for the young people. At the core of the approach however remains the expertise of the YMCA organisation to build a trusted relationship with vulnerable young people that can lead to an honest appraisal of their strengths and needs. This creates the potential for young person and staff to work together to upskill, to grow confidence, to tackle barriers, to achieve potential.

Our overall outcomes are:

Improved attendance at school

Improved behaviour at school

Achieve level 1 qualification

Achieve level 2 qualification

Completion of level 3 training

Entry into level 4 qualification 

Entry into employment or self employment

Job Retention

We are greatly encouraged by this local version of the social impact bond. We are encouraged by our early results, we are encouraged by the willingness of local investors to step up and get involved, we are encouraged by the growing interest in the local approach.

YMCA is currently completing template paperwork that will enable any provider to easily navigate the terms and agreements required to establish a social impact bond. 

We believe strongly in the local version of this model that enables relationships to be built and grown between all parties.

Our success is due to the very different model piloted in Perth that rejects distant investors whose sole interest may be financial. Reducing the return to investors has not removed the interest of investors. Bringing investors closer to participants in our model has increased their interest in how the relationships can work in so many different ways. 

YMCA would encourage interest in this different approach to social impact bonds. YMCA would encourage Scottish government, private sector and voluntary partners to consider where this model can enable work to happen that otherwise may not be feasible.

Peter Crory

Chief Executive

YMCA Scotland

How radical could land reform become?

Community Land Scotland has today announced that the First Minister is to be their keynote speaker at their annual conference in Skye in June.

Welcoming the First Minister’s attendance, David Cameron, Chairman of Community Land Scotland said,

“I am delighted the First Minister has accepted our invitation to be our keynote conference speaker. His attendance symbolises the growing recognition within the Scottish Government of community land owning as a key driver in regenerating communities.

The Conference falls shortly after the interim report of the Land Reform Review Group is due to be published and provides the First Minister with an ideal opportunity to both re-affirm the Scottish Government’s commitment to further land reform and perhaps to set out some of the practical steps the Scottish Government will take to advance that cause. We are already looking forward to what he will have to say.”

The Community Land Scotland Annual Conference will take place at Sabhal Mor Ostaig on Skye on the 7th and 8th June 2013.

Litter strategy needs community buy in 

Litter fines could be increased under plans discussed at a national litter summit in Edinburgh last week.

Increasing the fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for litter and flytipping from the current £50 level is one option being considered to tackle the blight of litter, Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead told participants at the summit.

Scotland’s first national litter strategy is currently being developed for consultation from this summer and increases in the FPN is expected to be part of the wider consultation on the strategy. 

With Scotland hosting the Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup next year the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring the country is looking its best when the eyes of the world are watching. The recent Scottish Household Survey highlights that around a quarter of the population believe litter is a problem in their communities. 

Speaking at the event Mr Lochhead said:  

“Scotland really is a beautiful country and in this Year of Natural Scotland we want to do all that we can to show it at its best. Let’s not miss this huge opportunity to show the Scotland’s magnificence.

“I want our National Litter Strategy to achieve a clean, safe environment for people who live in and visit Scotland – where littering is no longer acceptable. The strategy we consult on will be a package of measures to encourage people not to litter or flytip. Today’s attendees will help shape our proposals which will also include how education and infrastructure can support clean, safe communities. 

“Litter costs local authorities, transport providers and other businesses millions to clean up – and we all pay for it. We can each take personal responsibility for disposing of waste responsibly and avoid this unnecessary and expensive eyesore. 

“I encourage councils and the police to use their existing powers to issue litter and flytipping FPNs and I will consult on whether it would be helpful if the level was raised from £50. Over the next few months we will work with local authorities and others to identify what the consultation should propose.”

Cllr Stephen Hagan, COSLA Spokesperson for Development, Economy and Sustainability, said: 

“Scottish local authorities want to see as much litter as possible being prevented. A significant amount of local authority resources are spent tackling litter issues and, at a time of severe financial constraint, if costs can be avoided this would not only improve the environment but allow investment of these resources in the delivery of services. 

“This development of a National Litter Strategy provides an opportunity to engage and explore the ways in which everyone can work together to reduce litter across Scotland.”

Iain Gulland, Director of Zero Waste Scotland, said:

“We know that the everyday problem of litter affects our streets, communities and environment. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Scotland wastes millions in clearing and cleaning this up and in lost value of discarded materials that could be recycled.

“It’s important that there is active engagement by everyone who has a role to play in tackling litter. Through its work on recycling and resource management, the Zero Waste Scotland programme is looking at why people litter and what more could be done to prevent this.

“The forthcoming national strategy will be a new opportunity to address litter in a variety of ways and the delivery of Zero Waste Scotland will continue to be central to the recommendations to come.”

Background

Councils can issue fixed penalty notices for littering and most incidents are dealt with in this way.  People can face a fine of up to £2,500 for dropping litter and up to £40,000 (and/or 12 months imprisonment) for flytipping if convicted by a court. 

This year alone Zero Waste Scotland have invested almost £2 million in work to prevent litter and increase recycling. This includes 2,700 new recycling bins in over 250 busy public places across Scotland.

Need to engage with Euro funds

Since it is based on Draft EU Regulations, this paper carries a “health warning”. There may be one or two separate Operational Programmes for Scotland. Because the Scottish Government has not released its latest thinking on these developments, there may yet be changes.  

A) INTRODUCTION 

1) The purpose of this paper is to begin focusing Social Enterprise intentions and objectives for the forthcoming EU Structural Funds Programme 2014-2020. On Friday 08 February 2013, EU Budget ceilings were agreed by EU Heads of State at the Dublin Summit. Since the EU Parliament has the power to veto this and discussions between the Council and Parliament begin this week, it is anticipated that there may be transfers within the ceilings agreed. The broad shape of EU Structural Funds for this Programme has already been set out in: 

 ERDF Regulation, COM(2011) 614 final of October 06 2011

 ESF Regulation COM(2011) 607 final /2 of March 14 2012

 Common Strategic Framework Regulation COM(2012) 496 final of September 11 2012

2) This paper seeks to match Thematic Objectives and Investment Priorities in these Regulations with Outcomes and Objectives in the current Support Social Enterprise programme funded by Scottish Government. 

B) FOCUS NEEDED FOR ESF 

ESF Regulation COM(2011) 607 final /2 of March 14 2012, Article 4 Consistency and Thematic Con-centration says: 

1) More Developed Regions (likely to be most of Central Scotland) must choose to have 80% of ESF in up to four Investment Priorities

2) Transitional Regions (likely to be Highlands and Islands) must choose 70% of ESF in up to four In-vestment Priorities below

3) The 18 Investment Priorities for the 4 Thematic Objectives mainly supported by ESF are shown below.  

C) FOCUS NEEDED FOR ERDF

Draft ERDF Regulation, COM(2011) 614 final of October 06 2011, Article 4 Thematic Concentration says: 

a) In Transition and More Developed Regions

i) 80% ERDF to focus on Research and Innovation and Competiveness of SMEs (strengthening research, technological development and innovation; enhancing the competitiveness of small  and medium-sized enterprises: supporting the shift towards a low-carbon economy in all sectors)

ii) 20% ERDF to focus on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (supporting the shift towards a low-carbon economy in all sectors)

D) MATCHING SUPPORTING SOCIAL ENTEPRISE PROGRAMME WITH ERDF AND ESF OBJECTIVES AND PRIORITIES 

This Section begins matching Outcomes and Objectives in the Scottish Government Supporting Social Enterprise Programme with ERDF Thematic Objectives and  ESF Investment Priorities.

: 

  (8) promoting employment and supporting labour mobility:

ERDF

a) development of business incubators and investment support for self employment and busi-ness creation

b) local development initiatives and aid for structures providing neighbourhood services to cre-ate new jobs, where such actions are outside the scope of Regulation (EU) No […]/2012 [ESF]

c) investing in infrastructure for public employment services

ESF 

a) Access to employment for job-seekers and inactive people, including local employment initia-tives and support for labour mobility;

b) Sustainable integration of young people not in employment, education or training into the la-bour market

c) Self-employment, entrepreneurship and business creation

d) Equality between men and women and reconciliation between work and private life

e) Adaptation of workers, enterprises and entrepreneurs to change

f) Active and healthy ageing

g) Modernisation and strengthening of labour market institutions, including actions to enhance transnational labour mobility

 (9) promoting social inclusion and combating poverty:

ERDF

a) investing in health and social infrastructure which contribute to national, regional and local de-velopment, reducing inequalities in terms of health status, and transition from institutional to community-based services;

b) support for physical and economic regeneration of deprived urban and rural communities;

c) support for Social Enterprises;

ESF 

a) Active inclusion

b) Integration of marginalised communities such as the Roma

c) Combating discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation

d) Enhancing access to affordable, sustainable and high-quality services, including health care and social services of general interest

e) Promoting the Social Economy and Social Enterprises

f) Community-led Local Development Strategies

 (10) investing in education, skills and lifelong learning infrastructure 

ERDF

investing in education, skills and lifelong learning by developing education and training infrastruc-ture

ESF

a) Reducing early school-leaving and promoting equal access to good quality early-childhood, pri-mary and secondary education

b) Improving the quality, efficiency and openness of tertiary and equivalent education with a view to increasing participation and attainment levels

c) Enhancing access to lifelong learning, upgrading the skills and competences of the workforce and increasing the labour market relevance of education and training systems

(11) enhancing institutional capacity and an efficient public administration

ERDF

by strengthening of institutional capacity and the efficiency of public administrations and public services related to implementation of the ERDF, and in support of actions in institutional capacity and in the efficiency of public administration supported by the ESF.

ESF

a) Investment in institutional capacity and in the efficiency of public administrations and public services with a view to reforms, better regulation and good governance

This Investment Priority is only applicable throughout the territory of the Member States which have at least one NUTS level 2 region as defined in Article 82(2) (a) of Regulation (EU) No […] or in Member States eligible for Cohesion Fund support. (Eastern Scotland, South Western Scotland, North Eastern Scotland and Highlands and Islands are Scotland’s 4 NUTS 2 Regions.) 

b) Capacity building for stakeholders delivering employment, education and social policies and sectoral and territorial pacts to mobilise for reform at national, regional and local level.