Developing a CLD community of practice for the north of Scotland

1. Developing a CLD community of practice for the north of Scotland

2. The North Alliance is… • a partnership of community learning and development (CLD) practitioners from the seven north of Scotland CLD partnerships. • aiming to improve opportunities and access to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for the CLD workforce in the Partnership area • working towards the ultimate outcome of improving positive learning outcomes in communities.

3. Who’s involved? How does it work? • A steering group represents public and voluntary sector practitioners • each of the northern CLD partnerships - Shetland, Orkney, Highland, Western Isles, Moray, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City – have local authority representation • each of the local CLD partnerships also nominates a representative of the voluntary/third sector – these reps include local Councils of Voluntary Service and national organisations like LEAD and the WEA • the steering group drives the work of the Partnership.

4. Values and principles • Self-determination - respecting the individual and valuing the right of people to make their own choices • Inclusion - valuing equality of both opportunity and outcome, and challenging discriminatory practice • Empowerment - increasing the ability of individuals and groups to influence issues that affect them and their communities through individual and/ or collective action • Working collaboratively – maximising collaborative working relationships including collaborative work with participants, learners and communities • Promotion of learning as a lifelong activity – ensuring awareness of a range of learning opportunities enabling access to relevant options at any stage of their life

5. What has the North Alliance done so far? • carried out a training needs analysis of the CLD workforce • agreed its business plan • run two conferences, one focused on Curriculum for Excellence and the Big Society offering online opt in • established a virtual learning environment (VLE) in partnership with the University of Aberdeen • currently awaiting an announcement on funding for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) that will develop the use of the VLE.

6. Access to the VLE • open to all CLD practitioners in the seven CLD Partnership areas • private discussion areas available on request to groups with a shared interest • a web page will be open to anyone using the usual search engines which will direct enquirers to the VLE but the VLE itself will be password protected.

7. What else is planned? • learning exchanges - the first about to be launched with the theme of sustainability • local learning sets will be networked through the VLE and will share their findings online and at the North Alliance 2011 conference • following a huge demand for good materials on the Curriculum for Excellence, work is also going on to create user-friendly material which will be open to a wide audience to use.

8. How is all this funded? • seven local partnerships pooled a percentage of their WALT Challenge and LLUK Upskilling funding allocations • Aberdeenshire Council currently manages the finances on behalf of the Partnership • if successful, the KTP will be funded through the national KTP programme and managed through the voluntary sector working with the University of Aberdeen.

9. Good practice? Secrets of success • north of Scotland has traditionally missed out on a lot of CPD opportunities because of access and costs • partners recognise the value of sharing resources and pooling skills and knowledge - especially across sectors - to develop innovative and cost-effective learning and development opportunities • NA has ‘put its money where its mouth is’ - pooling resources, using new technology from the start, frequently using video conferencing to save meeting costs and widening conference participation through streaming.

10. Oct - Dec 09 Jul - Sept 09 Jan - March 10 Apr - June 10 Apr – June 09 Oct- Dec 10 Jan - March 11 Jan - March 09 Jul - Sep 10 North Alliance Timeline 2009-11 Agree Business Plan Expanded steering group – third sector Review and Planning day Video conferencing and contract tendering Planning Meetings Planning Meetings Steering Group CPD Survey (on-line and focus groups) Draft Business Plan prepared Dialogue - Standards Council, LLUK, LTS. Engage devlinbeattie Partnership agreement Conference planning Consultants 2 day conference on Big Society and CfE – online opt in Plan first one day conference Nairn Conference Gatherings Partners pool 60% of year 1 allocation Partners pool 60% of year two allocation Upskilling Project developed with Aberdeen Uni Knowledge Transfer Partnership Awaiting decision VLE LLUK Dev Worker support VLE framework developed

11. The virtual environment

12. One place to find useful resources

13. Places to collaborate

14. Evidence of activity!

15. Tracking participation

16. and some parting feedback • One of the facilitators from the ‘Big Society – getting it right in Aberdeen’ events said on March 23rd 2011 ‘The participants saw it wasn’t just a talking shop – through the VLE there were ways to stay involved with the people they had met, contact those who had come to other sessions and keep on discussing how they could support and help each other.’