Effective CLD partnership working drives improvement in Dundee city. Partners at all levels work together to effectively deliver on Dundee City Council’s Community Learning and Development planned outcomes, to make a positive impact for Dundee’s communities. CLD practices and principles and values-based leadership is embedded in partnership working.

Dundee City Council’s Community Learning and Development plan has a clear vision that is linked to city priorities. It is delivered as part of the Dundee Partnership (the Community Planning Partnership), through well established strategic networks across the city. Priorities are informed by data gathered from Dundee’s communities, a range of routine data and other information available, which is generated by key partners. This includes Social Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), locality health profiles, and evidence of need from the Engage Dundee surveys. All planned priorities are informed by data and community voice at all levels. Key partnerships and Strategic Partnership Groupings are in place. These groups deliver planned provision and report on progress towards Dundee’s CLD planned actions. All partners are reporting on positive impacts through the CLD Plan 2022-24 (CLD plan) reporting framework.

The improvement issue

A key issue identified in Dundee was the need to develop and deliver a CLD plan that is embedded into the Dundee Local Outcome Improvement Plan (City Plan). The CLD plan needed to be more embedded into existing partnership structures, to help avoid duplication of what already exists in organisation service plans. Partners also recognised they could do more to highlight CLDs contribution to the City Plan priorities at a strategic level.

The Dundee Partnership has responsibility for overseeing the delivery of agreed strategic priorities for the city, and for the Executive Groups that lead on these. The challenge for CLD was to link the CLD plan into these Executive Groups to help highlight the role and impact of CLD.

CLD partners wanted to avoid duplication of other plans. They were clear that the CLD plan wouldn't articulate the totality of CLD activity across the city, which is wide ranging and is already detailed within other specific plans and strategies. CLD partners recognised that they needed to better demonstrate the added value of collaborative working to the Dundee Partnership.

CLD partners also wanted to be clear on what the CLD priority areas for delivery were in relation to the Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013. The contribution and values of CLD needed to be recognised within the city’s shared priorities.

Our commitment to community voice and engagement needed to inform our plan. It should reflect the wide range of targeted partnership work, which supports communities to have a voice. It should also identify needs alongside reflecting the data from other sources such as SIMD, economic, education and health data.

What Dundee City Council did

The CLD plan was developed through the shared ownership of the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) and was designed to reflect the CLD contribution to each of the Dundee Partnership Executive boards and Strategic Planning Groups of the Dundee Partnership. This ensured the plan was high level and avoided duplicating other plans. It also ensured that CLD was contributing to these groups, rather than having a separate CLD partnership group. CLD was represented on each group and progress towards actions were reported through the corporate and partnership management information system. This showed how the CLD plan was leading to improvement, and ensured the CLD plan was evaluated, reported on and scrutinised by all partners regularly.

CLD partners are committed to Engage Dundee, which is a community survey and consultation tool. The survey is carried out across the city every two years, to gather data on key issues. This survey was followed up by community collectives across each ward. The council's information team analysed the data, and this was then reflected in the City Plan and communicated to the Dundee Partnership theme groups. This helped to ensure community voice was reflected, alongside input from groups of individuals with lived experience. As a result, the CLD plan was influenced by the community through a bottom-up approach to identifying priority actions, which were reflective of individual and community need.

CLD partners are using data, including voices of people from communities with lived experience, to help agree collective actions, such as establishing Local Fairness Initiatives in Linlathen and Stobswell West. These initiatives are helping to tackle the root causes of poverty in these communities.

What the sustained impact has been

The work of CLD practitioners was informed and directed by shared priorities, which were reflected in the CLD plan. This helped facilitate a high level of ownership of the CLD plan and a sense of a shared responsibility for reporting on progress. The CLD planned actions were delivered through the Dundee Partnership Executive boards and Strategic planning group. This has ensured that the CLD plan is embedded into the CPP. There is an increased sense of ownership across all the partners. Involvement of the community in developing CLD planned actions has helped communities and young people to become active participants in decision-making processes.

Data gathered from Engage Dundee 2021, and subsequent Community Collectives, established priorities for Local Community Plans with a specific aim of reducing disadvantage. The collecting of quantitative and qualitative data informed the shared targeting of resources and avoided duplication. It also meant that stakeholders, including CLD staff, have a good understanding of priorities and make a valued contribution in taking these forward at a locality level. There is now clearer evidence of a ‘golden thread’ from strategic plans to locality plans, and local delivery of key planned themes that are having a significant impact on learners and communities.