North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) is the fourth largest local authority area in Scotland, by population, and covers a geographical region of over 180 square miles within Scotland’s central belt. The Community Learning and Development (CLD) 3-year Plan is overseen by North Lanarkshire CLD Partnership. CLD is structured across five delivery teams: Adult Learning, Youth Work, Family Learning, Resettlement and Learning and Improvement. The CLD workforce is made up of 52% full time posts and 48% part time posts (196 staff) with over 75% of the workforce living in North Lanarkshire.

The improvement issue

CLD leaders and practitioners identified the need to further develop a learning and development pathway for staff, young people, adult learners and New Scots. The service needed a pathway that could support learners to achieve the minimum criteria to gain employment or a volunteering role within CLD.

The CLD team also identified the need to increase staff and volunteers' skills and knowledge to respond to their most vulnerable learners.

What North Lanarkshire Council did

CLD workers created short life working groups to develop learning materials and used quality assurance frameworks such as CLD key competencies and Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) frameworks. The working groups covered all aspects of CLD, adult learning, youth work, family learning and community development.

North Lanarkshire CLD invested in continuing professional development for staff and volunteers, including funding for courses approved by the CLD Standards Council up to degree level. A wide range of accredited courses are available to staff and volunteers. These include:

• First Steps/Professional Development Award in Youth Work
• First Steps to Family Learning
• Supporting Adult Literacies Learning
• SQA Assessor and Verifier units.

Learning opportunities are also matched to the identified needs of vulnerable learners. This has included:

• Solihull Approach
• Health Issues in the Community
• Seasons for Growth
• Trauma Informed Practice.

The CLD team also developed their own accredited learning programmes at Scottish credit and qualifications framework level five. This creates a clear pathway for learners to reach the minimum level of qualification to gain a support worker position within CLD in NLC. For example, First Steps to Family Learning was developed by CLD staff who had identified a need for a clear learning pathway for people who aspired to improve their skills and knowledge within a CLD family learning context. First Steps to Expedition was developed by CLD staff with a focus on an introduction to Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expeditions and outdoor learning. The programme mainly targets new leaders to outdoor learning but also supports current outdoor leaders to enhance their practice using a CLD approach.

The Young Person’s Guarantee also created an accredited learning and employability programme and work placement across all aspects of CLD, to those young people who met the criteria.

What the sustained impact has been

In the financial year from 2022–23, 15 young people took part, through the Young Person’s Guarantee programme, with 85 qualifications being achieved. All staff moved into further employment with 13 securing employment with NLC within either a CLD or education setting. Four staff within the group of 15 have also started university to study Community Education. Following achievement of a recognised family learning award, three assistant support workers, employed through CLD’s Young Person’s Guarantee programme, successfully gained employment as support workers in the Family Learning team.

As a result of offering a recognised qualification in teaching English to speakers of other languages (ESOL), the CLD team have increased the number of learning opportunities and the standard and quality of ESOL delivery across North Lanarkshire. The trained staff also mentor ESOL support workers and volunteers.

Throughout the CLD team, a wide range of vacancies have been filled at all levels by staff and volunteers who are now able to meet the requirements of each post through the experience and qualifications that they have gained. Feedback suggests that local recruitment and training processes in North Lanarkshire are helping to ensure that vacancies are filled more successfully, and that frontline services to individuals and communities are being maintained as a result.