The Scottish Government has published its report on the Independent Review of Community Learning and Development (CLD), undertaken by Kate Still. The Independent Review began in December 2023 and was commissioned by the Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Veterans, Graeme Dey MSP.
This document is part of a suite of publications related to the Independent Review of Community Learning and Development (CLD):
As the national agency for youth work, YouthLink Scotland welcomes the publication of the report and we’re pleased to have worked closely with Kate to support her engagement with the youth work sector, and ensure she had the best available information and resources to complete this important piece of work.
In particular, we welcome the clear recognition throughout the report of the value and impact of CLD/youth work on young people’s learning and development. The report recognises:
- Youth work’s role in prevention and harm reduction;
- Youth work’s contribution to improving young people’s attainment;
- Youth work’s impact on the mental health and wellbeing of young people.
As the collective voice for youth work in Scotland our priority, as ever, is to listen to as many voices as possible from across the sector before providing a formal, unified response to the report.
As such, we will work closely with our members, networks and wider sector stakeholders to examine the details of the report and share a well-cohered, collective analysis on behalf of the sector in due course.
We would welcome the opportunity to work with the Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Minister for Veterans Graeme Dey MSP and COSLA to discuss the initial report in full.
In the coming days we will provide further updates on the report once we have consulted our members and the sector.
Some key initial points to note from the report:
- The review recognises that the supportive and preventative role that CLD can play needs to be better considered… Nowhere better illustrates the importance of our public services adopting a preventative approach than the provision of health and social care (p17)
- The role of youth work in closing the ‘poverty-related attainment gap’ is recognised: Whereas the role of CLD/Youth Work in helping to drive-up attainment amongst disadvantaged groups has been recognised and built into the SAC to some extent, it is arguable that its value in reaching those young people for whom the traditional school learning experience is not a good fit remains under-appreciated, and therefore under-resourced. (p19 and 20);
- The report encourages greater use of Scottish Attainment Challenge/Pupil Equity Fund (SAC/PEF) funding to provide dedicated and professional Youth Work support in our secondary schools. (p29); recognising that Youth Work activity is in drawing young people into an environment where more tailored learning can be agreed
- The report also accepts that not all young people will flourish in the classroom setting, and that Youth Work can help them to develop the life-skills they will need to ‘get on in life’; (p29)
- The review found that the visibility of the CLD sector is limited across the wider public due to it being poorly defined, the relatively vague nature of the existing CLD Regulation, the term CLD not being understood, a low policy profile nationally and fragmented delivery provision. Although there is widespread understanding amongst learners and others about what the component parts of CLD (e.g. Youth Work, Adult Learning, etc) are for and what they set out to deliver (p23)
- The review refers to the National Youth Work Strategy (p26) It is now also almost five years since work on a new Youth Work Strategy got underway, yet there is still no clarity on when, or if, it will be published. Budgetary pressures within the Scottish Government are such that, even if it is finalised and published, there is unlikely to be any new financial resource to support its implementation. Therefore, the imperative should be to consider how existing resources could be used better to ensure progress is made and sustained.;
- Recommendation 2.1 (p45) The Scottish Government should develop and communicate a clear and cohesive policy narrative on Life-long Learning.;
- Recommendation 2.2 (p.45) Informed by and consistent with the policy narrative recommended above, the Scottish Government should develop and communicate a clear Statement of Strategic Intent for CLD… This should include a commitment to work towards delivering by the end of the next Parliament an entitlement to Adult Learning and Youth Work.;
- Recommendation 4.1 (p45) The Scottish Government should undertake an urgent and overdue reassessment of the current balance of spending across all dimensions of learning in Scotland.;
- Recommendation 4.3 (p45) Wherever possible, funding should be part of core budgets rather than project related. If this is not possible, then project funding should be provided over a multi-year period, with an explanation provided if that is not the case.;
- The National Youth Work Outcomes and Skills Framework is recognised as an effective and dependable existing measurement framework (p33, 39 and 46), with Recommendation 6.2 (p39) suggesting it could be used as the basis for a CLD wide measurement framework.
