Community Learning & Development Service Annual Report
2014-15
Contents Page
Introduction 1
Welcome 2
Measuring & Monitoring Our Performance 3
Employability & Economic Growth 4
Children & Families 13
Safe, Strong & Involved Communities 21
Workforce Development 24
Foreword Introduction
Martin Rooney Peter Barry Leader of the Council Head of Customer & Community Services
This has been a challenging and dynamic time CL&D plays a key and active part in the delivery of Council and for Community Learning and Development Community Planning Partnership (CPP) strategic priorities. It
(CL&D). does this through the Working4U initiative and also through
partnership working bringing agencies together to plan and
In West Dunbartonshire, CL&D has been deliver services that truly meet the needs of our customers and integrated as part of Working4U. This service communities. supports people who are unemployed progress towards and move into work, providing CL&D has continued to very effectively provide the ‟Learning” assistance with benefits and debt, learning, arm of Working4U. There has been an increase in both the digital literacy and preparation for the world of range of learning provision and the numbers of learners work through tailored client centred provision. successfully completing, with 2522 completing courses under Stages 1-3 of the Strategic Skills Pipeline. It integrates the work of three service areas - Employability, Community Learning & In March 2015, I attended the Youth Alliance’s Consultation Development and Advice Services. Customers Event - ‟We Asked, Youth Said”. This was led by staff from and communities now have a single gateway to CL&D and over 90 young people participated. The results of this services on work, learning and money; an consultation, along with results from the “Penny for Youth approach which has been highlighted as an Thoughts” consultation survey with over 400 young people, will example of Good Practice by Education inform our three Year Plan, meeting the Requirements of the Scotland. Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations.
CL&D is responding to the challenges of work Just as successful were the Celebration and Consultation and learning; supporting learners to engage Events held during the year for Adult and Community Literacies with the digital world; supporting our young Learners through the Adult Learning Partnership. The results people towards safe, healthy and positive from this, along with Survey Monkey surveys, have provided a adulthood; and developing new innovative ‟Learners Voice” in developing our three year plan. methods to tackle the problems of unemployment and poverty. These initiatives Working4U Learning has also recently been awarded a national Impact Award from Scotland’s Learning Partnership. The Award are providing transformative, coherent and joined up services that assist communities to was ‟in recognition of Working4U Learning’s innovative, targeted provision, which successfully encourages those furthest away confront these difficult challenges. from the job market to take a step back into learning”. This Annual Report contains many examples of how CL&D is successfully achieving this and With the Council and our partners all facing significant financial highlights excellent partnership working through challenges in the coming years, it is this kind of innovative work community planning. which will be key to West Dunbartonshire successfully implementing the CLD Statutory Regulations for CPPs. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have. I look forward to seeing the Working 4U service go from strength to strength and ensure that our customers and communities can continue to experience a truly high quality service.
Martin Rooney Peter 1
Lorna Campbell Welcome CL&D Section Head
Welcome to the Community Learning and Development (CL&D) Annual Report 2014/15.
The service has had to address some key challenges but has also achieved a great deal this past year as you will be able to see from our Report.
CL&D has played a key role in taking forward the strategic planning process currently being undertaken to meet the Requirements of the Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013.
The 3 Year Plan 2015-18 for Youth Services is being developed by the Youth Alliance whilst the Plan for Adult Learning is being developed by the Adult Learning Partnership.
CL&D staff have also engaged with 2 other local authorities, Argyll & Bute and East Dunbartonshire Councils, to successfully obtain a grant to develop a web based planning format designed to embed the requirements of the Regulations within the process (www.cldplanning.com) for the development of the 3 Year Plans.
We were also very pleased this year to become one of the first organisations to be awarded the Standards Council Standards Mark in recognition of our provision of high quality CLD learning opportunities.
The Panel commended “the clear commitment at all levels to providing high quality CPD opportunities to all CLD staff, including staff from partner organisations, which has created a positive learning culture in West Dunbartonshire”.
The Adult Learning, Literacies and Employability Teams as part of the Learning “arm” of Working4U also obtained a Scottish Learning Partnership Impact Award for their work with learners furthest removed from the labour market.
In addition, as part of their training through Working4U, West Dunbartonshire this year became one of the first local authorities to offer all our Modern Apprentices the opportunity to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme.
Learners, participants and volunteers have also continued to play a key role in shaping CL&D services through their active participation in the very successful Youth and Learners’ Voice Consultation Events held during the year.
It was lovely to see the huge contribution made by Auchnacraig Learners both to their own and others learning and to the benefit of their local community recognised at the Civic Reception held for them by the Lord Provost earlier this year.
This Annual Report has many more examples of the achievements of our young people, adults, community groups, volunteers and staff which I hope you enjoy reading about.
Thanks again to everyone for all your hard work over the past year. Lorna 2
Working4U in action Julie has had ill health for a number of years and has been claiming Employment Support Allowance until she was transferred to Job Seekers Allowance (JSA). Due to the criteria and requirements for the new benefit Julie felt she had to learn new skills and develop her confidence in various social situations.
Julie felt ready to learn something new and asked her Stepping Stones advisor about courses in her community. She was then referred to CL&D for the confidence and employability skills course ‘New Horizons’.
Julie felt a new confidence in herself and about meeting people through participating in New Horizons. During the course Julie improved her employability skills and gained knowledge about other courses and opportunities in her area that could help to develop the skills she needed to improve her job prospects.
Julie also undertook various IT courses starting with CV & IT to develop IT and job search skills. She learned to log onto Universal JobMatch, send emails and create CV’s . Julie said of this course ‘It took away the fear of computers and reduced the stress I had been feeling over the JSA requirements’.
She also gained her Steps to Excellence certificate completing a course focused on how to develop a positive mental attitude and sustain a developmental approach to every aspect of life. Julie thoroughly enjoyed this course and felt that learning about how to set goals and safely step out of her comfort zone was very beneficial to her as it ‘improved my outlook on life and helped me to cope and think differently about everyday stress’.
Julie explained that ‘All the learning I have done has been a positive experience and very good for me, I recommend CL&D courses to people I know and meet. Learning helps you stretch yourself and builds your confidence to do new things and undertake more challenges’.
Julie has now progressed onto a part-time Health and Social Care course at West College Scotland and is currently undertaking a Sociology and Psychology in Care course with CL&D. She hopes that this and her plan of volunteering in a care setting will improve her overall job prospects.
Measuring & Monitoring Our Performance
The Community Learning & Development Service regularly monitors the uptake and delivery of CL&D provision in quantitative and qualitative terms demonstrating a clear link between national, local and service level outcomes.
During 2014-15:- o 4,422 - learners participated in CL&D courses o 2,522 - learners successfully completed CL&D courses during the past year while many are still continuing with their learning o 446 - volunteers were supported by CL&D in the delivery of its provision o 594 - adults were involved in community capacity building activity o 47 - groups were involved in community capacity building o 599 - young people were engaged in outreach provision through street work o 1,659 - young people were involved in youth consultation & representation o 243 - learners undertook Literacies related courses o 40 - adults participated in ESOL* courses o 2,070 - learners undertook adult learning related courses o 1,670 - adults successfully completed courses o 1,055 - CL&D participants were awarded a recognised qualification o 1,364 - people with more than one barrier to employment received support
*ESOL – English for Speakers of Other Languages 3 Employability & Economic Growth
The CL&D Annual Report this year is thematic, based upon the three local priorities within the West Dunbartonshire Single Outcome Agreement that the Service most contributes towards. The Single Speakers Outcome of Agreement Other Languages reflects the long term vision for the area and through improvements in priority outcome areas West Dunbartonshire will become more prosperous and successful. The first priority area is Employability & Economic Growth and CL&D help to underpin this activity by supporting people to be active in their local communities and participate, where they are able, in the labour market. We are delivering a range of preventative initiatives - some detailed below - with key partners and are the learning arm of Working4U.
Working4U
Working4U is a West Dunbartonshire Council service which supports people who are unemployed return to work, providing assistance with benefits and debt, learning, digital literacy and preparation for work. Our aim is to:
“To support customers and communities to improve their skills, learning and financial situations, assisting them on their journey into work and protecting the rights of our citizens”
It integrates the work of three service areas –the Local Employability Team focussing on work, Community Learning & Development focussing on learning and Advice Services focussing on money issues.
The learning aspect of Working4U provides learner-centred courses for people in community settings. This includes Digital Learning, Personal Development, Core Skills and Literacies, in 2014-1there has been a particular emphasis on Youth Literacies with a number of programs being developed and delivered aimed at supporting young people with their employability skills.
West Employability Hub
The West Employability Hub aims to offer residents of West Dunbartonshire support with their journey towards employment including offering accredited learning, job searching skills and support, IT support, confidence building as well as 1-1 support with a dedicated worker.
CL&D have been involved in supporting residents with building confidence, support and guidance, core skills development including team building, Financial Awareness, Employability Awards and Personal Presentation SQA’s as well as IT support in relation to Universal Jobmatch and general job searching.
Other bespoke courses were developed and delivered to support 16-25year olds who were furthest removed from the labour market including Youth Horizons, a programme which consists of group work activities to enable participants to assess skills, personal and work goals, identify barriers that may be preventing them from realising their potential and help participants to develop confidence and self-esteem.
A Creative Writing course proved successful in enabling participants to develop their core skills and confidence levels while writing about a topic of interest.
The PX2 course aims to improve the confidence levels of learners, helping them become more self-aware in all areas of their lives. There is a strong guidance element to this course to help learners move onto other learning
opportunities including accredited learning, volunteering opportunities or into work. 4
Employability & Economic Growth
Adult Learning and Literacies Courses in the Community
Providing quality learning opportunities to West Dunbartonshire’s residents is the aim of CL&D’s Adult Learning and Community Literacies teams. The teams work in the heart of the community with learners to remove barriers to learning, give support and build individuals confidence, to further their learning opportunities and employability prospects. Participants can gain accreditation and qualifications at a pace and level that suits them. Whether learners are looking to build on existing skills, undertake new challenges or change their career path, there is a learning course that will suit.
Courses and learning groups enable people to gain essential skills including literacy and numeracy and certification such as the five core skills, First Aid, Health & Safety and Food Hygiene, Stress Management among others.
Members of the Vale of Leven Autism & Asperger’s Forum undertook a Food Hygiene certificate to benefit the running of their newly opened West of Scotland Autism & Asperger’s Centre, the new centre will be used as a meeting place and activity/respite centre for parents and children affected by the conditions. Many of the forum members gained insight and understanding into ways of coping and managing stress by attending the Stress Management Course. This had a major positive impact on their lives of the participants with one learner saying they were ‘grateful to CL&D for provision of this course and we would be happy for you to use the centre to run other courses, if it would be of benefit’. Another stated ‘The course has helped raise my confidence by helping me deal with my stress’.
CL&D have a partnership agreement with West College Scotland, which enables learners to take part in a wide range of certificated courses in the community. This range was widened in 2014-15, with learners having the opportunity to undertake courses in Child Care, Health and Social Care, IT, languages, wellbeing and sewing. One of our learning groups, Auchnacraig Learners, who undertook a number of courses including a Child Development Group Award, were given a Civic Reception at Clydebank Town Hall in recognition of their achievements; they were also finalists in the 2014 Adult Learners’ Week Awards. Across the range of our adult provision, 2,070 people were registered, with 1,670 successfully completing courses, of which 781 received a recognised qualification.
A group of Alexandria residents have taken part in a selection of courses this year, with some looking to change career path into a Health and Social care occupation. They have completed Sociology and Psychology in Care -SQA and are moving on to the Values and Principles in Care. Others have undertaken the Introduction to Counselling and the Child Development SQA courses in order to gain an understanding in a variety of areas within the Care sector.
‘I gained a better Insight into working in a care job’
CL&D is an SQA centre and can deliver over fifty units to local learners with a new award Volunteering Skills being added this year. This award will be delivered in partnership with WDCVS. We are delighted that over the past year 136 qualifications have been awarded through our centre.
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Employability & Economic Growth
Digital Learning with CL&D
Over 2014/15 there has been a range of IT learning opportunities on offer within West Dunbartonshire. CL&D have offered SQA course for beginners through to those wanting to improve their skills as well as 1-1 support through Digital Friends and How to Work It – an IT course aimed at helping people with their job searching skills. This year 449 learners have participated in ICT courses, with 147 have gained a qualification, with others currently working towards their qualification.
100% of learners said that they have gained confidence in using a computer.
As part of our commitment to ensure that we are providing the best service possible within Digital Inclusion, we undertook a self-evaluation. This entailed a questionnaire for tutors, volunteers and learners as well as looking at the paperwork used within the courses. The vast majority of the feedback was positive, but a few recommendations were noted which will be put in place over the forthcoming months.
“More jobs have “I feel more confident now – opened up to me.” like a different person”
Working4U in action
Joe worked in the building trade most of his life but gave up work at 50 to become the carer for his sister. Sadly his sister passed away and Joe began looking for work. The Job centre suggested that he gain IT skills.
Joe attended the CV&IT course which helped him develop his IT skills:
search for a job online use Universal Jobmatch create and save word documents search the internet create various CV’s set up and use an email account
Though guidance Joe identified the new skills he needed in order to gain employment and completed a ‘First Aid at Work’ certificate and continued his IT learning by attending a 20 week course. He completed the ‘Steps to Excellence’ programme - an effective thinking skills and motivational course. He wanted to achieve a qualification and is undertaking ‘Getting started in IT’ Access 3 level and ‘Sociology & Psychology in Care’ Intermediate 1.
Overall Joe feels that this new learning journey has had a massive impact on his life, saying ‘it has improved my mental health, reduced the isolation I was feeling, developed my confidence in learning new things and meeting new people and has improved my physical health by motivating me to get up and out the door every day.’
Joe will continue to develop his learning and gain qualifications but also wants to volunteer locally to build his confidence and improve his job prospects. 6
Employability & Economic Growth
Cooking Clean Project
Alternatives Safe as Houses Project is a community based supported accommodation programme that supports people in their attempts to recover from drug or alcohol addiction.
Working in partnership CL&D participants learned about budgeting for meals and fuel costs for cooking. They acquired the basic cookery skills required to cook healthy nutritious meals on a budget. They learned basic kitchen and fridge hygiene, helping them to progress towards independent drug free living with their own tenancies.
Learners developed the ability to: o Plan and budget for a meal each week o Compile a list of all necessary ingredients and shop for ingredients o Clean and prepare the kitchen and ensure that it is left hygienically clean after the meal is prepared
The learners compiled a recipe book, which can be used as a source of meal ideas and plans that each resident can take with them on departing the supported house. ‘Our partnership with Community Learning & Development has been particularly positive and the cookery skills course has been an invaluable component of the programme, helping clients develop the skills and confidence to cook nutritious food, ultimately supporting them sustain their own tenancies.’ Karen Morton, Senior Group Worker, Safe as Houses.
ESOL Learning with CL&D
CL&D supports various ESOL courses and work clubs throughout the West Dunbartonshire area. Within these groups learners have not only been working on learning and improving their reading, writing and spoken English, but also looking at improving their CV and getting ready for employment.
Throughout the summer, we ran a fast track SQA Communication course, where 8 learners attend, with 3 gaining an SQA.
Congratulations also go to 5 learners who have just completed an SQA Employability award course at Intermediate 1 level. Well done!
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Employability & Economic Growth
Fashion and Textile courses have been popular with a local Mum and toddlers group where they have learned to use sewing machines to create clothing for their children and are currently learning hand sewing skills. ‘The programme has made me more confident about moving on to further education. It is also good to meet others in the same situation as you’
STEPS to Excellence – Confidence and Goal setting
STEPS to Excellence courses took place across West Dunbartonshire.
Learners work in a group setting and the course materials help learners to develop:
• Higher levels of motivation
• Increased self-belief
• Improved ability to set goals
• Raised levels of personal accountability
• Clearer insight into how their minds work.
Learners come from a variety of referring organisations such as Social Work, Stepping Stones, Job Centre Plus, the Lennox partnership and Working4U. Specific organisations requested courses for their clients such as DACA and Ashton View Homeless unit in Dumbarton.
From these courses learners progressed onto other adult learning programmes, college courses, voluntary work and employment.
Some learner impact statements:
• “This course has made me feel more positive about myself.”
• “I liked finding out about myself and the group discussions were good.”
• “It has given me more energy, more get up and go.”
• “My main focus is my positive outlook on life.”
• “I am feeling more positive about myself and it’s helped me to control my stress levels.”
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Employability & Economic Growth
Working4U in action
Kirsty Fern has been unemployed for 5 years. She moved to Clydebank from Falkirk and heard about CL&D at a Job Club but at first wasn’t sure whether she wanted to go down this route. She often laughs and says ‘the woman who phoned from CL&D was so kind and encouraging that I thought I’d better go along because I didn’t want to let her down! I soon realized that to get a decent job I needed qualifications and I was able to organise learning with CL&D around caring for my wee girl. ’
Kirsty studied two child development units, Child Development and Parenting. In February 2015 she achieved her Child Development Group Award. She is very proud of how her confidence has improved. She moved from Falkirk to Clydebank and knew very few people in the town. She no longer feels isolated or excluded and has formed warm and close friendships with her fellow learners.
According to Kirsty, “Learning with CL&D has helped me make friends and feel part of the community. It has allowed me to gain the qualifications I need to apply to college and it has changed the way I parent.”
Her daughter has now started school and Kirsty hopes to secure a place at West College Scotland in September.
CL&D Volunteer Support and Development
CL&D supports over 400 volunteers involved in working with the local community. Opportunities include tutoring children and young people 1-1 with their reading, writing and number skills, tutoring adult literacies learners, tutoring adults with IT as well as volunteers being trained top offer support to community groups.
Training and development for volunteers has been a focus this year with new volunteers being trained across all the opportunities:
22 tutors for the Supported Study Clubs 9 volunteers completed the Community course 6 adult literacies tutors 9 Digital Friends tutors
All volunteer tutors and staff were invited to attend on-going training sessions. The topics covered were supporting learners with Additional Support Needs and Universal Jobmatch.
It is important for volunteers to keep up-to-date with what is happening, not only regarding matters in their own placement, but also about wider issues and the potential impact on the children, young people and adults that they are working with.
The feedback from the volunteers attending training was very positive and many commented how useful the sessions were and they felt their tutoring practice had improved. 9
Literacies Support offered by CL&D
CL&D continue to offer local learners support with developing and improving their literacies skills and knowledge. Groups meet across the area and learners decide on their individual learning goals and are supported within a small group setting to achieve these goals; with learners working at their own pace. Learners can also, if they wish, work towards SQA qualifications which are free!
Working4U in action
Jacqueline started with CL&D when the service was offering one to one tutoring support for adult literacies learners. At this stage in her learning journey Jackie was very fearful of being in any kind of group and had very low confidence and self-esteem. Initially she wanted to just get better at writing and spelling. At this time she had a job but was then made redundant and
began to look into doing as much learning as she could in order to increase her qualifications and skills. Eventually Jackie was confident enough to join a group and there she felt she really started to grow in confidence and came along to the STEPS to Excellence course with other literacies learners which she said helped her to learn to set personal goals and get to know other learners better.
Eventually Jackie achieved level 3 and 4 in both Communications and Numeracy and also showed an interest in becoming a volunteer tutor. In 2013 Jackie decided she had achieved everything she could at the literacies group and applied to be a volunteer with Out of School Hours Learning and started as a volunteer tutor soon after.
As well as going to college full time now she also finds the time some weeks to come back to the adult literacies group to help other adult learners and to do a bit of peer tutoring as next year she would like to apply to be a volunteer with adult literacies. Jackie has very good ICT skills and says she enjoys being able to give something back into the service which for her she feels gave her so many opportunities to learn.
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Employability & Economic Growth
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award: WDC Modern Apprenticeship Scheme
Over the last year West Dunbartonshire Council have been one of the first local authorities to offer young people participating in the Modern Apprenticeship Scheme the opportunity to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme and there are currently four Bronze and five Silver participants.
CL&D and the Local Employability team, as part of the Council’s Working4U service, secured funding from the Job’s Growth Fund to employ a worker and provide resources to support this initiative.
The UK Commission for Employment and Skills and the CBI, define the skills and attitudes that makes someone employable as the ability to self-manage, solve problems, work in a team and communicate well. Through participation in the Award, the young people have had the opportunity to develop their skills and attributes in these areas; enhancing their opportunities to gain employment and contribute to the local economy.
For the Modern Apprentices to complete their Award they have to complete a section which develops a ‘skill’, which they are fulfilling within their Apprenticeship, as well as three further sections, ‘Volunteering’, ‘Physical’ and ‘Expedition’.
For Volunteering the Apprentices have been taking part in activities such as helping out at Robin House, assisting in Boquhanran's elderly care home in Parkhall, delivering weekly football coaching sessions to young people and helping with children’s art classes and events in Dalmuir Park.
For the Physical aspect West Dunbartonshire Leisure Trust have provided the Apprentices with leisure passes for the duration of their training which will allow them to complete this section by accessing local sport centre’s fitness facilities and swimming pools.
Finally to address the Expedition section the participants have taken part in a range of training including map reading and outdoor cooking. They completed two practice day walks which took place in the Kilpatrick Hills. After which they successfully completed a Practice Expedition in the Argyll and Bute area, and finally a Qualifying Expedition in Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. For the Bronze participants this consisted of two days and one night of camping with the Silver participants having to complete a further one night of camping and an additional day of walking.
11 Employability & Economic Growth
Introduction to Community Work ‘I found the course interesting and The Introduction to Community Work Course was designed for individuals who challenging. It gave were interested in working in community work either in a voluntary or part time basis by developing their skills, knowledge, and awareness of community work me the confidence practices and principles working towards becoming community practitioners. and skills needed to pursue further From June to September 2014, nine learners took part in the course. Learners training and/or were referred from a range of partner services including CL&D, Workconnect employment within a and ISARO. Learners gained a qualification that will build on their current community setting.’ involvement within their community as well as having a variety of progression routes available including volunteering, employment, college, and university.
On completion of the course two learners accessed an Interview with Glasgow Clyde College for NC or HNC Working with Communities with one participant ‘As a new comer to starting the HNC course. A further two participants gained entry to the PDA community work I’ve Youth work course through Community Links Clydebank and have started the course. found the course extremely useful to We wish all participants all the best in the future and feel the course will give understand how to them the skills and experience to become skilled practitioners. engage with local community groups and has encouraged me to pursue this as a long term career.’
‘I found the introduction to community work a great stepping stone to a future in community work.’
12 Children & Families
The second Single Outcome Agreement local priority that CL&D contributes to is Children & Families, with a clear focus on strengthening our existing relationships with the third sector and others through the strong Youth Alliance partnership. Alongside this there is a focus on lifelong learning and closer collaboration with schools.
Community Learning & Development - Family Learning Scoop Five Amazing Things Awards
At West Dunbartonshire Council’s Educational Department’s CL&D offered an extensive family learning Amazing Things Award Ceremony CL&D received five Special programme throughout the year which Recognition Awards for its work with local schools and early included successfully delivering fourteen child education centres. development courses aimed at parents with young children. The overall winner of Amazing Things 2014 was Auchnacraig Over and above these courses there were a EE&CC. The Centre Head Janice MacIntyre was over the further thirteen Family Learning Projects and moon at winning the award & said, “Our parents have made CL&D staff successfully worked with a total of incredible learning journeys and we couldn’t have done it 305 Adults and 131 Children. without CL&D. It is thanks to this type of partnership work that we can deliver such a holistic learning programme.”
Executive Director of Educational Services Terry Lanagan & Councillor Michelle McGinty presents the awards
Fun Fit for Families at Auchnacraig Early Education & Childcare Centre
During the summer 12 families took part in ‘Fun Fit’ at Auchnacraig Early Education & Childcare Centre in Faifley. The programme was delivered in partnership with Active Schools who delivered Set4Sport as part of the programme. Faifley has more tenement properties than anywhere else in WD and few of the participating families had a garden. The Set4Sport programme showed parents how to be active with children in any location. The children in Auchnacraig have an allotment and cookery sessions incorporated the produce they grew themselves.
parents and children worked together to acquire basic cookery skills and participated together in sport & games
Families learned how to make healthy packed lunches and cook family favourites using less salt, sugar and fat while on a limited budget. 13
Children & Families
Haldane Primary Set4Sport Project
This project was delivered in partnership with West Dunbartonshire Leisure Trust - Active Schools, P1 Parents and Children from Haldane Primary School and CL&D.
The programme was designed to offer families ideas, games and practical activities which encouraged skills in agility, balance and co-ordination using objects around the house and at little or no cost to families. The outcomes for families included: Improved health and wellbeing, physical activity and social skills Increased confidence in coaching skills and knowledge of physical development
Overall parents/carers felt the programme improved their confidence and made a difference to their lives. One parent volunteered with Active Schools as part of their coaching programme. Five of the mums signed up to do a STEPS to Excellence course and other adult learning opportunities and one of these mums subsequently gained employment.
Parents comments on the Project’s impact included:-
“I have learned loads of new games without a cost that we can play inside and out.”
“It has inspired me to play more active games with my children and given me ideas as to how to make mundane tasks more fun.”
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Project - Linnvale Early Education & Childcare Centre
The Project utilised the well-known children’s story book The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a catalyst to engage families in various learning opportunities involving storytelling, art and cookery. Ten families signed up for the project which enabled families to acquire basic culinary skills by learning how to make healthy meals and snacks using less fat, salt and sugar while on a budget.
The children learned how to chop fruits and vegetables safely. They learned how herbs and spices can flavour food and most of all learned that cooking and eating together is fun and easy.
Parents explained how the Project had made a difference to their families lives:-
“My son now eats and tries different foods so meal times are much better.”
“I enjoyed taking part in the programme, it helped Kieran with his confidence and he was interested in doing something he hadn’t done before.”
St Peters Primary - Memory Lane Project
Parents of St Peter’s Primary School in Bellsmyre decided to produce a display of memories of St. Peter's Primary School commemorating the school’s history as part of a personal development course delivered by CL&D. The course culminated in an exhibition which opened for viewing to the Bellsmyre community at the school fete. Learners also created a stunning 3D sculpture of the St Peter’s Primary School badge which was at the centre of the commemorative events and is to be incorporated into the design of the new school.
“With the valuable support of CL& D, parents and members of the community were able to work in partnership, demonstrating a whole range of skills. The Memory Lane was a great success. The display was a fitting celebration to mark the closure of the school building.” 14 Kathryn Gallagher, Headteacher St Peter’s Primary School
Children & Families
Auchnacraig EE&CC Adult Learners Achievements Recognised both Locally & Nationally
West Dunbartonshire Council’s Provost Douglas McAllister held a Civic Reception for a group of CL&D adult learners based in Auchnacraig EE&CC. Over the last three years, approximately 70 parents and friends of Auchnacraig have taken part in a range of courses with CL&D. What made the learners in Auchnacraig stand out was the progression they have achieved with the skills they have acquired.
During 2014 the learners won the WDC Amazing Things Award for Parents as Partners in Learning and they also won the Education Scotland Award in the same category and were semi-finalists in the Scottish Adult Learning Partnership Award.
Throughout their learning journeys, the participants have enjoyed tremendous peer support and encouragement from one other. They have also been encouraged to contribute to their community, to volunteer, to undertake more community based learning, to progress to college or university and to move into employment.
The Civic reception recognised the huge effort the learners have made and afforded them the opportunity to celebrate their learning.
Out of School Hours Learning - Supported Study Clubs
CL&D organises three Out of School Hours Learning (OSHL) Supported Study Clubs across West Dunbartonshire. The study clubs are in Alexandria, Dumbarton and Clydebank.
Adult volunteers are recruited and trained and then placed in a club to support a pupil on a one-to-one or small group tutoring basis for an hour per week. Study clubs take place during term time, with each club having 2 tutoring slots. All study clubs have three members of staff, two teachers and a learning assistant, who support and advise volunteer tutors on resources and learning and teaching
approaches to use with their pupils.
Pupils aged between 5 and 16 years old are referred by parents or teachers and are behind their peers for many different reasons.
During April 2014 to March 2015, 116 pupils were supported with 90 volunteer tutors involved in delivering this service.
“Attending the study club has helped me quite a lot in English and much more in maths. My tutor is brilliant!” Alexandria Pupil Councillor Gail Casey and Hub Pupil
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Chidren & Families
Vale of Leven Academy CL&D Learning Programme
Youth Achievement Bronze Awards
Fifteen Vale of Leven Academy pupils worked last year towards the Youth Achievement Awards bronze level, with many having now successfully completed their award while others are continuing to work towards it.
Youth Achievement Awards are an activity based approach to peer education. The Awards are designed to help develop more effective participative practice by encouraging young people to progressively take more responsibility in selecting and leading activities that are based on their interests. In using peer group assessment it helps the young people to develop a range of social skills that include negotiation, problem solving, and communication.
SQA Communications 4
The same group of young people had the opportunity to complete an SQA Communications level 4 qualification using this as one of their challenges for their Youth Achievement Award.
The SQA Communications 4 course allows pupils to improve their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills framed around a topic of their individual choice, for example learners can read, produce a piece of text and do their speaking and listening assessment about football, gaming, looking after a pet, being a young carer, learning to drive etc. Pupils work at their own pace to complete the assessments needed for the overall unit.
PX2
Fourteen pupils participated in and completed a PX2 course, the course utilises video bursts, group activities, discussions and personal reflection, while the content is vibrant and colourful with a music video “feel”, incorporating animation, graphics and music.
PX2 teaches the art and science of goal setting, combined with a thorough understanding of how we think. The challenge is to build strength of character and strong self-belief, so that young people have the confidence to make positive choices about their lives. The group participants used this course as one of their challenges for their Youth Achievement Award.
Fire Reach
Finally, eight pupils took part in the Fire Reach Course which is designed to help young people understand the job Fire Fighters do on a daily basis and to highlight the danger of hoax calls. As part of the Fire Reach course the pupils took part in a variety of activities similar to the training undertaken by the fire fighters themselves.
All of the participants attained a Basic First Aid Certificate and also an attendance certificate to acknowledge the effort they made during the week long course. Some of the group participants used the Fire Reach programme as one of their challenges for the Youth Achievement Award.
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Children & Families
Kilpatrick High School CL&D Learning Programme
Since August 2014 the S1 pupils from Kilpatrick High School have been working with CL&D to participate in a range of programmes on issues identified by the group including Litter & Recycling, Road Safety, Healthy Eating & Exercise, Bullying, Drugs & Alcohol and Smoking. The group took part in activities such as Road Safety walks, making fruit smoothies and fruit Kebabs, a litter pick up and making awareness raising posters. The group took part in workshops delivered by Y-Sort it and WDC Road Safety coordinators. All of the young people achieved a Saltire Award for 25 hours of volunteering, the first group in Kilpatrick School to achieve this award.
Clydebank High School CL&D Learning Programme At
CL&D staff facilitated two PX2 courses and an introduction to Employability course, working with 49 participants all from the 4th year.
All courses proved successful and the school are keen to plan future work with CL&D for 2015/16 with the view of offering pupils the Youth Achievement Awards.
Youth Outreach
The Youth Outreach team through working on the streets of West Dunbartonshire actively interacted with 599 disengaged young people offering them support and advice and signposted them to other partner organisations and a range of youth orientated events.
The staff also ran a Youth Horizons project, a 15 week employability and life skills course aimed at young people currently unemployed or about to make the transition from school to the working world. The course was designed to support their employability journey by building confidence and improving life skills through group work and taster sessions with partner agencies. The programme offered accreditation and recognition which assisted participants to move closer to either employment or further education.
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Youth Groups Discover the Benefits of the Great Outdoors
Gives Us A Break Project
In May 2014 a group of 30 young people from West Dunbartonshire Youth Groups participated in the Give us a Break programme. Give Us a Break (GUAB) is a funded residential programme ran by SYHA Hostelling Scotland which aims to tackle social exclusion by offering groups of vulnerable or disadvantaged young people the opportunity to stay in remote parts of Scotland and participate in challenging outdoor activities.
The programme provided the young people with an opportunity to get away from the stresses of their everyday lives and try new things. It was a huge success and young people gained a variety of new skills and experiences. For many of our young people it was the first time they had ever had the opportunity to explore what the Scottish countryside has to offer. Outdoor challenges included; Survival Skills, Canoeing, Mountain Biking, Highland Games and Hillwalking / Orienteering and problem solving activities.
New Outdoor Education Programme Piloted
Young people from the Brucehill and Alexandria Youth Group participated in an outdoor education programme which was developed in partnership with Friends of Loch Lomond, John Muir Award Team, Loch Lomond National Park Rangers, Green Space, Can you Experience and Grow Wild.
The programme consisted of four challenges Discover, Explore, Conserve and Share. The young people explored the National Park with the Loch Lomond National Park Rangers on foot, by canoe and through orienteering. They were tasked with a variety of conservation challenges including litter picking, ditch digging to improve irrigation and building bird boxes.
The group worked with Green Space and helped maintain a local community garden in Westcliff and planted wild flowers to transform a local space and attract wildlife.
Finally they shared their achievements by creating art work about their experiences which was displayed in Loch Lomond National Park Headquarters. They also shared their experience at a celebration event.
Twenty young people successfully completed all four challenges which resulted in them gaining both a John Muir and a Saltire Award.
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West Dunbartonshire Youth Alliance
The Youth Alliance have been proactively working to develop a 3 year plan to meet the national statutory CLD Regulations and ensure service providers are delivering targeted support to young people. Partners have been meeting on a regular basis and have developed a number of key themes for the plan which will be launched on 1st September 2015.
Membership continues to be open but the key partners currently participating are Y Sort-it, Skills Development Scotland, Police Scotland, WDC Housing/Homelessness, Prince’s Trust, Educational Services, Tullochan, WD CHCP - Social Work/Health, Opportunities for All, WDC Community Safety & Anti-Social Behaviour Team, CL&D with other organisations being involved as required for specific pieces of work or participated in short-life working groups.
, Working4U in action
CL&D staff first met Patrick Hepburn a few years ago during outreach in the Bonhill area and encouraged him to get involved in a range of activities and projects. These included raising the awareness of residents and councillors about the issues facing young people in his community and peer education work where he was trained to deliver two courses ‘no knives better lives’ and ‘internet safety’ which he co- delivered to Primary 7 pupils from across West Dunbartonshire.
Patrick also helped support and develop the programme for the first Bronze Youth Achievement Award Group that was run in the Vale of Leven Academy where three young people achieved their Bronze Award and Patrick achieved his Silver.
These opportunities gave Patrick the incentive to apply to Anniesland College to study on the Working with Communities course. At present he is undertaking an apprenticeship at a local garage and is thoroughly enjoying this new challenge.
Fundraising to help others
A team of young people from WDC Youth Groups participated in the Wee Kilt Walk. The Group raised around £650 in sponsorship money to help local children and young people. In recognition of their achievement they were each awarded the Saltire Challenge Award.
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Children & Families
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award: Secondary Schools & Community
2014 / 2015 heralded the first academic year where all secondary schools within West Dunbartonshire were in a position to offer young people the opportunity to be supported in participating in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme.
This year a total of 172 school pupils have been taking part in the award, working across all three levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold.
To support the increased interest from school pupils to participate in the award CL&D and Educational Services have worked closely together to increase the schools capacity to deliver the award by providing training for school staff.
36 teachers took part in the Introduction to the Award training, which any teacher who wants to support the delivery of the award has to complete and 9 teachers took part in DofE Supervisors training which supports the Expedition section of the award.
“All children and young people should experience personalisation and choice within their curriculum, including identifying and planning for opportunities for personal achievement in a range of contexts.”
- Curriculum for Excellence
CL&D launched a new Open Award Centre in Dumbarton, which is in addition to the one already operating successfully in Clydebank. Both Centres will assist in supporting young people still attending school who need additional guidance as well as acting as a hub for those who have left school but are still pursuing their awards.
Another key development to support the award delivery within local authority schools is the creation of a DofE Schools website. This website has been created to streamline information for school pupils and teachers in West Dunbartonshire and to highlight local opportunities for young people to complete their volunteering, physical and skills sections of the award.
Special congratulations to Dumbarton Academy pupils who attended this year’s DofE National Gold Award presentation in Edinburgh: Catherine Scarlett, Emma Jensen, Emma Yates, Imogen Lynch, Megan MacDonald, Rachel Collins and Susan Boyd. 20
Safe, Strong & Involved Communities
The final Single Outcome Agreement local priority that CL&D contributes to is Safe, Strong & Involved Communities with a commitment to community involvement, empowerment and engagement.
Neighbourhood Management
Neighbourhood Management is West Dunbartonshire’s approach to delivering local community planning with a focus to:
• Bring decision making closer to the community
• Provide opportunities for communities to influence and inform service design and delivery
• Gather local evidence and information to inform local planning
• Provide the means for effective and inclusive partnership working
Neighbourhood Management will ensure that local communities have the strongest voice possible to influence the way a wide range of services are delivered in their area, and will be the preferred route for community planning at a locality level. Each neighbourhood will be supported to develop a community action plan, linking and working with local services such as police, housing, community planning, Working4U, waste management, culture and libraries.
From September 2014 - March 2015 the Neighbourhood Management pilot took place in Alexandria. Throughout the pilot the Community Development team undertook consultations with 17 groups within the Alexandria area. The consultation gave individuals an opportunity to respond to key issues and feedback on what they would change about their local community. This information was collated and will be included in the community led action plan. The Neighbourhood Management approach will be rolled out across West Dunbartonshire.
Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) Elections
Over the months of October 2014 to March 2015 CL&D worked to raise the profile of the Scottish Youth Parliament with the young people of West Dunbartonshire. Staff visited all six of our Secondary Schools and also local youth provision to encourage young people to come forward and stand for election to the SYP.
Candidates were forthcoming and they all worked immensely hard over the election period to deliver their campaign to local young people and were in turn encouraged by the number who cast their vote on Election Day. Alex Robertson was the successful candidate for the Dumbarton and Vale of Leven constituency and Hayleigh Fallon for Clydebank, who was unopposed due to a withdrawal. Both have now gone on to represent the young people of West Dunbartonshire at the Scottish Youth Parliament.
The new Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament continue to work actively both locally and nationally with the support of CL&D.
Hayleigh Fallon Alex Robertson Clydebank Dumbarton & Vale of Leven 21
Safe, Strong & Involved Communities
Communities
Youth Alliance Peer Education Group
This award winning group is supported by both the Early Intervention team (EIT) and CL&D.
The peer educators accessed a range of training and development opportunities aimed at upskilling them to have the knowledge and confidence to offer training and information to other local young people on a range of topics. Training from a range of Youth Alliance partners including Early Intervention Team, CL&D, Tullochan Trust and Y Sort it and this training is supplemented by inputs from the Scottish Peer Education Network (SPEN), No Knives Better Lives (KNBL) and Fast Forward which focusses on specific issue based work and workshop skills in relation to violence reduction and community safety.
With this training the peer educators deliver violence reduction and community safety workshops to other young people and on occasion professional staff.
Annually the group are a key element of the Experiential Learning event at the start of the academic term. The group have delivered workshops since 2013 to over 1900 Primary 7 children across West Dunbartonshire including:
• Internet and social media safety including cyber bullying,
• No Knives Better Lives - violence reduction/community safety.
• Road Safety- Drink Driving, Speed Reduction, pedestrian cycle safety.
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Youth Consultation and Representation (YC&R)
CL&D with the support of the three existing Bonhill, Bellsmyre and Duntocher Youth Action groups planned open nights to launch three new Youth Voice Groups, targeted at Clydebank, Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven areas in order to create a new Youth Consultation & Representation structure across the authority which was more inclusive and representative of the young people of West Dunbartonshire.
The open nights for the Youth Voice Groups were held during the summer of 2014, and the young people who joined took part in various training workshops, were involved in promoting the new Groups and worked together to develop their authority wide consultation ‘Penny for Youth Thoughts’.
The consultation, supported by the Youth Alliance, was aimed at finding out young people’s priorities on 6 key themes and young people were asked to prioritise the themes in order of importance in order to generate an agreed theme that the Youth Voice groups could focus on during 2015.
As a result of this consultation young people identified Health & Wellbeing as the most important theme to them, and the 6 priority issues within this were; Alcohol, Smoking, Drugs, Depression, Stress and Bullying.
The West Dunbartonshire Youth Voice groups hosted a further consultation event in March 2015, ‘We Asked Youth Voiced’, to feedback the results of the ‘Penny for Youth Thoughts’ consultation and to find out young people’s views on the 6 priority issues within the Health & Wellbeing theme.
The information gathered will form part of the Youth Alliance’s 3 year CLD plan, which is being developed to meet the new CLD Regulations.
In addition, the Clydebank Youth Voice group is developing a project to raise awareness of issues around Alcohol. The Dumbarton Youth Voice Group is developing a project around Stress and Depression. While the Alexandria Youth Voice Group is working on a project which will be looking at Bullying.
Learner Voice
As part of our on-going commitment to learner involvement in the planning and provision of Adult Learning, West Dunbartonshire learners had the opportunity contribute to the new Adult Learning in Scotland Statement of Ambition, travelling to the Scottish Parliament to take part in a consultation. There were also a number of focus groups looking at the Ambition Statement, inputting to the local CLD plan and taking part in self-evaluations. This has raised the profile of West Dunbartonshire and Working4U Learning at a national level.
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Workforce Development Progress & Achievements
A new campaign was launched by West Dunbartonshire Council to “Be The Best”. This is a new strategy that focuses the Council and its employees on three key ambitions:
• We will continuously improve our services
• We will provide excellent customer services
• We will continuously develop ourselves as employees
We have embraced this campaign and it informs some of our plans for improving our service. All staff undertook e-learn training on the new “Customer Service Charter” and have been receiving “Be the Best” certificates for their attendance at internal training to celebrate their learning.
In order to ensure that we can deliver the best services possible consultations were undertaken with staff to find out how they felt about working relationships. All staff said they had good or very good relationships with their colleagues, managers and partners. Staff also felt that they could identify where they met the competencies set out by the CLD Standards Council for Scotland. Work is planned to develop a more blended approach to learning for staff and volunteers by sourcing ways to produce training materials using e-learning. This will widen out access to training for staff making it easier for those who do not have access to Council computer networks.
This year involved a new type of planning required to meet the CLD Regulations (2013) so training and support to develop a three year CLD plan for West Dunbartonshire was on-going throughout the year with the Youth alliance and the Adult Learning Partnership. This support and training is planned to continue after it is published on 1st September 2015.
Continuous Professional Development for Staff, Volunteers and Partners
CL&D continue to support the professional development of their staff, volunteers and partners. Last year a number of staff undertook SQA Assessor and Internal Verifier training, completion of these courses will enable the service to increase our capacity to deliver more SQA modules within schools and to the wider community.
Staff from across the secondary high schools also successfully participated in Youth Achievement Award, Introduction to the Duke of Edinburgh Award and Expedition Supervisors training.
Overall because of these training initiatives the service will increase the capacity to deliver and support the wider accreditation and achievement agenda being offered to young people in West Dunbartonshire.
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Community Learning and Development would like to thank everyone who contributed to this years annual report, including: Children and young people Adult learners Volunteers Community members Part time staff Frontline workers Other Council departments Partner agencies
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Contacts
For more Information please contact us:
Working4U Customer and Community Services Aurora House 3 Aurora Avenue Clydebank G81 1BF
Tel: 01389 738775
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