Opinion and Debate

We post our series of policy briefings and discussion papers on current issues and debates in community development on this section of the website. New material will be posted each month and subscribers to our mailing list will receive email updates on this.

Recent postings

**NEW** - Community Empowerment in Action: Making it happen, making it work (April 2012).  This briefing draws on SCDC experience of work with communities across Scotland over the past ten years to highlight the importance of work to help strengthen the effectiveness of community groups and organisations and to to show how community capacity building work links with current policy agendas.

**NEW**  - SCDC Response to the Development of Refreshed Strategic Guidance on CLD (March 2012). This paper sets SCDC's response to the consultation on the development of refreshed strategic guidance for Community Learningand Development (CLD) March 2012. It responds directly to the questions set out in theconsultation survey.

SCDC Consultation response 2011 / 10 - SCDC submission to Local Government and Regeneration Committee on the Spending Review 2011 and Draft Budget 2012-13. In our submission we make the case that, in its taking forward of the Christie Commission recommendations, the Scottish Government should prioritise Scotland's most disadvantaged communities and support capacity building and other community development approaches in these communities.

SCDC Consultation response 2011 / 06 - SCDC Response to the Scottish Government Regeneration Discussion Paper. The SCDC is pleased to have the opportunity to respond to Building A Sustainable Future: Regeneration Discussion Paper. In particular, the SCDC welcomes the focus on community led regeneration contained in the discussion paper and the increase in emphasis of the inclusion of communities themselves in building a stronger, more equal and more sustainable Scotland.

SCDC Briefing Paper 2011 / 06 - Commitments to community development made by the newly re-elected SNP Government in its 2011 election manifesto. The 2011 Scottish Parliament Elections saw a sea change in the Scottish political landscape with a majority Scottish National Party administration being elected for the first time. Based on the 2011 SNP election manifesto, we investigate what this might mean for community development, community-led health and regeneration and community engagement in Scotland. 

SCDC Discussion Paper 2011 / 01 - ‘Delivering sustainable outcomes with less money' looks at the likely impact of public expenditure cuts on local communities and presents the case for reconfiguring the relationship between communities and public services through co-production and community capacity building.

SCDC Discussion paper 2011 / 02 - 'Community Development and Co-production - issues for policy and practice' looks at a concept which has emerged in recent years as an innovative and valuable approach to the provision and development of public services.

SCDC Policy Briefing 2011 / 01 - ‘Making the most of our communities: Using an asset model to tackle poverty and improve health' provides a summary of the Scottish Government discussion paper on tackling child poverty and the Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer, referring particularly to the asset model of change evident in both reports. Also available is 'Assets in Action', a related case study of the asset-based approach in practice.

The Community Development Foundation has just published a discussion paper on the potential for sharing information and ideas across the administrations in Britain and Ireland. The paper was prepared by SCDC. Comments and responses are welcome and should be sent to Andrew Paterson at SCDC (andrew@scdc.org.uk)