How do we measure what we do?
How to measure the long term impact of CLD has been the focus of significant debate over many years within the sector and between the sector and funders. The sector is currently moving from an output driven model to one focused on outcomes measuring the difference that is made as a result of the work, eg to a young person’s confidence or to a community organisation influencing an issue.
Possible outcomes of effective CLD activity are set out in the joint statement (PDF, 80Kb)from the Scottish Government and CoSLA published in November 2008. It identifies the key outcomes in relation to current national policy priorities:
- [CLD] can support young people to become confident individuals, effective contributors, responsible citizens and successful learners.
- It can offer routes into and through lifelong learning in communities, enabling the development of skills (including, for example, literacy and numeracy) that people can use in employment, their community, further learning or as parents and family members to support their children in their important early years.
- By building community capacity it can contribute to community empowerment through people working together to achieve lasting change in their communities, for example by further strengthening and improving local public services."
Delivering Change provides further reading on what is meant by outcomes in CLD.
The following summary reports provide an insight into the challenges facing various parts of CLD in moving from an output driven approach to one that focuses on outcomes:
The establishment of the National Performance Framework and the Concordat (PDF, 201Kb) between Scottish Government and local authorities is viewed as positive for CLD in terms of being able to identify and set strategic local outcomes that link more clearly into national and local policy priorities.
