Who does it?

Each local authority area in Scotland has formed a CLD partnership comprising all organisations who have an interest in offering or supporting CLD work.

All Scottish local authorities provide community learning and development support, increasingly targeted at the more disadvantaged communities.

The CLD workforce survey for 2008 showed there were 4,968 paid staff working in the public sector, 2,500 of whom worked more than 10 hours per week. A further 3,199 volunteers were employed in public sector CLD activity (Data source: LLUK CLD Workforce Survey 2008).

Local authority services have become more diverse in recent years and have adopted a range of service titles such as Community Services, Community Learning and Development, Community and Leisure Services.

The voluntary sector is also a significant provider of community learning and development services, most particularly in the area of work with young people. There are 45,000 voluntary organisations in Scotland involving up to 130,000 paid staff and over 1.2 million volunteers (Source SCVO). Many of these paid staff and volunteers are delivering CLD-related activity. Voluntary organisations receive funding from the Scottish Government, local authorities and national/ international funders such as the National Lottery.

Further and Higher Education institutions, together with health education/ promotion agencies and local skills development services have become active partners in the development of Community Learning and Development Strategies and Plans and are increasingly supporting outreach community learning and development approaches.

More information on local contacts and networks within CLD can be found at this website.

A list of CLD's main national partners organisations can be found on the Key National Stakeholders page.