Final closure of England’s national support infrastructure for Community Development

The closure of the Federation for Community Development Learning earlier this year, continues the collapse of national support agencies for community development in England. In 2016 the national institute for  community development, the Community Development Foundation, followed the closure of the Association of Community Workers, the Community Development Exchange and the Sector Skills Council, which oversaw the setting of occupational standards for the field. The FCDL website will continue until November 2017 and we provide  links below to some of their material.

These closures are in marked contrast to the infrastructure that remains north of the border in Scotland, where the field has worked together to ensure the continued and expanding work of the Scottish Community Development Centre, Community Development Alliance Scotland, the Scottish Community Development Network and the Community Learning and Development Standards Council.

If we are to look to the significant difference north and south of Hadrian’s Wall, it is that in Scotland the cross party support for community development continues with continued funding from successive Scottish Governments by way of core grant support and/or contracts.  In England the ending of government  funding by the post 2010 Conservative and Liberal Governments has seen the one by one closure of the support bodies for community development. Another contrast with Scotland, has been the continued pro-active roles that local authorities have played in funding community development type posts, albeit there too there have been fiscal constraints and post cuts. Nonetheless in Scotland there is a critical mass of practitioners, community development employers, policy advisers and agencies still committed to retain a strong set of national support agencies. In England, although overall there are more community development type practitioners they have failed to maintain the infrastructure that had developed over a period of nearly five decades.

The Association of Community Workers, set up in England was of the first national membership associations around the world.  The hard work to set up ACW, the Standing Conference for Community Development (later called the Community Development Exchange, not to be confused with IACD/ACDA Global Community Development Exchange), the Federation of Community Work Training Groups (later renamed the Federation of Community Development Learning; PAULO the Standards body (later part of the Sector Skills Council): the Community Development Foundation between 1968 and 1998 has in just a handful of years been unravelled, leaving no national support for England.

Last year IACD’s President, attended a national conference in Birmingham, England attended by well over 100 community developers and which amongst other things called for the re-establishment of some national network. Whilst the energy was there, sadly this call to arms has not been realised. And the legacy money left over after the closure of the Community Development Foundation has focussed upon funding research rather than practical network support for practitioners. We look with interest at the publication of that research.

All in all what has happened in England is not unique. Networks and agencies come and go. But the collapse of England’s support infrastructure can only be seen as a huge loss.