Mentoring 

For more information on the Planning Mentoring Scheme please email Rob, our Mentoring Co-ordinator, or call him on 0131 220 9739.

Planning Mentoring Scheme

The Planning Mentoring Scheme is a new programme, funded by the Big Lottery Fund and Supporting Voluntary Action (SVA), linking Planning Aid for Scotland (PAS) with CVS organisations and third sector "Interfaces". This will provide planning advice and guidance to community led development projects across rural Scotland.

Key to the Planning Mentoring Scheme is the PAS role in helping empower people in an independent and impartial way. The scheme has been designed to guide and provide technical expertise to community led projects across rural Scotland at different stages of their development. The PAS network of volunteers will provide guidance and advice, demonstrating a positive side of planning that allows communities to shape their own neighbourhoods.

The programme will provide for sustained collaborative working by all stakeholders to facilitate active engagement by CVSs in the planning system. It will assist in developing projects that are put forward by community groups and CVSs, and owned by them, to enhance their asset base and leave transferable skills in communities.

The scheme will contribute to the emerging agenda of supporting sustainable economic growth, ensuring that the planning system has an enabling role. It will demonstrate how the Interface organisations and others can harness their creativity to create sustainable and lasting legacies in their communities.

The Planning Mentoring Scheme has four key aims:

a) demonstrate how community groups and CVSs can participate in shaping their environment and achieve positive outcomes by working closely with PAS over a longer period of time.

b) provide an opportunity for planning professionals to increase awareness and understanding of how to best engage with CVSs.

c) help community groups and CVSs to enhance and deepen their understanding of how to work positively with the planning system and deliver their objectives.

d) link planning mentors with community groups and CVSs to build capacities and share knowledge across Scotland.

As we move forward towards cultural change in a modernised planning system this scheme will make a significant contribution.

How we can work together

PAS would like to develop more mentoring schemes and make links with other networks. If you would find it useful to have advice and support on how to engage or work with the planning system and are perhaps involved in managing such programmes or networks then please let us know. Or perhaps you think that our mentoring project could be useful in the context of another one of your own programmes.

The PAS Mentoring scheme is funded by the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland, through the Supporting Voluntary Action Programme, being administered by SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations).