The ESB Criteria and the new guides that ESB have produced are based on material from the 2015 UK CD NOS, the 2023 UK CD NOS, the IACD international Standards for Community Development and the UN sustainability goals. The aim is to use the material that has been generated internationally as well as nationally to create criteria that are relevant and up to date for all people undertaking community development practice in England. Community development is an academic discipline, an occupation and a way of working within communities; the aim to provide guidance for all these practitioners of community development. These include people paid as community development practitioners, activists and people who take a community development approach to their work or community activity – for example people engaged in youth work, faith related practice, health and well-being.
