About Care and Learning Alliance

We offer a one-door approach to a broad range of Childhood Practice and Family Support services. We are the largest childcare and family membership organisation offering universal services in the Highland and Moray areas. We also have members in other parts of Scotland.

Positive childhoods        Empowered parents       Dynamic communities

History

Our work began forty years ago, in 1972, as part of the Highland branch of the Scottish Pre School Play Association. In February 1997, we became a more independently structured company and Highland Pre-school Services was born. HPS developed and grew, embracing work that included children aged 5 to 16 years of age, resulting in the need to change to our current name of Care and Learning Alliance, in November 2006.

Some staff have given a life-long commitment to the company and change management has been a key part of our strategic role, as families’ needs evolve and change over time. We work closely with Highland Council and colleagues from other local authorities to employ, support and train staff working with children and families. This joint work fuels the drive to ensure we are ‘getting it right’ for every child and their family.

Ably led by an experienced and knowledgeable board of directors and senior management team, CALA strives to achieve consistently high standards in all aspects of our work. Rigorous monitoring and evaluation is part of the core activity of CALA. We continue to implement and make use of national frameworks such as the SSSC’s Continuous Learning Framework and Step into Leadership strategies, as well as HMIE’s Improving: Services for Children, to support our teams and projects.