Our organisation and purpose
New Local is a think tank and network working to transform public services and unlock community power.
We publish research, lead peer learning within our network of 50-plus local authorities, influence government and work directly with public sector organisations. We support local practice and make connections with national policy, catalysing innovation and new ways of working in the context of rising demand, constrained funding and declining trust.
At the heart of our work is ‘community power’ – the principle that communities themselves have strong insights into their own circumstances and should be able to participate in shaping the places they live in and the services they use. We believe that active, empowered communities should be at the heart of a wider shift towards place-based public services and a system focused on prevention, which can lead to better outcomes and a more sustainable system for all.
Working with us
New Local currently has a team of 15 staff. New Local operates a ‘work anywhere’ policy but provides office space in London for those who require it.
We make every effort to live up to our four core values of being purposeful (i.e. focused on community power), adventurous, supportive towards colleagues and partners, and delivering excellence.
We offer a variety of benefits listed in the job description and a minimum of 27 days’ holiday a year and ten days holiday over Christmas/New Year.
Wellbeing: New Local is committed to staff wellbeing. Working long and late hours is actively discouraged and all staff at New Local are committed to creating a pleasant, friendly and supportive environment in which to work.
Diversity: New Local is committed to being an equal opportunities employer. We don’t just ‘value diversity’, we think it is central to what makes for a high impact, successful organisation. We positively encourage everyone to apply. In order to monitor equal opportunities, we ask that the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form below is completed (this is entirely at the applicant’s discretion). The collecting of this data is part of our diversity strategy, to understand how we can improve equal opportunities for external applicants to New Local. All information gathered will be anonymised and then destroyed after 6 months, after which only aggregate data will be held. Information collected for monitoring purposes will be treated as confidential and will not be used for any other purpose.
Vacancies (NOW CLOSED FOR APPLICATIONS)
Director of Partnerships and Engagement
Job details
Contract: Full-time, permanent
Salary: £80,000
Location: New Local operates a ‘work anywhere’ policy but provides office space in London for those who require it. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK and be resident in the UK.
Deadline for applications: 9am, 14 April 2025 (NOW CLOSED)
The role
We are seeking a Director of Partnerships and Engagement at an exciting point in New Local’s organisational journey. With our Chief Executive recently appointed in post and a refreshed strategy, this new role has been created to play a core part of our leadership team of four, helping take our impact to the next level.
The purpose of the role is:
- To build and oversee strong partnerships which further the reach and impact of New Local’s network of local authorities, annual partners and events programme.
- To oversee a vibrant and growing membership network of local authorities, developing new network partnerships, offers and opportunities that support public service innovation and community power practice.
- To lead New Local’s external engagement and external affairs, including overseeing our communications and playing a key ambassadorial role leading our stakeholder relationships.
- To be an active part of our leadership team of four, collaborating closely with the Chief Executive and leadership team colleagues to deliver our strategic objectives and line-managing three posts: Head of Network; Head of Events and Head of Communications.
As Director of Partnerships and Engagement, you will oversee and ensure the impact of our membership network, events programme and communications activity. This will involve developing our partnerships with a range of stakeholders across our network of innovative councils and annual partners, including with the public, private and charitable sectors.
Overseeing our partnerships, you will play a key role in ensuring the activity and reach of our membership network is responsive to the challenges facing local government, creating new opportunities for insight and practical routes to innovation and impact. Taking an entrepreneurial approach, you will be proactive in seeking to generate revenue and support our network model to evolve and expand across public sector partners with an appetite to drive change.
Leading our external engagement, you will take a strategic approach to building our profile and reach as an organisation dedicated to community power and public service innovation. Our unique range of activity across our events, communications, network, practice and policy research informs our role bridging practical routes to change and advocacy of a paradigm shift towards community-led, place-based reform. Leading the strategic direction of our events and communications functions in addition to our network, you will spot opportunities for new ways to profile ideas and inspiration for those leading reform in practice.
As part of our leadership team, you will also play a core leadership role across the organisation and alongside the Chief Executive, including contributing to the development and delivery of our strategy; sharing accountability for our financial and cultural good health; and ensuring our team thrives.
Our team is inclusive and collaborative – we make every effort to live up to our four core values of being purposeful, adventurous, supportive towards colleagues and partners, and delivering excellence. Your leadership will support us to ensure these values are embedded in everything we do, from working with each other, to working with our diverse and inspiring range of partners and stakeholders.
Your job will include:
- Partnership building: overseeing and developing our vibrant membership network of local authorities, annual partners and establishing impactful partnerships with external stakeholders.
- Business development: leading on the vision-aligned business development strategy for our network and events programmes, developing activity that supports public service innovation and community power practice, ensuring high quality delivery and securing income.
- Engagement and external affairs: leading on our engagement and external affairs strategy, building our profile across public service practitioner and policy audiences to ensure our activity is relevant and inspiring.
- Effective line management: supporting and coaching our Head of Networks, Head of Events, and Head of Communications to ensure creative, effective delivery and high impact in these areas.
- Cultural leadership: actively working with the senior leadership team to model and promote a positive management culture throughout New Local that empowers staff whilst being focused on our core values: being purposeful, adventurous, supportive and delivering excellence.
- And more… As part of a small, friendly and informal organisation you’ll have the opportunity to participate in other activities and support the wider development and delivery of New Local’s vision and strategy.
Please refer to the Job Description for full details about the role and person specification.
Director of Practice and Programmes
Job details
Contract: Full-time, permanent
Salary: £80,000
Location: New Local operates a ‘work anywhere’ policy but provides office space in London for those who require it. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK and be resident in the UK.
Deadline for applications: 9am, 14 April 2025 (NOW CLOSED)
The role
We are seeking a Director of Practice and Programmes at an exciting point in New Local’s organisational journey. With our Chief Executive recently appointed in post and a refreshed strategy, this new role has been created to play a core part of our leadership team of four, helping take our impact to the next level.
The purpose of the role is:
- To build and oversee the high quality and impactful delivery of New Local’s practice consultancy with councils and other public sector organisations.
- To build and oversee our wider programme of funded and innovative research, policy and practical projects with a range of commissioning organisations across the public, private and charitable foundation sectors.
- To be an active part of our leadership team of four, collaborating closely with the Chief Executive and leadership team colleagues to deliver our strategic objectives and leading the Practice and Programmes team with up to three direct reports.
As Director of Practice and Programmes, you will oversee and ensure the impact of our consultancy and practical research and policy projects. In recent years, New Local’s direct work with councils, NHS organisations, and other bodies to turn the principle of community power into reality and address related strategic, locality and leadership priorities has grown considerably.
We also have a thriving programme of project work which has been commissioned by or developed with a range of partner organisations, including grant funders, trusts and public sector bodies themselves. These range from commissioned research and policy projects to long term, practice-led learning partnerships, using our range of skills and insights as an organisation to support those leading change and impact across organisations and with communities.
You will lead a strategic approach to our practice and programmes to further develop our work, our team and our impact. The role requires a commitment to applying a highly entrepreneurial mindset with a strong social purpose focused heavily on generating impact and positive, sustainable change. There is no one size fits all for our practice and project work – we work in a highly values-led way tailoring our activity closely to different organisational circumstances and with a strong view towards sustainability and their ownership and leadership of change. We use a variety of methods across a multi-functional delivery team – in all cases, we use our expertise to draw out the inherent insights and experience of our partners and use that to develop highly practical and focussed recommendations.
As part of our leadership team, you will also play a core leadership role across the organisation and alongside the Chief Executive, including contributing to the development and delivery of our strategy; sharing accountability for our financial and cultural good health; and ensuring our team thrives. Our team is inclusive and collaborative – we make every effort to live up to our four core values of being purposeful, adventurous, supportive towards colleagues and partners, and delivering excellence. Your leadership will support us to ensure these values are embedded in everything we do, from working with each other, to working with our diverse and inspiring range of partners and stakeholders.
Your job will include:
- Strategic leadership: actively shaping the direction of our consultancy and practical research and policy projects to ensure high quality and impactful outputs are funded and delivered to various audiences.
- Business development: developing and implementing strategies to enhance and further our practice and consultancy project work.
- Effective line management: supporting and coaching a Practice and Programmes team with diverse skills and expertise.
- Partnership working: building and maintaining effective relationships with both external and internal stakeholders.
- Cultural leadership: actively working with the senior leadership team to model and promote a positive management culture throughout New Local that empowers staff whilst being focused on our core values: being purposeful, adventurous, supportive and delivering excellence.
- And more… As part of a small, friendly and informal organisation you’ll have the opportunity to participate in other activities and support the wider development and delivery of New Local’s vision and strategy.
Please refer to the Job Description for full details about the role and person specification.
More information
To find out more about our current team, go here.