“Any chief executive wanting to connect their team with the big, new and exciting trends in local government and public services should make engaging with New Local their priority."
Robin Tuddenham, Chief Executive, Calderdale Council
"May I take this opportunity to say thank you for another fantastic year of New Local membership. Not quite the year we all planned but you have topped up my resilience and kept me ambitious and optimistic through many challenging months.”
Amanda Askham, Head of Transformation, Cambridgeshire County Council
Nick Kimber, Camden Council "Community Power has the potential to revolutionise how local government works and improve citizens’ lives. That’s why we’re excited to join New Local. Our membership will be an incredibly valuable catalyst for the work we need to do."
Nick Kimber, Director of Corporate Strategy and Policy Design, Camden Council
The cause
We are unique in being a research organisation, a practical consultancy and home to a thriving network of 50+ councils and other organisations.
At the heart of our work is ‘community power’ – the belief that people should be given the means to transform the places they live and the services they use. We believe this is key to creating stronger public services, and to creating a better society for all.
New Local is an independent think tank and network with a mission to transform public services and unlock community power.
Working with us
New Local was founded in 1996 as New Local Government Network. Today, we’re a close team of around 15.
We are passionate about our team’s happiness and wellbeing, and want New Local to be the best place to work possible.
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.
In addition to the advertised salary, we offer:
- A minimum of 27 days’ holiday a year and ten days holiday over Christmas/New Year
- Highly flexible working and work location arrangements
- Regular training opportunities
- A number of other benefits listed in the job description.
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 job applicants complete an Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form. 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 for equal opportunities monitoring is anonymous 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.
Current Vacancies
Chief Executive
New Local is seeking a Chief Executive to lead its work to make community power the dominant idea shaping policy and practice at national and local level.
- Location: Flexible within the UK
- Salary: £110,000 with the possibility of higher pay for an exceptional candidate
- Closing date: 9 a.m. Monday 30th September
New Local is working with external recruitment specialist Peridot on this appointment. Visit them here for detailed information about the role and how to apply.
About the role
As Chief Executive, you will be the lynchpin for the strategic impact of New Local. While there will be multiple calls on your time and many eventualities demanding your attention, your overriding purpose is to achieve a single goal: to make community power the dominant idea shaping policy and practice at national and local level. This means motivating the New Local team, inspiring our membership network, and convincing decision-makers at local and national level. It requires imagination, dedication and persistence. But, most of all, it demands the ability to spot opportunities to drive change and taking the right steps to turn those opportunities into reality. A key role of the new CEO will be working with the team to devise a new organisational strategy.
Who we are looking for
As Chief Executive of New Local you will be a passionate and knowledgeable champion of our vision, convincing the most senior national policy-makers and local public sector leaders, as well as people delivering services on the frontline, that community power is the way forward. Our small team has put community power on the agenda by combining passion for the cause with an extremely imaginative approach to our research, events, communications, influencing and practice work. That team now needs a leader who can display the same enthusiasm and imagination in taking our work to even higher levels of impact.
You will have the experience and understanding to do all the standard things it takes to keep a small team and business financially and operationally sustainable – you will, for example, be excellent at generating revenues. But you will be much more than that. You will also be a leader who places a premium on enabling and empowering your colleagues to do their best rather than micro-managing. You will know how to build collaboration and consensus in an organisation without losing its talent for adventurous innovation and focus. You’ll extend this approach to our wider network, building trust and credibility with the most senior and innovative public sector leaders in the country.
And you will come ready to lead conversations with the Board, leadership team and wider team about New Local’s future strategy and then implement it. The interest in community power at national and local level is higher than it has ever been, so the opportunity for impact is great. But it is also a highly challenging time for local government and the public sector. New Local needs a leader who can develop a new strategy that allows us to seize those great opportunities while helping our public sector partners navigate the very big challenges they face.
More information
To find out more about our current team, go here.