Stronger Things 2022 Agenda
Thank you for being part of Stronger Things 2022!

Videos of the event will be available soon on the New Local YouTube channel – subscribe to be notified first.
Welcome
Welcome to Stronger Things 2022.
It’s been a challenging couple of years since we last met at the Guildhall. But it has been so exciting to see how the movement for community power has grown across local government, the NHS and the wider public sector. The combination of resilience and imagination has been truly inspirational.
These two days will give you a chance to reflect on everything you’ve achieved, re-connect with people, and, of course, hear from an amazing line-up of speakers.
Thanks for being part of the movement and do feel free to get in touch for a chat – we’d love to hear your community power experiences and thoughts.
– Donna Hall, Chair, New Local and Adam Lent, Chief Executive, New Local.

Breakout Sessions
Community power: sounds great, but how do we do this? TPXimpact
Learn how to move from the ‘why’ to the ‘how’ of community power with practical tools to help your organisation review the quality of your citizen engagement, see how ready you are for change, and identify the right next steps.
This breakout is aimed at civic leaders, community champions and council officers of all experience levels. Join us to hear examples of best practice, share your obstacles and top tips, and leave with the beginnings of a new plan for engaging people.
Transforming lives by igniting community power within place-based partnerships PPL
Place-based partnerships are bringing local authorities, the NHS, the voluntary and community sector, and local people together to improve health and wellbeing.
Join this breakout for an interactive discussion with the PPL team helping develop these partnerships across the UK. We’ll discuss how the move to working at a place level can transform relationships and ways of working.
60 Minute Community Power Makeover New Local
Are you looking to grow community power in your place? Making progress but struggling to get some people on board? Looking for tips on how to grow the movement locally?
Then come along to this interactive breakout, to hear from the people across our network who are pioneering community powered approaches.
It will help you identify your main challenges, gather practical tips from those already doing it, and enable you to walk away with a simple set of actions to focus your next move – all within 60 minutes!
Making your partnerships work for empowered communities Norse
An empowered community needs a council that can adapt quickly. But this can be difficult when procurement rules, restrictive contracts and strained partnerships make change slow and expensive.
Join this breakout session to share your own challenges and explore different models and structures that may help overcome them.
Take back the high street Power to Change
How can we halt the accelerating decline on our high streets and stop our town centres descending into a scene of empty shop fronts? Could more community power be the answer?
Join Power to Change as we explore the potential of Community Improvement Districts – which work to give local people, communities and business a bigger say of local high streets, not remote investors.
Fringe Events
Tuesday 29 March
Creating a space to recharge and reconnect Hosted by Nesta People Powered Results
The People Powered Results team from Nesta are innovation specialists that apply a range of methods to support change efforts all over the UK.
Too often, we can all find it hard to create the space to slow down long enough to really reflect on what we are engaged in – whether that’s a conference, a report or day to day life.
We are inviting you to join us as we create some space for slowing down, building connections with others and reflecting on what’s driving you to do the work you do. We’ll host creative conversations in various forms to help you take stock on why you are here and set you up to get the most out of the rest of the event.
Systems change for multiple disadvantage – tinkering around the edges or the genuine power shift public management needs? Hosted by Social Finance
Many of us have grappled with the realisation that old ways of thinking about improving outcomes for those experiencing multiple disadvantage require different answers.
It’s heartening that a number of ‘experiments’ are underway to really put people at the heart of systems change, some led by central government.
What are we learning? Is real systems change going to take too long? Are we able to change whole systems and give real power to those with lived experience or are we just tweaking around the edges of the old world? What’s in our way?
Come to our interactive session and hear how people across the country are learning through doing, and whether we can put the voices of people whose lives most depend on us the most front and centre in the design of new systems.
Speakers:
- Mark Smith, Director of Public Service Reform, Gateshead Council
- Toby Lowe, Visiting Professor of Centre for Public Impact, developing an alternative paradigm for public management
- Nadine Smith, Director of Government and Enterprise, Social Finance
Is the community really in control of community power? Hosted by People’s Powerhouse
We will explore how:
- People can be involved in community power
- Your understanding of devolution of power.
- How local authorities ‘view and describe ‘communities
- How Homebaked Community Land Trust puts the community in charge of their infrastructure.
We want to hear your thoughts on community power through an informal chat during lunchtime. Kicking off the session is a new poem by our in-house poet Nathan Parker – you don’t want to miss it!
Featuring Guest Speakers:
- Edna Robinson (Chair of Big Life Group, The People’s Powerhouse and The Alternative Provider Federation)
- Ruth Hannan (Joint Head of People & Place Programme at The RSA)
- Paul Kelly and Tom Murphy (Breaking Ground, Liverpool City Region’s Community Led Housing Hub) home of Homebaked, regenerating their high street ‘brick by brick and loaf by loaf’
- Tracy Fishwick OBE (Managing Director of Transforming Lives Company, Chair of Groundwork, and Director of The People’s Powerhouse)
Wednesday 30 March
Really engaging communities Hosted by Bridges Outcomes Partnerships
Communities are crucial allies in service design and delivery – and a source of knowledge, trust, resource and expertise which many partners and stakeholders would like to leverage to its fullest extent. In this workshop-style session, we will:
- Explore varied systemic and community challenges that are occurring across different policy themes, from ecosystem fragmentation to mistrust of services among communities
- Build out a useful toolbox of real-life solutions, based on these challenges, sharing tips and case studies for reference
- Examine how a strength based, flexible, and collaborative approach which maintains accountability to people is essential to creating impactful delivery and generating better life outcomes for all involved
Tomorrow’s Citizens on the climate challenge Hosted by Browne Jacobson
The decisions we make on climate now will make or break the future of young people across the globe.
Drawing inspiration and challenge from young climate champions, we’ll explore the climate change anxieties and ambitions of young people in your communities.
With citizens of the future, we will co-produce a promise to the future with the power to deliver for future generations.
How community engagement can drive everything the council does Hosted by Citizen Lab
Collecting feedback and contributions from residents is one thing but feeding that input into local decision-making is another.
What happens once resident input is collected and how can it successfully feed back into your council’s decision-making process?
Join CitizenLab for an interactive lunch time fringe on how community engagement can drive everything the council does.
Speaker Biographies
Angela Rayner MP is Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Before her career in politics, Angela worked as a care worker for Stockport Council where she gained experience at the sharp end of public services.
Audrey Tang is Taiwan’s digital minister in charge of Social Innovation. She has gained worldwide attention for transforming how government engages with citizens & communities.
Fiona Hill is a former United States National Security Council member who became world-famous after testifying in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. She was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham. She is now a Senior Fellow at the Brookings think tank and author of There Is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century.
Danny Kruger is the MP for Devizes and co-founder of the New Social Covenant Unit. He is a former adviser to Government on civil society policy, and the founder and CEO of two charities working with prisoners and young people at risk.
Jess Phillips is a Labour Party politician who became the MP for the constituency of Birmingham Yardley at the 2015 general election.
Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz was elected the Mayor of Newham in May 2018 and is the lead member for Inclusive Economy and Housing Delivery.
Tracy Brabin was elected as the first Mayor of West Yorkshire, and the first ever woman Metro Mayor in May 2021. She was the MP for Batley and Spen from 2016 until 2021.
Will Tanner is the Director of Onward. He was previously an adviser to Prime Minister Theresa May, a Special Adviser in the Home Office and Deputy Head of Policy in 10 Downing Street.
Donna Hall CBE is Chair of Bolton NHS Trust and Chair of New Local. She was CEO of Wigan Council for 8 years and developed The Wigan Deal.
Olivia Butterworth leads NHS England and NHS Improvement’s work to ensure that the NHS works with citizens and communities to have a voice that influences the development, design and delivery of our health and care services.
Cormac Russell is Managing Director of Nurture Development and a faculty member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute, at DePaul University, Chicago.
Nazir Afzal OBE was Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England and formerly Director in London. Most recently, he was Chief Executive of the country’s Police & Crime Commissioners.
Alastair McLellan is editor of Health Service Journal (HSJ). He won a British Society of Magazine Editors ‘Editor of the Year’ award in 2021.
Judah Armani is Designer in Residence at InnovationRCA, Head of Social Impact Lab at the Royal College of Art, and founder of InHouse Records.
John Barradell is The Town Clerk and Chief Executive of the City of London Corporation.
Neelam Heera, a TEDx speaker, is the founder of Cysters – a charity dedicated to reproductive and mental wellbeing.
Charlotte Hollins manages the Fordhall Community Land Initiative which owns Fordhall Organic Farm, North Shropshire – England’s first community owned farm.
Andy Jackson leads on strategy and development for the Heeley Trust; a small community development charity in inner city Sheffield.
Inayat Omarji MBE led the restoration of All Souls church in Bolton into a community centre. He is a trustee of the Bolton Community Leisure Trust and the Churches Conservation Trust.
Nick Sinclair is the Director of the Local Area Coordination Network at Community Catalysts CIC. He works with local authorities and their partners to develop and grow the innovative approach of ‘Local Area Coordination’ across England and Wales.
Hazel Stuteley is Director of Connecting Communities programme. She has worked as nurse, Health Visitor and Health Inequalities practitioner within very low-income communities for over 50 years.
Adam Lent is the Chief Executive of New Local. His previous roles include Director of the RSA Action and Research Centre and Head of Economics and Social Affairs at the TUC.
Jessica Studdert is Deputy Chief Executive of New Local. She leads New Local’s research programme and contributes strategic oversight of the organisation.
Thank you for joining us at Stronger Things 2022 – we hope to see you again next year!
