Category: Case studies

New Local worked with the newly formed Westmorland and Furness Council to develop a vision, strategic approach and delivery plan to put communities at the heart of its operating model.

12th August, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Strategy and leadership

Lydia Hutchings and Beth Kilheeney explain how the Greater Manchester Better Outcomes Partnership works with young people to prevent homelessness and how the project is being evaluated.

11th July, 2024

Community Power • Homelessness • Measurement and Evaluation • Public Services • Young people

From giving residents a blank sheet to determine the council’s priorities, to making statutory consultation processes interactive and fun, Test Valley Borough Council is pushing the envelope on community engagement.

20th March, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Public Services • Strategy and leadership

As Depute Chief Executive of Scotland's East Aryshire council, Katie Kelly was a leading part of some of the most radical power sharing done by any UK council. Now as Chair of New Local, she takes a random pick...

14th March, 2024

Community Power • Leadership • Leadership Lucky Draw • Local government • Strategy and leadership

The chief executive of Ealing council takes a chance on our Leadership Lucky Draw, exploring topics from how to get things done, to why Ealing is taking a positive slant on immigration, to how to turn around a negative...

7th March, 2024

Leadership • Leadership Lucky Draw • Local government • Strategy and leadership

Jo Fitzpatrick and Jim Leyland explain how Wakefield Council had a Big Conversation with residents, training 100 ‘conversationalists’ to have over 1,300 face-to-face conversations with people across the district to find out what they like about their area and...

4th March, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

Anthony Okereke is the Leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. He took on New Local's leadership lucky draw.

29th February, 2024

Leadership • Leadership Lucky Draw • Local government • Politics • Strategy and leadership

We put Des Keighan in our hot seat to hear how Swansea Bay University Health Board has become low carbon by retrofitting buildings and turning unused land into a solar farm which powers the local hospital.

27th February, 2024

Climate change • Healthcare • Public Services

Dr Gillian Orrow is a GP and co-founder of Growing Health Together, an East Surrey initiative which helps Primary Care Networks collaborate with community members and local organisations to improve health and prevent disease. She reflects on three years...

16th January, 2024

Community Power • GPs • Health and social care • Healthcare

North Central London Integrated Care Board (ICB) recognised that some communities face barriers to accessing health and care services which plays a significant factor in widening health inequalities. They wanted to listen to those communities, understand their barriers and...

14th December, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Strategy and leadership

Five brilliant examples of what communities can achieve when money and decision-making power are in their hands.

11th December, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government

Helen Chicot from Rochdale Council introduces a three-year project which has used Good Help principles to tackle the council’s most pressing challenges, transforming the way the way it works and its relationships with residents.

24th November, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

We worked with Stockport Council and its partners to inform future neighbourhood working arrangements, particularly in relation to local area working among communities, health and social care teams.

20th October, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Strategy and leadership

Lorinda Freint from Richmond and Wandsworth Councils and Bex Trevalyan from Platform Places introduce a new process to unlock town centre buildings and explain how they got started in Wandsworth Town.

17th October, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government

Built on the power of relationships, this project brought together local residents with lived experience of poverty and key decision makers in the public, private and third sectors to identify solutions to poverty in Trafford.

13th September, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Community Voices • Interview • Local government • Poverty and inequality • Public Services

We worked with Stockport Council, Healthwatch Stockport and the People and Community Voice Sub-Group in Greater Manchester to shape proposals for how people and communities can be put at the core of the new ICS model and Locality Board...

12th September, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Integrated Health Systems • Local government • Strategy and leadership

Xia Lin from Toynbee Hall introduces a research method designed to embed resident participation in local change-making.

6th September, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Participation and co-production

Is it possible to significantly reduce health and social care waiting lists overnight? It may seem like a policymaker’s – or patient’s – pipedream. But a new innovation from physios in Sussex suggests it is.

30th August, 2023

Health and social care • Healthcare • Strengths-based approach • The NHS

The Islington Inequality Taskforce was established to develop recommendations for how Islington Council could address inequality and poverty, taking account of residents’ hopes and aspirations.

16th June, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Inequality • Local government • Strategy and leadership

Shuff Tariq and Sarah Cooke explain how Manchester delivered one of the most successful homelessness projects in the UK.

4th April, 2023

Community engagement • Council Voices • Homelessness • Poverty and inequality • Public Services

About the project New Local supported Wokingham Borough Council to shape its Programme around Community and Partnerships. This involved assessing its current position, identifying future aspirations, and shaping the tools and strategies to support a more collaborative and community-powered...

3rd April, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government

Ben Hughes from Essex County Council shares his experience of setting up the Essex Recovery Foundation and putting the community at the heart of service design.

15th February, 2023

Commissioning and Procurement • Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Public Services

Drawing on recent work in Edmonton, North London, Nicola Steuer charts an impactful and cost-effective route for Integrated Care Systems to tackle health inequalities.

17th January, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Community Voices • Health and social care • Participation and co-production

Shane Devlin shares the learnings from Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire health and care system in their new community engagement approach.

15th December, 2022

Community engagement • Health and social care

With a difficult winter looming, councils are searching for innovative ways to support their residents. In our latest ‘How We Did It’, Alison Dunn of Gateshead Council shares her experience of setting up a coordinated warm spaces project.

22nd November, 2022

Charities • Community engagement • Council Voices • Interview • Local government • Poverty and inequality • Powerful Communities

New Local has been working with Islington Borough Council’s Inequality Taskforce to launch a bold new approach to tackling inequality in one of London’s most deprived boroughs. We spoke to the taskforce members to explain their approach, and the...

18th November, 2022

Community engagement • Community Power • Inequality • Local government • Poverty and inequality

Warwickshire County Council came to New Local with a big ambition: to create a community powered county.

10th November, 2022

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Strategy and leadership

In the latest of our ‘How We Did It’ event series, Claire Vibert shares her experience of setting up and running a complex and collaborative Poverty Truth Commission in Trafford, Greater Manchester.

20th September, 2022

Community engagement • Community Voices • How to guide • Interview • Poverty and inequality

How does a council rebrand its place, building a story and narrative that helps it to thrive? We explore how it was done in York and Hackney.

19th May, 2022

Council Voices • Innovation • Local government • Narrative building

In our latest How We Did It event, we spoke to Zoe Sharratt of Gateshead Council. They've passed around 45 buildings and spaces to communities.

18th May, 2022

Asset transfer • Council Voices • Events • How to guide

Meet the UK's first Community Heath Workers, local people attached to a GP's surgery who check-in on the health of the neighbours. And who are already showing a different possible future for primary care.

25th April, 2022

Health and social care • Public Health

Interview with Waltham Forest's Laura Butterworth on lessons learnt from hosting a citizens' assembly.

28th February, 2022

Citizens Assemblies • Community engagement • Council Voices • Crime and justice • Events • Local government

What can local battles against climate change teach us about what needs to happen on the national stage?

20th October, 2021

Case study • Climate change • Community Power

Once described as the 'scrag-end' of Kingston-upon-Thames, Tolworth was less a destination, more a place to pass through or avoid completely. That was until a group of local residents decided to add a bit of colour, playfulness and plastic...

29th July, 2021

Case study • Community Power • Community Voices • Interview • Podcast • Regeneration

A quarter of the buildings on Plymouth's Union Street were standing empty until local residents decided to do something about it. Now they've taken over four - bringing hope, jobs, money and fun to an area that felt the...

2nd July, 2021

Case study • Community Power • Community Voices • Place building • Podcast

Jessica Tunks, 18 years old, shares the story of Streetbase in Waltham Forest – a project to tackle violent crime that shows the value of young people’s voices.

15th June, 2021

Community Power • Crime and justice • Young people • Youth

Mark Pepper was born and bred in Lawrence Weston, an historically neglected estate on the outskirts of Bristol. After one of the area’s last public spaces was closed, Mark and residents decided they needed to take control of the...

24th May, 2021

Case study • Community Power • Community Voices • Podcast • Regeneration

Why do we keep sending people back to the conditions that have made them ill in the first place? This question is at the core of GP Dr Mark Spencer’s radical new approach to health care in Fleetwood, Lancashire,...

13th May, 2021

Case study • Community Power • Community Voices • Health and social care • Podcast • Public Health

Jaiden, 19, is a trustee at Rekindle School - the South Manchester-based supplementary school where everything - from the curriculum, to safeguarding, to funding, will be youth-led. Before speaking at this year's Stronger Things event, Jaiden reflects on the...

1st March, 2021

Community Power • Education and skills • Stronger Things • Video • Young people

Built in the 1930s, the Grade II-listed Bryne Avenue Baths had fallen into a state of disrepair when the council made plans to knock the building down. That was until a group of local residents started a four-year battle...

10th March, 2020

Community Power • Powerful Communities

We meet Alison Haskins, who taught sewing in Lesotho before helping to revitalise a community in a diverse area of Yorkshire.

27th February, 2020

Community Power • Interview • Powerful Communities • Public Sector Voices

Get to know Hannah Sloggett who revitalised an area of Plymouth through Nudge Community Builders, starting with a street party and going on to turn an empty pub into housing for single parents.

20th February, 2020

Community Power • Interview • Public Sector Voices

Elizabeth Mitchell explains how Manchester City Council is creating a more inclusive city.

11th February, 2020

Economy and business • Inclusive Growth • Place building • Public Sector Voices