Category: Case studies

Kirsty Wilkinson from Durham County Council explores the journey the County Durham Together Partnership has been on

27th August, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Partnerships

Across local government, there is growing interest in working at the neighbourhood scale as a way of delivering more relational, preventative and community-powered public services. In recent months, we’ve been […]

24th August, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Neighbourhood Working • Neighbourhoods • Neighbourhoods in Practice

29th July, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Neighbourhood Working • Neighbourhoods in Practice • Public Services

In this guest blog, Malvern Hills District Council shares how a growing network of local venues is helping shift wellbeing support from a distant, reactive service into something rooted in […]

14th July, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Neighbourhood Health

Across local government, there is growing interest in neighbourhood working as a way of delivering more relational, preventative and community-powered public services. Over the coming months, we will be sharing how councils in our network, […]

22nd June, 2026

Community Power • Local government • Neighbourhood Working • Neighbourhoods in Practice • Public Services

Describe your typical working day in 2-3 sentences. No two days are quite the same, but each typically involves strategic thinking, problem-solving, and translating complex policy into something actionable. The most […]

5th June, 2026

Community Power • What We Do

Petra Roberts and Emma Winch from Hackney Council discussing their work around embedding community services within libraries in the Borough

1st June, 2026

Community Power • Libraries • Trust

Noel Hatch from Adur and Worthing Councils discussing their work around rebuilding trust and connection within their communities.

12th May, 2026

Community Cohesion • Community engagement • Community Power

Claire Norman from Westmorland and Furness Council discussing their strategy ‘Together we are powered by communities’.

5th February, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Participation and co-production • Strategy

Andre Johnsen on the applied training Change Maker programme developed by Westminster City Council

5th January, 2026

Community engagement • Participation and co-production • Strategy and leadership • Westminster

Liz Jarmin on Leeds City Council’s locality work in wards across the city of Leeds

14th November, 2025

Community engagement • Community Voices • Leeds • Neighbourhood • Place

Nicol McConnell on Sunderland City Council’s work towards making Sunderland a fully digitally inclusive city.

2nd July, 2025

Community engagement • Community Voices • Digital • Sunderland City Council

Emma Bull, Local Partnerships and Emily Bolton, Cambridgeshire County Council give insight into best practices for embedding climate resilience across council operations

23rd June, 2025

Cambridgeshire County Council • Climate change • Local Partnerships • Net Zero • Strategy and leadership

Laura Billings tells us how TPXimpact developed community power standards with Manchester City Council.

15th May, 2025

Community Power • Manchester City Council • Strategy and leadership • TPXimpact

Steve Grimshaw explains how Kent County Council brought more than 8,000 empty properties back into use over 20 years through its No Use Empty project.

19th March, 2025

Economy and business • Housing • Local government

Graham Beamish and Marie Pye explain how Suffolk and Norfolk County Councils have saved 1000 years’ worth of care days for children and young people.

17th February, 2025

Childrens' Services • Local government • Partnerships • Prevention • Public Services

Caroline Wilson, Director of Inclusive Economy and Jobs at Islington Borough Council, explains how the council’s approach to community wealth building has emerged and deepened, how it’s helping to tackle inequalities, and how it touches the lives of people...

11th November, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Economy and business • Local government

In North Birkenhead a unique programme is joining up services and putting community priorities at the heart of decision making, creating impact that could be a model for national policy change.

7th November, 2024

Community Power • Local government • Public Services • Social Care • Total Place

New Local worked with partners in Yorkshire and Cumbria to develop a learning programme that puts communities at the heart of health and care.

5th November, 2024

Community Power • Health and social care

We put Hal Khanom in our ‘How We Did It’ hot seat to hear how the London Borough of Barnet has developed its equalities strategy, A Fairer Barnet.

17th October, 2024

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

About the Project Calderdale Council and the Calderdale Inclusive Economy Board worked with New Local to refresh their inclusive economy strategy. The overarching aim of the strategy is that by […]

25th September, 2024

Community Power • Inclusive Economy • Inclusive Growth • Strategy and leadership

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 […]

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