Tag: Community engagement

Hearing about the Connected Communities vision at Ealing Council

28th January, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Place

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

Join New Local for this session, especially designed for local government communications professionals. This is your chance to meet peers across different organisations, share insights and compare challenges. During this […]

5th December, 2025

Communications • Community engagement • Trusted Messengers

Strong, trusting relationships between councillors and officers are essential for delivering a community-powered approach that truly reflects local priorities. In this Spotlight session, we’ll hear practical examples from Sheffield and […]

5th December, 2025

Community engagement • Councillors

Join us for an inspiring, interactive session in partnership with Go Vocal, where we will focus on the role of councils in understanding and helping to build shared outcomes and […]

5th December, 2025

Community engagement • Deliberation

Hearing about the Together we are powered by communities strategy at Westmorland and Furness Council

2nd December, 2025

Community engagement • Partnerships • Place

With rising pressure on services, growing inequality, and communities feeling more divided, councils are looking for practical ways to rebuild trust and connection. This session explores how cohesion grows when […]

1st December, 2025

Community Cohesion • Community engagement • Place shaping

Hearing about the Change Maker programme at Westminster City Council

18th November, 2025

Community engagement • Participation and co-production

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

Join us for this member exclusive Lunch and Learn session focused on how different councils are working in neighbourhood focused ways. We’ve spent the last few months working with member […]

24th October, 2025

Community engagement • Neighbourhood • Place

Building trust and lasting relationships between councils and communities across a place starts with genuine engagement—bringing staff and local stakeholders together to listen, learn, and co-produce solutions is a vital […]

16th September, 2025

Community engagement • Participation and co-production

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

This member-exclusive Innovation Explored focuses on how place shaping could look for your council and the benefits of this way of working both for colleagues and for communities.

24th June, 2025

Community engagement • Place building • Place shaping • Regeneration

At this event we will talk through our latest research report, Where People Meet: How We Celebrate, Sustain and Reimagine Community Centres. Following the launch of the report, we would like […]

8th May, 2025

Community assets • Community centres • Community engagement

Community centres have long stood as pillars of local life, but we are losing these spaces at pace and at scale. Summer Simpson explores why this matters.

7th May, 2025

Community assets • Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care

This report sets out the vital role that community centres play in local areas and makes the case for investing in their future.

7th May, 2025

Community assets • Community centres • Community engagement • Community Power • Local government

This member-exclusive Innovation Explored explores how bringing systems leaders together connects services and improves outcomes for residents.

29th April, 2025

Community Cohesion • Community engagement

Alice Black, Sophie Taylor and Sue Sheehan explain how the London Borough of Camden is embracing neighbourhood ways of working.

22nd April, 2025

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

Bridging the digital divide is essential for local authorities striving to create inclusive and thriving communities.

18th March, 2025

Community engagement • Digital

Join us for this member exclusive Lunch and Learn session focused on how to impactfully use participatory budgeting to engage with your communities. We’ve spent the last few months […]

12th March, 2025

Community engagement • Impact • Participatory Budgeting

Tackling empty homes in the UK is a critical step toward addressing the housing crisis and revitalizing communities.

27th February, 2025

Community engagement • Housing • Regeneration

This member-exclusive Innovation Explored explores building community cohesion to help communities and places thrive.

28th January, 2025

Community Cohesion • Community engagement

How do we tell better stories? Use data intelligently? Connect with diverse communities? Counter misinformation? Community-powered councils require a different kind of communications. Join New Local for our first workshop […]

6th December, 2024

Communications • Community engagement

Neighbourhood ways of working are being considered by many councils as a way to bring them closer to their communities.

4th December, 2024

Community engagement • Neighbourhood

This member-exclusive Innovation Explored explores explores different approaches of democratic working that local authorities have used and see the impact it has had on their relationships with their communities

28th November, 2024

Community engagement • Democratic engagement

At this event we will talk through our latest research report, Constructing Consensus: The case for community-powered development and regeneration. Unblocking the planning system is a top national priority, and […]

22nd November, 2024

Community engagement • Planning • Regeneration

Bridging the digital divide is essential for local authorities striving to create inclusive and thriving communities. Addressing digital literacy challenges empowers individuals to better access opportunities and engage with local […]

11th November, 2024

Community engagement • Digital

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

At this event we will talk through our latest research report, Constructing Consensus: The case for community-powered development and regeneration. Following the launch of the report, we would like to […]

7th November, 2024

Community engagement • Planning • Regeneration

This member-exclusive Innovation Explored explores long term investment in prevention and working in different ways in partnership across local systems of public services and voluntary sector organisations

25th October, 2024

Community engagement • Prevention

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

Working towards a fairer share of wealth across a locality helps bind communities together and gives the impetus to help drive forward the local economy.

15th October, 2024

Community engagement • Community-led • wealth building

Creating a strategy that is shaped by frontline services as well as those accessing them is vital for local authorities.

17th September, 2024

Community engagement • Equality • Public Services

This member-exclusive Innovation Explored explores community-powered methods to put residents at the heart of budgeting decisions and how to shift to more open dialogue about what stretched finances mean for services.

13th September, 2024

Budgeting • Community engagement • Local government • Strategy and leadership

By listening to and valuing the insights of communities, the public sector can build better services, improve outcomes and use limited resources more wisely. But what are the essential ingredients for effective collaboration? And how can you overcome barriers...

14th August, 2024

Collaboration • Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Public Services • Wellbeing

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

Kath O'Dwyer has spent the last 40 years making her mark in public service, most lately as the chief executive of St Helens Council. Picking questions at random, she talks life outside work, inspirational quotes, and why she's a...

22nd July, 2024

Community engagement • Leadership • Leadership Lucky Draw • Local government • Northern England • Strategy and leadership

Tackling inequalities within communities is a vital issue for all local authorities. But often equalities strategies do not deliver for residents in a way that they expect or need. How […]

22nd July, 2024

Community engagement • Equality • Public Services

Sometimes even the most well-meaning idea can be turned into a source of polarisation and anger. How can deliberative and consensus-building approaches be used to take the heat out of public discourse? Five changemakers share their insights.

22nd July, 2024

Community Cohesion • Community engagement • Community Power • Stronger Things 2024

Councils have long aspired to engage residents in hyper-local decisions and collaboration through local democratic structures like Area Forums. There are great examples out there, but amidst a huge trust […]

18th July, 2024

Community engagement • Democratic engagement

Maximising and building a strong local economy is essential to help communities thrive. Councils can use economic levers and work with their communities, anchor institutions and businesses to help drive forward […]

18th July, 2024

Community engagement • Community-led • wealth building

Real-time data is a powerful tool for councils. Throughout the life cycle of a project, data can show what works and what doesn’t, leading to better decision making and improved outcomes.

10th July, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power

For many councils, area forums are at the heart of democratic engagement. But despite nobel intentions, some have drifted away from their purpose. How do we reimagine them?

1st July, 2024

Area Forums • Community engagement • Devolution and reorganisation • Practice work • Strategy and leadership

This member-exclusive Innovation Explored explores the importance of collaboration with communities in planning and development

25th June, 2024

Community engagement • Planning • Regeneration

Our latest research project has focused on exploring Community powered regeneration. The project is in partnership with Browne Jacobson and Local Partnerships. We have been exploring how the current approach […]

11th June, 2024

Community engagement • Planning • Regeneration