Role Description

Over recent years, Local Trust has contributed to a transformation in practice and thinking about how local people can be supported to transform their own communities, creating better places to live.  Its radical Big Local programme, which puts resources and power directly in the hands of local people, is the subject of growing interest.  At the same time the increased awareness of the challenges of “left behind” areas, levelling up and shared prosperity, the future role of civil society, and place-based funding, puts Local Trust at the centre of a number of important national debates.

Local Trust is looking to recruit a number of trustees to join a strong existing Board to contribute to the work of the Board as we seek to maximise our impact at the current time, whilst planning for the future.  We’re looking in particular for candidates with a deep understanding of the strategic and political context within which Big Local is being delivered and relevant networks, capable of maximising the impact of the learning being generated by our work with opinion formers, policy makers and funders.

We are committed to ensuring that our work benefits from, and is informed by, the widest possible range of skills, experience and insight, reflecting the wide diversity of communities we work with and support across the country.   We therefore welcome applications from candidates with a diverse range of backgrounds, experiences and geographical locations and from candidates with a direct understanding of the challenges of working with or in communities facing significant social and economic change.

Background

Local Trust is the agency responsible for the delivery of Big Local, the most radical and innovative grant programme ever launched by a major UK Lottery funder. Between 2010-12, the National Lottery Community Fund identified 150 areas across England that had historically ‘missed out’ on lottery and other funding.  Each area was allocated £1m of Big Local funds, which could be spent in any way the community wished, provided local residents organised themselves to plan and manage that expenditure, involving the wider community in that decision-making process.  Local Trust was established in 2012 to manage the Big Local programme and support local areas in achieving their ambitions.

By design, the programme is bottom-up and community led; there are no top-down targets or centrally-imposed delivery models. The rules, constraints and priorities that define Big Local are for local people to decide. Critically, the timeframe for Big Local currently requires the spend down of these funds by 2027, and given it began in 2012, the time frame has allowed communities to take their time, build confidence and skills, make decisions and deliver change without the usual pressures to meet end-of-year spend targets or other arbitrary bureaucratic deadlines.

The activities and initiatives Big Local areas have chosen to support reflect the diversity of the communities themselves, including everything from building affordable homes to tackling antisocial behaviour; creating or preserving community facilities, parks and sports centres; launching new training and employment schemes; tackling local health and environmental issues; and addressing community cohesion. Most importantly, through their initiatives, residents of Big Local areas have collectively developed the skills, networks and confidence to continue to lead their areas into the future.

Time commitment and benefits

We expect trustees to commit a minimum of one day a month to their duties, to include attendance and preparation for Board and Committee meetings, Local Trust-promoted events and, where possible, direct engagement with and visits to Big Local areas. In some months you may find that the commitment exceeds that but we can guarantee that we will make excellent use of your time.

In exchange you’ll get exposure to and influence over one of the most exciting and innovative funding programmes ever commissioned, with the opportunity to both engage in high level strategic thinking about future approaches to supporting local communities and to visit some amazing people in Big Local areas making a real difference to people’s lives on the ground.

Key duties

Trustees will be expected to deliver some or all of the following responsibilities:

1. Work with fellow trustees and the chief executive to determine the overall direction and development of Local Trust through good governance, clear strategic planning and effective performance management.
2. Oversee the effective delivery of the Big Local programme and responsible management of the Big Local Trust endowment
3. Ensure that Local Trust’s decision-making is guided by a strong commitment to redistributing power, influence and decision-making to local communities wherever possible.
4. Champion the development of local people, building the skills, confidence and organisations needed to enable communities take on the new challenges that come with our approach to funding Big Local areas.
5. Ensure Local Trust embraces positive risk-taking, innovation and learning as a critical part of the way it does business. Big Local is a radical experiment in new ways of achieving change at a local level, and Local Trust’s Board seeks to reflect this in delivering its role.
6. Ensure that as the Big Local programme enters the final years of it’s existence that there is a strong focus on legacy and impact.
7. Promote Local Trust and in particular the Big Local programme to potential partners, policy makers, grant givers and opinion formers with the aim of maximising opportunities for shared learning, influencing and wider collaboration.
8. Promote Local Trust as an outward-looking and partnership focused organisation, prioritising the building of partnerships and value-adding collaboration in everything it does.
9. Engage with Big Local on the ground, taking time to engage with and learn from the areas we support through our work.
10. Ensure that robust financial and business planning systems, including risk management procedures, are in place to ensure that our work is supported by effective internal financial control and the proper management of funds and assets.
11. Ensure prompt and accurate reporting to the National Lottery Community Fund, Companies House and the Charity Commission.
12. Uphold and work within Local Trust’s values, the trustees’ code of conduct and charitable law.

Skills and experience

We’re looking in particular for candidates with a strong understanding of:

• the strategic and political context within which Big Local is being delivered; and
• driving strategic communications with particular reference to operating in the digital world
• working with large scale programme delivery, especially financial planning for operational delivery
• relevant networks capable of maximising the impact of our work on opinion formers, policy makers and funders.

We would welcome applications from candidates with:

• a diverse range of backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and geographical locations; and
• an understanding of the challenges of working with or in communities facing significant social and economic change.
• Experience of working with and influencing the current political environment and working with others from across a wide range of political perspectives

In addition to the specific skills and experience set out above, we would expect all candidates to have at least a working knowledge of:

• change management / organisational development
• working within a charitable context or other similarly regulated environment
• operating in a non-executive context
• building strategic partnerships with other agencies and organisations
• equality, diversity and inclusion issues, particularly at a community level
• financial planning and monitoring at a strategic level
• risk identification and management