Welcome
Local Trust was set up in 2012 to deliver the Big Local programme – a 15 year-long, radical programme that puts power, funding and decision making directly in the hands of local people in 150 communities across England.
Over the last decade, the learning and insight gained from Big Local and the places in which it is being delivered, has enabled Local Trust to contribute to a transformation in practice and thinking about how communities can be trusted and supported to transform their own neighbourhoods.
With levelling-up becoming an increasing priority, both nationally and locally, our focus on understanding and championing the needs of “left behind” areas – places with low levels of social infrastructure and high levels of deprivation – has put Local Trust’s work at the centre of a number of important national debates.
With five years left on the Big Local programme, Local Trust is looking to recruit new trustees to join a strong existing Board as we seek to maximise our impact, both in Big Local communities across the country but also on the national stage.
Our ambition is to ensure that we make a significant contribution to three key outcomes we see as critically important to the future of our communities:
- embedding the approach and principles that guide our work – that funding for communities should be long-term, resident-led, patient, place-based, non-judgmental – across the civil society, private and public sectors
- contributing to a structural change in our economy, society and politics, which leads to greater devolution of power, with local people and communities having more control over resources and decision-making
- contributing to a tangible improvement in the social and economic capacity of ‘left-behind areas’, as a result of new community-led investment in rebuilding social capital and civic infrastructure, alongside increases in public investment to deliver economic change.
To help us achieve this, 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 on opinion formers, policy makers and funders. And we’re looking for delivery and programme management expertise, to help drive maximum impact from the final third of Big Local – when more money will be spent, and more projects initiated locally than at any other stage of the programme.
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 it works with and supports across the country. We therefore welcome applications from candidates with a diverse range of backgrounds, experiences and geographical locations – in particular from the north of England – and from candidates with a direct understanding of the challenges of working with or in communities facing significant social and economic change.
I’m hugely grateful for your interest in joining Local Trust on our radical and ambitious mission and look forward to your application.
David Warner
Chair