New Local
Senior Practice and Policy Lead
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Job title: Senior Practice and Policy Lead
Reporting to: Head of Practice
Status: 1-year fixed term
Salary: £43,500
Location: New Local operates a ‘work anywhere’ policy but provides office workspace in London for those who require it. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK and be resident in the UK.
About us
New Local has a mission to transform public services and unlock community power. We publish research, lead peer learning, influence government and work with public sector organisations on some of today’s most pressing issues, informed by our network of 50-plus local authority members.
All of our work is guided by a belief in community power – the principle that communities themselves have the best insight into their own circumstances and should be able to participate in shaping their places and services. We believe that active, empowered communities should be at the heart of a wider shift towards place-based public services and a system focused on prevention, which can lead to better outcomes and a more sustainable system for all.
Purpose
This role sits within our Practice and Programmes team and will contribute to the development and delivery of New Local’s practice and policy work, supporting community-powered public sector reform in partnership with communities, individual councils, strategic authorities, central government, the NHS and other public and voluntary sector bodies.
In our practice work, you will confidently lead and contribute to projects alongside public sector partners and communities, using a range of innovation and practice approaches to address complex challenges and support change. This could include programme and service design, facilitation, strategy development, user-centred design, adaptive and collaborative learning, and approaches that help partners test, learn and adapt in practice. You will work with delivery partners where needed and collaborate closely with other New Local colleagues to deliver high-quality work and impact for our local authority members, wider clients and partners. Crucially, you will help partners not only to develop and test new approaches, but to understand what the learning means for wider strategy, systems and ways of working.
A key part of the role is connecting our practice work to wider strategy, policy and thought leadership. Our thought leadership and policy approach is deeply rooted in the practice we see in places and through our member and peer-learning networks. You will help draw out and communicate learning from pioneering work, developing practical insights and narratives that challenge thinking and inform wider strategy and policy. This could include contributing to blogs and thought pieces, shaping events and member sessions, sharing learning with wider audiences or supporting engagement with key stakeholders. You will identify connections between emerging local practice and national policy agendas and contribute to relationships and opportunities that advance New Local’s work on community power and public service reform.
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Key tasks and responsibilities
- Contribute to the delivery of New Local practice projects, working closely with senior members of the New Local team and using a range of innovation and practice approaches including design, facilitation, strategy development, user-centred design, adaptive and collaborative learning, and approaches that enable partners to test, learn and adapt.
- Build and maintain excellent relationships with partners across local government, the wider public sector and communities, placing an emphasis on collaborative working, co-design and building the relationships needed to support meaningful change.
- Design and facilitate engaging processes and workshops that help partners explore complex challenges, develop new approaches, test ideas and build shared understanding and action.
- Help connect practice, strategy and policy, drawing out learning from innovation and working with partners to translate this into changes in policy, strategy, systems and services, while contributing to wider thinking about the conditions needed to enable and scale change.
- Ensure effective project management of our activities, working with colleagues and partners to deliver high-quality work and impact within agreed budgets and timelines.
- Support the development and growth of our practice work, including contributing to proposals, project scoping and budgets, and identifying opportunities to develop our work with existing and new partners.
- Communicate the process, findings and learning from our work, producing clear and compelling outputs for different audiences and helping to draw out wider insights that can inform strategy, practice and policy.
- Contribute to New Local’s thought leadership and policy work, identifying connections between emerging local practice and wider policy agendas, and contributing to blogs, thought pieces, events, member sessions and stakeholder engagement.
- Work collaboratively across New Local, including with our network and communications teams, using your practice expertise and learning from projects to strengthen the wider impact of our work on community power and public service reform.
How to apply
For the full job description, person specification and details on how to apply, please visit New Local's website.
The deadline for applications is 9 September 2026, 9:00 am.
Our values and the benefits of working at New Local
Diversity: New Local is committed to being an equal opportunities employer. We don’t just ‘value diversity’, we think it is central to what makes for a high impact, successful organisation.
Leave and working hours: We operate a highly flexible policy on working hours and leave. New Local’s team core working hours are 10am to 4pm but around this, staff are trusted to determine their own working hours and leave consummate with the fulfilment of their job goals to the highest level of excellence. We operate an unlimited leave policy meaning employees are free to take leave beyond their leave allocation as long as it does not interfere with their ability to do their job to the highest standards. To support well-being, New Local staff are expected to take a minimum of 27 days’ leave each year (pro rata for PT staff). New Local employees also receive ten days leave over the Christmas and New Year period.
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Location: Applications are welcome from candidates no matter where they live in the UK. We operate a ‘work anywhere’ policy meaning employees can choose to work at home or at any other location that enables them to do their job to the highest standards. New Local has an office in a central London location for those who wish to work in an office environment, and we are currently reviewing our hybrid arrangements. The Practice and Programmes team meet on a regular basis, at least fortnightly in central London. We currently meet as a whole organisation in person regularly in central London and team members are expected to attend this. Travel expenses are covered for team members attending this whole organisation team meeting.
Flexible working: We are happy to discuss highly flexible working arrangements.
Well-being: New Local is extremely committed to staff well-being. Working long and late hours is actively discouraged and all staff at New Local are very strongly committed to creating a pleasant, friendly and supportive environment in which to work. Employees complete a weekly and more detailed annual anonymous well-being survey to allow monitoring of general well-being in the team.
Health scheme: Employees can join the New Local health plan and employee assistance scheme. The subscription to the scheme is paid for by New Local.
Family Friendly leave: New Local offers a range of enhanced parental and family friendly leave.
Pension: New Local will contribute 5% to the New Local group personal pension scheme. This benefit cannot be substituted for any other benefit. We operate a salary sacrifice scheme for pension contributions.
Bonus, salary rises and promotions: We operate an annual bonus scheme based on financial performance. This bonus is shared equally between all team members. A cost-of-living rise is applied to all salaries each year based on inflation. All bonuses and salary rises are awarded at the discretion of the New Local board.
Death in service benefit: A death in service benefit at three times your annual salary is provided should you die in service. All New Local employees between the ages of 16 and 69 are covered and cover ceases when a staff member reaches their 70th birthday or leaves the organisation.
Probation and notice: This role is subject to a six-month probationary period and a three-month notice period. This job description is not exhaustive and is liable to review following discussion with the job holder. The post-holder will be expected to undertake any other reasonable duties as requested by their line manager and commensurate with their job grade.
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