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Big Local is a £200+ million investment in 150 communities across England (26 of them in London) and was designed to be neighbourhood-level, resident-led and long-term, with funding delivered over 10 – 15 years. The programme and the last Big Local areas are due to close or transition early in 2026.
Big Local Unpacked is a new learning series developed by London Funders in partnership with Local Trust, the organisation set up to design and deliver Big Local. Across six sessions in 2026, we’ll explore what really happened over more than a decade of neighbourhood-led change — what worked, what didn’t, and what funders and civil society can take forward into the future.
The series will bring together people directly involved in the design and delivery of Big Local, alongside funders, charities, infrastructure bodies and community organisations. Expect honest reflection, practical insights and space for shared learning.
The programme includes:
- six themed online learning sessions
- a visit to a Big Local area in London
- tailored learning cohorts with partner organisations
We are pleased to share information about the first three sessions in the series.
All sessions are free to attend.
Booking Your Sessions
Session 1: Big Local: setting the scene
5 February 2026, 10-11.30am
Big Local has been one of the most ambitious funding programmes in community-led change in England: £200+ million invested in 150 neighbourhoods over 10 – 15 years. But what was it really about? In this opening session, we’ll lift the lid on Big Local and hear from the people who were and still are involved in Big Local – why it was set up, what made it different and what the programme set out to achieve.
Session 2: Getting Big Local started: turning ambition into reality
5 March 2026, 10-11.30am
How do you launch a decade-long programme that puts power in the hands of local people? How do you bring in volunteers, form partnerships with local institutions, consult communities and create plans for action? What level of resource do you need in place for the ‘start-up’ phase? How do plans evolve and change over time? And how do you get things started in areas where there is a lack of community voice and infrastructure?
Session 3: Inclusion, representation and participation in place-based work: what we can learn from Big Local
13 April 2026, 10-11.30am
What does it really take to make community-led programmes inclusive and representative? This session explores how Big Local approached inclusion, participation and representation - what worked, what proved challenging, and what we can learn for future place-based, resident-led initiatives.
Session 4: What sits around the money: lessons from Big Local’s support infrastructure
When: 11 May, 10.00 – 11.30
Alongside the £1 million invested in 150 areas across England, Big Local groups were able to access a range of support from Local Trust designed to help local partnerships navigate challenges, make decisions, build confidence and sustain momentum over more than a decade. In this session, we’ll look at what that support involved, how it evolved over time, and what this means for designing the right support around the money in future programmes.
We’ll hear from Local Trust staff and people involved in delivering Big Local about the infrastructure that underpinned the programme. This session will offer practical insights for funders, infrastructure bodies and community organisations thinking about how to design support that strengthens locally led work.
Book your place here.
Session 5: Power, conflict and decision making: Big Local’s experience
When: 4th June, 10.00 – 11.30
Power and decision-making can be complex in any community-led programme, and Big Local was no different. Across the 150 areas, partnerships had to make decisions, navigate disagreements, and work through moments of tension - all while trying to stay accountable to the wider community. This session explores how those dynamics played out in practice across different Big Local areas: what was unexpected, what helped, what made things harder, and how people found ways forward.
We’ll look at the practical realities of shared decision-making: where it worked well, where conflict emerged, and what we can learn from how it was handled both locally and by Local Trust. We’ll hear reflections on questions such as: How do you support volunteers to take on leadership roles in a way that feels safe? And as a funder, how do you judge when to step back, when to step in, and, in rare cases, when a partnership needs to pause or restart?
Book your place here.
Session 6: What was the impact of Big Local and how was impact understood?
When: 18 June, 10.00 – 11.30
Making sense of the impact of a long-term, resident led programme like Big Local is complex. With 150 areas working in different ways and starting from very different points, communities saw a wide range of changes over time. This session explores how impact was understood across the programme, and what this can tell us about assessing change in future place-based and community led work.
We’ll look at the different kinds of outcomes that emerged — from community leadership to partnership working, to shifts in neighbourhood relationships, trust, local institutions and specific projects such as youth activities or employment support. We’ll also explore how the hyperlocal scale shaped the kinds of change that were possible.
Alongside this, we’ll discuss how Local Trust and Big Local areas approached the challenge of understanding impact: what was measured, what was hard to measure, and what methods were used to capture more intangible but important outcomes such as trust, relationships and local people feeling they can influence how decisions are made.
Book your place here.
Session 7: Long-term funding & good endings: what we can learn from Big Local
When: 14th July, 10.00 – 11.30
Long-term funding is gaining renewed attention, but very few programmes have operated at the scale or duration of Big Local. With 150 areas funded over 10–15 years, the programme offers a rare opportunity to explore what extended timeframes make possible and what challenges they bring.
In this session, we’ll look at how Big Local partnerships experienced the long-term nature of the programme: how relationships, confidence, projects and local energy developed over time; how people responded to having a decade or more to plan and act; and how patterns of activity changed from the early years through to the end. We’ll also consider the realities of continuity - who stayed involved, who moved on, and what that meant for neighbourhood led work.
Book your place here.