Local Community Partnerships Programme: Unlocking potential across communities in the North East

In the North East, we know our communities are full of resilience, creativity, and untapped ambition. The Local Community Partnerships programme set out to help unlock that potential.

Launched across Newcastle, Northumberland, and North Tyneside, the programme focused on neighbourhoods facing high deprivation, low civic engagement, and an under-resourced voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector.

The Local Community Partnerships programme had three core ambitions:

• Strengthen social connections
• Support resilience across the VCSE sector
• Empower communities to shape local decisions

What really united these three Partnerships was a shared commitment to doing things differently – working from the ground up to build capacity, resilience, and engagement at a hyperlocal scale.

What we did

1.Creating connections

Relationship building was the beating heart of our approach – an intentional practice, rather than a by-product. We used tools like dynamic relationship mapping to understand how people, organisations, and networks connected and how these connections shifted over time.

And to build trust at a grassroots level, we focused on listening, practical action, and offering consistent support. We built trust one conversation at a time. Only once some trust had been established did we start exploring what a Local Community Partnership could offer that community.

2. Strengthening VCSE sector resilience

We started by understanding how community groups saw themselves, and then aligned our funding to match that vision. This meant some Partnerships had dedicated funding pots for ‘youth’ or ‘small grants’, giving local groups the freedom to participate in ways that felt right for them.

We also brought community organisations together in different ways to share learnings, reflect, and celebrate successes. And community developers acted as connectors and problem solvers, helping groups grow at their own pace rather than fitting into prescriptive delivery models.

3. Unlocking community power

We started by recognising that communities already hold enormous power. Our role was to help unlock it, and to help people navigate formal systems that can sometimes feel overwhelming or inaccessible.

Each Partnership started by establishing a Steering Group, chaired by a local community leader and made up of local community organisations. This created opportunities for real grassroots leadership to flourish. Community groups and residents helped decide how funding was allocated, with ideas gathered through surveys, events, and network meetings. 

And where individuals within the programme had formal power (like local authority colleagues) we tried to leverage this – removing barriers, opening doors, and keeping things moving.

How we approached the work

• A flexible funding offer: 

  Our funding model was deliberately light-touch. With only a few core parameters – such as a 10% cap on local authority costs and some ring-fenced capital funding – each Partnership had the freedom to design their funding offer around their local needs. This flexibility created a varied and vibrant mix of support models across the three areas.

• A place-based mindset:

  Everything happened on a hyper-local scale, responding to the unique assets, challenges, and possibilities of each place. This allowed for a rich patchwork of activity to emerge, that would not have been possible with a more top-down model.

• Partnership working from the very start:

  The Combined Authority worked closely with the local authorities and VCSE partners to establish the programme’s underlying principles. Local authorities then co-designed local delivery plans with a wide range of community partners, ensuring the programme was shaped by local needs at every stage. 

• Building a strong legacy:

  From day one, we encouraged delivery partners and community groups to think long term. The programme was always meant to be a ‘stepping stone’ – helping community groups to strengthen their position and build their capacity so the impact could live on well beyond the funding cycle. And happily, in many places, it has.

What we’d like to do differently next time

We’re proud of what was achieved, but we recognise that there were challenges, including: 

• Disproportionate processes

  All funded organisations faced the same monitoring requirements, regardless of grant or organisation size. A more proportionate approach would have made funding more accessible and eased pressure on smaller organisations.

• Limited risk appetite

  Traditional public sector processes didn’t always fully match the programme’s ambition for community-led innovation. One big question we’re still exploring is: who holds the risk when we encourage communities to try out innovative, creative ideas?

Looking ahead

There’s growing interest in neighbourhood level work, with upcoming initiatives such as Pride in Place creating new opportunities to unlock community potential. We hope our reflections on the Local Community Partnerships programme offer a useful blueprint for future investment in local social infrastructure. 

You can explore more in our Playbook on Community Driven Investment.