Big Local Unpacked Learning Programme Session 7

Session 7: Long-term funding & good endings: what we can learn from Big Local

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 neighbourhoodled work.