Dover Big Local covered an area mostly comprised of post-war flats and commercial property. It included Dover train station and the Charlton shopping centre. It was one of only a few Big Local areas to include its town’s high street. It also included the ferry terminal road – an important location for work around increasing tourism.
Dover Big Local saw a population increase of 8 per cent over the decade between 2011–2021, to around 8,000 residents (ONS, 2012; 2022). 24 per cent of residents had no qualifications (ONS, 2023). The area had been in the top 20 per cent most deprived in England and the top 20 per cent most deprived when it came to income deprivation affecting children (MHCLG, 2019a; 2019b).
Throughout the programme, the Dover economy relied heavily on the port, tourism, related light industry, and services and hospitality.
Dover Big Local partnership brought together residents, community groups, schools, colleges, and businesses – alongside local government, third sector and commercial partners. The partnership worked to create a safe, vibrant community that could develop the skills, talent and ambition to drive, develop and deliver an even better place to live, work and play.
Their work focused on bringing together four levels of local government (town, parish, district and county) with public, private and voluntary organisations from across the area. They found that this work reduced gaps or duplications of effort in terms of support and services, and better met residents’ needs. The partnership worked hard to maintain the community’s trust as they went, making clear that they themselves were not local authorities, with a dedicated community hub space helping to reinforce this distinction. Alongside this, the partnership worked with and communicated to councils the benefits of the collaboration, recognising that this may differ depending on their level of local government.
The partnership also felt it was important to take chances on new projects, and valued the freedom to do so. Through funding new groups and ideas, and supporting them to bring in additional external funding, Dover Big Local enabled grassroots activity in their community and built residents’ confidence. They contributed funding towards the first Dover Pride event, initiated by younger people in the area, which the partnership felt helped increase their sense of belonging in the community, and showed those who initiated the event that they could do things that would have an impact.
Another way the partnership supported grassroots activity was by holding funds for unincorporated groups unable to do so for themselves, which meant that residents were able to establish their own projects without having to set up a corporate body, such as a charity, first. The partnership saw this as an important way of incubating ideas and groups that grew from local residents.
This was the case for Dover Pantry, a membership scheme near Dover Big Local partnership’s hub providing discounted food for the community. The pantry was made possible by Dover Big Local holding funds on their behalf. Dover Big Local also initially supported Dover Pantry with staff and running costs, eventually offering them support to become a charitable organisation and fundraise for future sustainability.
A Big Local partnership was a group made up of at least eight people that guided the overall direction of delivery in a Big Local area.
Setting up a Community Interest Company (CIC) in 2020 helped the partnership develop appropriate and effective processes to fund and support new groups and manage volunteers. The policies and procedures for the CIC created some challenges with the partnership’s previous, more flexible approach to delivery, but this development ultimately helped their credibility, grew their capacity and positively impacted volunteering. The CIC could also continue working in the community after the Big Local funding had been spent.
The Dover Big Local partnership wanted to support the local economy beyond existing tourism-related jobs and support local residents to start and develop their own businesses. To do this, Dover Big Local partnership helped establish and fund a new co-innovation space in an old high street retail unit, aiming to provide smaller retail outlets to small businesses who could not yet open their own shop.
Big Local funding covered the building’s operational costs, which meant lower overheads for businesses.
The project did contain a degree of risk for the partnership because it was somewhat outside their skillset. However, they ultimately felt it was successful, both in terms of bringing people together to achieve something new and evolving in response to feedback from the community about their needs.
The partnership reported a camaraderie developing amongst those operating the shop spaces, making it “a mini town all of its own”, as well as increasing skills, connections and wellbeing for those renting space. Those involved in managing the co-innovation space eventually set up a Community Interest Company (CIC) and moved to a long-term site, with many retailers progressing into their own high-street spaces or going on to sell their products to larger brands.
Dover Big Local partnership funded and contributed to a network focused on improving the area’s significant potential as a tourist destination. The partnership identified a “disjointed approach” to the promotion of the town and district so they part funded the Destination Dover project to research and bring together key stakeholders across the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Destination Dover improved communication between stakeholders, worked in new ways with travel and tourism companies, and developed and improved local events and attractions. The partnership felt that Destination Dover “changed the perception of Dover from [being] somewhere people just wanted to leave” to a destination in itself. They also felt that improved tourism networks and the infrastructure it created increased visitations from cruise ships, with associated economic benefit and prestige. On a broader scale, the partnership felt that the project also proved that many different stakeholders could work together in and for Dover.
Responding to community consultation, Dover Big Local partnership funded a community hub in the main shopping parade. The hub provided a base for different activities and services, many of which were delivered by other organisations and statutory agencies, and proved to be a useful offer in building relationships with other organisations and local authorities.
The hub became a focus point for the community through hosting a variety of activities and services, including knitting groups, cooking sessions, coffee mornings, activities for children, fitness classes, digital inclusion support, help with money management, and health sessions for both new mums and the Roma community.
An important aspect of this was the space’s flexibility and openness, which meant residents could drop in, make or attend scheduled appointments, or come in to address one issue and get support for something else as well.
The hub’s Job Club, and its success as an addition to the opportunities at the local Job Centre, exemplifies this approach. There were no time limits to the club’s 1–1 sessions, residents could drop in as needed without expectation, and it offered a safe, inclusive and approachable space for all, particularly residents with less confidence or in vulnerable circumstances. At various points, the Job Club was co-funded by a local housing association, and received referrals from the Job Centre. The partnership saw it as an example of an “essential resource for Dover” made possible by the hub.
Through their work to provide more effective services for residents through collaboration with local authorities, Dover Big Local partnership made support and services more flexible, responsive and inclusive for residents. The partnership established a Together4Dover support network during the Covid-19 pandemic in response to government food parcels that local authorities needed to distribute. The partnership provided insurance for volunteers and technical support to run a helpline.
Between March 2020 and April 2021, the partnership reported that over 80 volunteers completed 600 errands, took over 1,300 phone calls and delivered over 800 essential food parcels to households.
Each Big Local area received approximately £1.2 million (ranging from £1.199 mil to 1.209 mil) to spend over 10–15 years, depending on how much additional funding they accessed from Local Trust to address specific needs. For example, to bring people together at the start of the programme or to access training and support. This has been categorised for areas and at the programme level based on reports received from areas.
Partnerships chose their own priorities and categories for reporting, and were encouraged to use broad categories so they could use the funding flexibly. All areas spent a significant amount of money on ‘Big Local delivery costs’ such as workers’ salaries, stationery and IT equipment. You can find out more about programme level spend in this article. This is how Dover Big Local told Local Trust they used their Big Local funding.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) (2019a) ‘English Indices of Deprivation 2019’. (Accessed 21 September 2024)
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) (2019b) ‘English Indices of Multiple Deprivation 2019 – Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI)’. (Accessed 15 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2012) ‘UK Census 2011: All persons’. (Accessed 14 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022) ‘UK Census 2021: All persons’. (Accessed 21 September 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023) ‘UK Census 2021: Highest level of qualification- No qualifications’. (Accessed 14 October 2024)
