Citizen Leadership

The Context 

Citizen leaders can be anyone who uses services locally and can represent their local communities.  This can be at an individual level, or organisational level by working directly with organisations to support how they deliver services, or at a strategic level where they are involved in deciding how services are designed, accessed, and improved. This subject was high in demand, and so we created two cohorts of networks, starting in September and November 2025. Networks are across the UK, and are coordinated by:

The involvement of people in decision-making has grown in recent decades, which has mirrored the growth in policy and legislation focused on people’s rights. The review evidenced that being a citizen leader requires specific skills, which can be supported through training programmes, but equally those working with citizen leaders need support and training to understand the role and how it will impact on their own working practices. 

New ways of looking at leadership were also highlighted in the review, such as collaborative leadership.  Understanding what makes a good leader is crucial to enable a shared ownership and responsibility between citizen leaders and those who traditionally held power within services. 

Recruitment needs a good understanding of what motivates people to become citizen leaders, and  the evidence highlighted the importance of an accurate title for the position (which may not be ‘citizen leader).

The review found benefits from the inclusion of citizen leaders, and that while there may be some financial outlay for instigating citizen leaders into service developments, reviews, and planning (for example for recruitment and training) there are small, cost-less changes that can impact on including citizen leaders.