Citizen Network is a global community of people and groups dedicated to the ideal of inclusion and equal citizenship for all.
There are many people all around who believe in the ideals of equality, diversity and inclusion. In 2009 these ideals inspired Simon Duffy and Nicola Protopapadakis to establish the Centre for Welfare Reform in Sheffield, in the North of England on 7th September 2009. The purpose of the Centre was to improve society and create social systems that supported everyone to be a citizen. The Centre worked as a think tank, carrying out research, publishing ideas and developing a community of Fellows.
In 2010 the government of the UK began a programme of severe cuts and negative changes to social security that have caused severe harm, particularly to those with the greatest needs. Much of the work of the Centre was directed to drawing attention to these problems and encouraging people to resist government policy. Over time it became clear that it was not enough to share good ideas—we needed to help people connect and organise around the ideals that inspired us.
On 17 November 2016 Simon Duffy and Kate Fulton launched Citizen Network at the Manawanui Conference in Auckland, New Zealand. Free membership was opened up and started to grow. In the same year in Sheffield we also co-founded the UBI Lab Network, with Opus Independents. This group has played a critical role in promoting basic income as a foundational reform of our economic system.
Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland in 2019 the global community decided to establish governance for the Network and on 24 October 2022 we launched Citizen Network Osk (Cooperative) in Helsinki, Finland. The purpose of the coop was to create a sustainable governance structure for Citizen Network, however this was not successful. Instead, at the beginning of 2025 the cooperative was closed and the Centre for Welfare Reform became Citizen Network Ltd and took over the role of the coop.
Although the cooperative did not prove workable this period was fertile. In particular Citizen Network worked with a range of global partners to create the Self-Directed Support Network, a community focusing on how to ensure care services respect human rights and support everyone to be a citizen. The network was formally launched in Brussels on 24 June 2024 as part of the Global Learning Exchange and supported by Disability Support Europe.
In addition we also started to focus more of our work on the important role of villages and neighbourhoods as creating an essential context for the work of citizenship. With Angela Fell we created the Neighbourhood Democracy Movement during the COVID pandemic and we began the development of the Neighbourhoods of Care programme. In Sheffield we led the development of the 147 neighbourhood map—citizens mapping their own city. We also worked with Opus and Dark Matter Labs on the Sheffield City Goals and created a proposal for creating neighbourhood governance across the City.
2026 marks an important new chapter for Citizen Network. On 16th October, at Intake in Doncaster, we launched the Centre for Citizenship and Neighbourhoods. This will be a non-profit organisation that can more effectively generate income, act as the organisational host of Citizen Network, the Self-Directed Support Network and many other projects.
Currently Citizen Network has about 9,000 individual members, 400 group members from 40 countries and 150 Fellows.
Currently our online library has nearly 1800 articles and a global audience. We have published 6 books and over 100 major reports including:
The Conditions for an Ordinary Life (2026) • A New Charter for the 21st Century (2026) • Sheffield Vision for Neighbourhood of Health (2026) • Better You (2025) • Democracy SOS (2025) • Better Benefits (2025) • Neighbourhoods of Care (2025) • The Citizenship Manifesto (2025) • Global Standards for Self-Directed Support (2022) • Redesigning the NDIS (2023) • Centralisation Meets Austerity (2022) • Truth & Citizenship (2022) • Growing Peer Support (2021) • A New Way Home (2021) • Power and Connection (2021) • Energy Impairment and Disability Inclusion (2020) • Closer to Home (2020) • Basic Income Plus (2020) • Stories of Our Lives (2019) • Know Your Place (2019) • Second Class Citizens (2019) • UBI and Health (2018) • Cumulative Impact Assessment (2018) • Heading Upstream (2017) • Love and Welfare (2016) • Citizenship and the Welfare State (2016) • Who Cares? (2015) • Counting the Cuts (2014) • The Unmaking of Man (2013) • No Going Back (2013) • Whose Community Is It Anyway? (2013) • Local Area Coordination (2013) • Peer Power (2012) • Dying with Dignity (2011) • Women at the Centre (2011) • Positively Local (2011) • A Fair Start (2010) • Personalisation in Mental Health (2010) • Personalised Transition (2010)
Basic Income | Community Social Work | Constitutional Reform | Deinstitutionalisation | Family Leadership | Inclusive Education | Individual Service Funds | Local Area Coordination | Neighbourhood Democracy | Peer Support | People Based Development | Personalised Support | Person Centred Planning | Quality Checking | Self Advocacy | Self Directed Support | Support Brokerage | Supported Employment | Women-Centred Work
Ending Institutional Care (2026) • Commissioning for the Future of Social Care (2026) • 147 Map of Sheffield Neighbourhoods (2024) • Fearless Cities South Yorkshire (2024) • SDS Network (2024) • It's Our Community (2023) • Neighbourhood Democracy Movement (2020) • UBI Lab Disability (2020) • We Are One: CitizenFest (2019) • UBI Lab Sheffield (2018) • Chronic Illness Inclusion (2017) • Learning Disability England (2016) • Learning Disability Alliance (2014) • iDirect (2014) • Campaign for a Fair Society (2011) • People Focused Group Doncaster (2011) • The Hub Yeovil (2010)
Self-Directed Support Network (2024) - a global community for best practice in self-directed support
Neighbourhood Democracy Movement (2020) - for communities wanting grassroots democracy
UBI Lab Network (2019) - working to advance basic income, with 35 labs now across the globe
Citizen Network (2016) - working to advance citizenship for all, present in 39 countries
We hope to help all of us to become better citizens and to work together to create a world where everyone matters.
Get involved, read more about membership here.
Last updated 20th October 2026
