Next wave, 2027

Bring Citizen First to your place

Devolution is putting power in the hands of people and places. Citizen First is how a place puts it in the hands of its people. We're agreeing the next wave now, for a planned April 2027 start.

"Every Mayoral Strategic Authority and city region could benefit profoundly from such a programme."

Chris Barton, Director of Local and International Growth, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade

The independent evaluation of our Liverpool City Region programme found £10.43 of social and economic value for every £1 invested in the first year alone, that 87% of applicants had lived experience of economic disadvantage, and that the model warrants expansion to other towns and city regions.

It is codified and designed to be delivered in any place with the institutions to back it.

Talk to James See the Liverpool results

Citizen First in your place

What you get, and what you bring

The building block is a cohort of ten entrepreneurs, employed for a year. A programme is usually several cohorts, for example four across a city region, repeated each year with each cohort mentoring the next.

Public Life delivers

The open call: CV-less recruitment that reaches people enterprise support does not
Employment of every entrepreneur at the Real Living Wage for a year, plus seed funding
A dedicated full-time business advisor based in your area
Training, tools and expert mentoring in business experimentation
Mobilisation of your local institutions around each entrepreneur
Reporting, evaluation and a public launch

Your place brings

A commissioning or funding decision: how many cohorts, and who they prioritise
A senior sponsor and a named officer as the day-to-day contact
Doors opened: your businesses, universities, public services and civic organisations come in around the entrepreneurs as mentors, customers and backers

Costs and timings are set out in a scoping note after the first conversation.

"We always want to back our citizens. Those people at the grass roots have got some of the best ideas, and innovation is in the very DNA of LCR."

Cllr Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council and Cabinet Member for Public Service Innovation

What happens next

Three steps from a conversation to a programme

A conversation

Thirty minutes on your place, your priorities and whether the model fits. No deck.

A scoping note

What a programme would look like in your area: how many cohorts and where, who they target, who would back them locally, what it costs, when it could start.

A costed proposal

Co-designed with your team, ready to take to a mayor, a board or a funding committee.

Start the conversation

Talk directly to James Green, Founder and CEO.

james.green@publiclife.org.uk

Or leave your details and we'll come back within two working days.

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