Membership criteria for the CQC Public Engagement Network
Membership criteria
We welcome applications from organisations that meet all of the following criteria:
You are a not-for-profit organisation
This includes charities, community incorporated organisations, community interest companies and more.
You can demonstrate sustained and meaningful engagement with one or more communities experiencing inequalities
By ‘communities experiencing inequalities’, we mean groups of people who experience unfair and avoidable differences in health and wellbeing due to demographic and/or structural factors. This includes groups protected by the Equality Act 2010, as well as those affected by wider structural inequalities – such as carers or people experiencing socioeconomic inequality. You can find a non-exhaustive list of these communities here.
We recognise that many not-for-profit organisations support people with a specific condition or diagnosis. As this programme is focused on hearing from people from underrepresented groups, organisations working primarily on a single condition will not automatically be considered as meeting this definition unless they can demonstrate sustained and meaningful engagement with specific communities experiencing inequalities is a priority in their work.
Examples of organisations that would meet this criteria include:
- A dementia charity focussed on improving access to inclusive care for a particular faith group.
- A spinal injury charity that, alongside supporting access to hearing-related services, works to address wider inequalities people with mobility issues experience across health and care services.
- A cancer charity whose strategic priorities include a long-term programme to improve early diagnosis among Black men.
Examples of organisations that would not meet this criteria include:
- A heart disease charity that serves many people on low incomes but does not have a strategic priority or long-term programme of work supporting people experiencing socio-economic inequality or any other specific inequalities and heart disease.
- A neurological charity with many service users in coastal areas but no targeted strategy or sustained programme addressing neurological inequalities in coastal communities.
Your aims, objectives and methods of working must be written down in a publicly available document or webpage
This includes on the Charity Commission website, on your website, on Companies House, on social media and more.
Your work has a focus on health and social care issues
This can include policy influencing, service delivery or any other way.
Your organisation works in England
This can include national or local organisations, large or small organisations, and your organisation can have a wider focus than England.
Your organisation must be committed to meaningful participation, advancing equality and treating others with dignity and respect
We ask that all Public Engagement Network members are committed to:
- Meaningful participation of people and communities in your work
- Advancing equal opportunities and tackling inequalities
- Treating others with dignity and respect
Your organisation does not have an affiliation with any political parties
Your organisation must remain politically independent, as required under UK charity rules.
Your organisation must not primarily deliver CQC-regulated services
This means such services must account for less than half of its overall activities and income.
If you are uncertain that you meet the eligibility criteria, please contact Mu’minah Iqbal via muminah.iqbal@nationalvoices.org.uk or 07442517280 and they can advise. If you don’t meet the eligibility criteria but would like to engage with the CQC or the Voices for Health Equity Partnership, please don’t hesitate to reach out at the same email address.