Experts by Experience

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve. We monitor, inspect and regulate services and publish what we find. Where we find poor care, we will use our powers to take action.
CQC has a legal duty under the Health and Social Care Act to involve people in the way it works. The Health and Social Care Act 2008, specifies that CQC can 'arrange for any of its functions to be exercised by, or with the assistance of, service users and carers'.
The Experts by Experience contracts are key mechanisms used by CQC to achieve this.
Lot 1 CQC Experts by Experience Services: this lot is for support to regulatory activity conducted by subject matter experts with lived experience of specific healthcare or social care needs.
Lot 2 CQC Public Engagement Network: this lot is for developing and maintaining and expanding the public engagement network and organising related events.

The provision of trained members of the public, known as Experts by Experience (ExEs), to support our assessments of regulated health and care services and our understanding of the quality of care across regulated services in England.
The CQC Experts by Experience Services support the delivery of a programme of work referred to as the CQC Experts by Experience (ExE) programme. The ExE programme is founded on the fundamental principle of helping people who use services to make their voices, views and experiences heard. The programme delivers evidence and insight to CQC through regulatory and engagement activities.
Experts by Experience have current or recent (within the past 8 years, or within 4 years for maternity services) lived experience of using, or being a family carer for someone who uses, the services we regulate. Experts by Experience help us gather the evidence that we use to make judgements about the quality of care.
People often find it easier to speak to someone who has a similar lived experience to themselves. Experts by Experience gather evidence by having meaningful conversations with people using services, as well as friends and families. They will also make and record other observations while taking part in our assessments of services.
Experts by Experience Services also support other CQC activities such as policy and guidance development, co design and co production and consultations.
The Contractor will need to provide Experts by Experience support in three key areas:
- inspection - support to site visits and telephone calls,
- monitor and insight - support gathering local and national information from the public. This will include special reviews and investigations as well as work raising public awareness of CQC,
- co-production - support to policy and guidance development and delivery of CQC staff training.

Provision of CQC Public Engagement Network (PEN) to develop, maintain and deliver engagement services with people from seldom heard communities, people with protected characteristics, and people made vulnerable by their circumstances.
The CQC Public Engagement Network is a managed network of community groups across England made up of local and national groups, including charities and other organisations who represent and support people from a diverse range of communities, people at risk of facing health inequalities, and people with protected characteristics.

The purpose of the CQC Public Engagement Network is:
- to develop a programme of community engagement across England and to become an important mechanism in helping CQC ensure that local health and care services meet the needs and preferences of the communities they serve.
- to gather and understand experiences of care from those most likely to experience poorer health and care outcomes and to amplify the voices of people and communities across the health and care landscape.
- to increase the volume and range of feedback CQC receives from specific targeted groups across England.
- to provide CQC with opportunities to hear from, and engage with, groups and the individuals they represent, on both a local and national scale.
The CQC Public Engagement Network contributes to our assessments and the design and ongoing development of the way we regulate, providing insight and intelligence about experiences of care, from:
- people from seldom heard communities,
- people with protected characteristics,
- people made vulnerable by their circumstances.