Lay Partnership Group

Chair: Mr Hew Helps

The Lay Partnership Group (LPG) is a committee of the Royal College that provides a public and patient viewpoint with regard to College business and develops initiatives to support patient advocacy.

The LPG conceived and now administers the Patient Partnership Quality Mark (PPQM).

For the past 18 years, the LPG has worked closely with the Chiropractic Patients Association (CPA), pursuing similar goals and objectives and even sharing personnel. This has recently led to the CPA Trustees making the decision for the CPA to merge into the RCC and form a new patient committee within the RCC’s organisational structure. The Trustees of both the CPA and the RCC have undertaken appropriate due diligence and unanimously approved this merger, which is expected to be finalised in the first quarter of 2022.

This important development will improve administrative efficiency and ensure the patient-centred objectives of the CPA are sustainable in the long-term. It will also lead to a range of exciting developments and opportunities, including:

  • Establishment of a larger and more representative national chiropractic patient forum
  • New support materials for patients, both phone and web-based
  • Greater opportunities for patient involvement in a range of activities including active input to consultations
  • Support for the development of local patient groups

The new committee will take on responsibility for managing the Patient Partnership Quality Mark (PPQM), and assets transferred from the CPA will be ring-fenced to further the objectives that are currently common to both the CPA and the RCC, including financial support for research.

It is hoped that the CPA’s members, who are chiropractic patients, will remain associated with the new organisation; there will be no membership fees for these members to pay in the future, but many more resources to support them and more opportunities for them to have a say in issues that matter to them. A major objective of the new committee will be to grow the membership of this patient body.

Further announcements will follow.