For professionals & practitioners
Your professional expertise,
paid for properly.
Research that shapes public health policy, NHS services and public sector practice keeps being designed without the people who deliver it. The Professional Panel is how we fix that. Universities, NHS organisations, agencies and research teams come to us when a study needs a policy lead, a clinician or a service manager, and we pay you a professional fee for your time.
Four groups, one shared problem
Every one of these roles gets asked to implement research they were never consulted on. The panel exists so that researchers can reach you before the decisions are made, not after.
Public health & health policy
Policy officers and managers, programme managers, heads of policy, consultants in public health, health improvement leads, and the communications side: public health comms, engagement, digital comms, behaviour change and stakeholder engagement managers. In government bodies, charities and NGOs, and think tanks.
Clinical & health professions
GPs, hospital consultants, resident doctors, nurses and specialist nurses, midwives, pharmacists, allied health professionals, dentists, paramedics, mental health professionals, practice managers and clinical research staff.
NHS leadership & governance
Trust board members and non-executive directors, governors, ICB and system leads, PCN and primary care leads, transformation and service improvement leads, quality and safety leads, patient experience leads, commissioning managers and digital or informatics roles.
Wider public sector, social care & VCSE
Local authority officers and managers, social workers and social care managers, teachers and education leaders, housing association staff, charity and VCSE programme and policy leads, and regulators and inspectors.
Short, specific, and worth your time
Most of what we recruit for is one focused conversation, not an ongoing commitment. A typical study asks for around 15 minutes of preparation, usually reading a summary of findings or a draft intervention, followed by a 40 to 60 minute interview. Both are covered by the fee.
The questions are the ones you already have opinions about: would this work in practice, what would stop it, what have they missed, and what would need to be true for your organisation to actually adopt it.
Join for freeIn-depth interviews
One-to-one, usually by video call, about how a service, pathway or policy works in practice rather than on paper.
Expert review & sense-checking
Reading draft findings or a proposed intervention and saying, plainly, whether it would survive contact with reality.
Advisory panels
Small groups convened to advise on implementation, rollout and the practical barriers a research team cannot see from outside.
Professional & clinical validation
Testing whether a product, tool or piece of guidance is safe, usable and credible to the people expected to use it.
Professional rates, not incentives
The Collective's general panel is paid from £27.50 an hour in vouchers. The Professional Panel is different, because what is being bought is different. You are being paid for professional judgement built over years, and the fee reflects that.
Preparation time is paid inside the session fee. If a study asks you to read a report beforehand, that is part of what you are being paid for, not something you absorb.
Paid by bank transfer
Straight to your account, or as an Amazon or Love2Shop voucher if you would rather. Bank transfer is the default here: retail vouchers are not appropriate for a lot of NHS and public sector staff, and we would rather not put you in that position. Fees are paid to you personally.
| Level or group | Typical roles | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Public health, NHS management & public sector | ||
| Officer / practitioner | Policy officer, LA officer, comms officer | £75/hr |
| Manager / senior specialist | Programme manager, engagement manager | £100/hr |
| Head of / lead | Head of policy, ICB lead, transformation lead | £150/hr |
| Director / board | Director, non-executive director, governor | £150/hr |
| Clinical & health professions | ||
| Nursing & allied health | Nurse, midwife, AHP, pharmacist, paramedic | £100–£175/hr |
| Doctors & dentists | GP, hospital consultant, dentist | £200–£350/hr |
| Shorter formats | ||
| Written review only | Any group, no interview | £40–£150 |
| Professional survey | Any group, 10–20 mins | £15–£60 |
Preparation time is included in the session fee. The exact amount is always confirmed in writing before you agree to take part, and it never changes afterwards.
Where you and your employer stand
This is the part most people want answered before they sign up, so here it is plainly.
You take part personally, in your own time
Sessions are scheduled around you and are normally outside working hours. The fee is paid to you, not to your organisation. You are giving your own professional view, not your employer's position.
We never contact your employer
Not to verify your role, not to seek permission, not for any other reason. We also never pass your name to a client without asking you first.
You are never asked for anything confidential
No patient-identifiable information, no commercially sensitive material, no unpublished internal documents. If a question strays there, the correct answer is that you cannot discuss it, and no researcher will press you.
You get what you need to declare it
Many organisations require staff to declare outside interests or secondary income. Checking your own policy is your call, but we will give you a written summary of the study, the fee and what was asked, so declaring it is straightforward if you need to.
Four steps, then nothing until we have something relevant
We are not a mailing list. Most members hear from us a handful of times a year, when a study genuinely matches their background.
Tell us what you do
Your field, role, job title, type of organisation and level. About five minutes. This is what we screen briefs against.
We only email when it fits
Every invitation says who is running the study, what it is about, how long it takes and exactly what it pays. No mystery briefs.
Accept, or ignore it
Declining costs you nothing and does not affect future invitations. If you accept, we handle the scheduling around your availability.
Get paid without chasing
Bank transfer or voucher, within days of the session. You should never have to send us a reminder, and you will not have to.