EK360

What EK360 does

EK360 (legal name: Engaging Kent CIC) is a Community Interest Company established in 2015 and headquartered in Ashford, United Kingdom. The company operates across Kent and Medway, providing community engagement and patient/public involvement services to NHS Integrated Care Boards, NHS trusts, Medway Council, and a broad range of voluntary and community sector partners. Its core service portfolio includes two statutory contracts: Healthwatch Kent and Healthwatch Medway, the legally designated consumer voice bodies for health and social care services in each locality, funded primarily by the NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board. Beyond these contracts, EK360 operates the Mental Health Voice engagement platform with quarterly Local Mental Health Network meetings, the Hypertension Heroes community champion programme (later extended to smoking cessation), a free Very Brief Advice (VBA) smoking cessation training programme, the Lived Experience Academy for skills development among residents with health and disability experience, and the Voices Connect panel of over 900 Kent and Medway residents who complete monthly pulse surveys. The methodology, branded as "engage, reflect, improve", combines co-production with lived experience representatives, in-person outreach, and digital feedback channels to produce insight reports that are shared with commissioners and used to inform service design and improvement.

Name

EK360

Legal name

Engaging Kent CIC

Website

https://ek360.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

EK360 is a UK Community Interest Company that delivers statutory Healthwatch contracts and community engagement services for NHS, local government, and voluntary sector partners across Kent and Medway, using lived experience insight to improve health and social care services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Health Engagement Services

NAICS

Individual and Family Services (6241)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Patient Advocacy, Navigation & Access to Care (BPAGACAH)

akta.pro secondary industry

Health Data, Vital Statistics & Population Health Informatics (BPAIAJAM)

Keywords

• Community engagement services
• Health and social care research
• Patient voice programmes
• Lived experience engagement
• Public health insights

Headquarters

HQ city

Ashford

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Healthwatch Kent Contract: EK360 holds the contract to operate Healthwatch Kent, gathering public experiences of health and social care services to improve local provision. Funded by the Kent and Medway ICB.
2. Healthwatch Medway Contract: EK360 holds the contract to operate Healthwatch Medway, gathering public experiences of health and social care services in the Medway area. Funded by the local commissioning system.
3. Commissioned Project Work: EK360 is commissionable for any project that works to improve any aspect of life for communities, including NHS trusts, local authorities, and healthcare organisations. Projects include research reports, engagement programmes, and tailored insights.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

EK360 is a Community Interest Company that delivers community engagement, patient voice, and research services for health and social care improvement across Kent and Medway. Its portfolio includes the statutory Healthwatch Kent and Healthwatch Medway contracts, a Mental Health Voice lived-experience feedback programme, the Hypertension Heroes community health initiative, Very Brief Advice smoking cessation training, a Lived Experience Academy, and an Insights Hub publishing research reports. All work follows an 'engage, reflect, improve' co-production methodology.

Product overview

EK360 is a Community Interest Company (CIC) that operates primarily in health and social care, working to improve health outcomes for local communities in the UK. The company operates a multi-service portfolio including two Healthwatch contracts (Healthwatch Kent and Healthwatch Medway), a Mental Health Voice engagement platform, community health programs (Hypertension Heroes), and smoking cessation training (Very Brief Advice). The company also maintains an Insights Hub for research publications and engages communities through initiatives like the Voices Connect Panel and Local Mental Health Networks. EK360's core methodology follows an 'engage, reflect, improve' approach to turn community insight into actionable strategies.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Lived Experience Academy: A program for people to build skills, grow in confidence, and share real-life experiences with people who design local health and employment services.
• Hypertension Heroes
• Very Brief Advice (VBA)
• Mental Health Voice

Products and services

• Healthwatch Kent A contract held by EK360 to ensure local people's voices are heard and used to improve health and social care services across Kent. EK360 supported over 3,200 people to share their experiences and helped more than 4,000 residents find advice and information about services.
• Healthwatch Medway A contract held by EK360 to make sure local people's voices are heard and used to improve health and social care services in Medway. EK360 supported over 1,500 people to share their experiences and helped nearly 3,000 residents access advice and information about services.
• Mental Health Voice A platform and methodology developed by EK360 that gives people with mental health conditions (and their families) a voice, ensuring lived experience is heard by the right people, in the right way, at the right time to ensure maximum impact. Generates quarterly insight reports shared at Local Mental Health Network meetings.
• Hypertension Heroes A community asset-based approach that directly empowers communities to address health inequalities around self-management of hypertension by increasing the knowledge and capacity of community champions. Recent phases added smoking cessation to the toolkit.
• Very Brief Advice (Smoking) A simple, evidence-based approach to supporting people to stop smoking, designed to fit naturally into everyday conversations taking 30 seconds to 3 minutes. EK360 delivers free VBA smoking cessation training to staff teams across Kent and Medway, using the 'Three A's' (Ask, Advise, Act) approach with Pico Smokerlyzer equipment.
• Lived Experience Academy A learning opportunity where individuals build skills, grow in confidence, and work alongside others to share real-life experiences with people who design local health and employment services.
• Insights Hub An EK360 Insight Centre providing access to evidence, evaluations, and sector research shaped through engagement work across Kent and Medway. Offers clear, accessible analysis highlighting emerging trends, community experiences, and real-world impact of local services.
• Voices Connect Panel A panel of over 900 residents of Kent and Medway that EK360 surveys monthly on topics affecting health, social care, or community life, providing regular pulse data to inform insight reports.
• Local Mental Health Network Quarterly meetings hosted by EK360 where professionals discuss changes in the mental health system, experiences, and insights from recent Mental Health Voice reports.

Quantifiable outcome

• Healthwatch Medway helped nearly 3,000 residents access advice and information about mental health, dentistry, and GP care
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• Kent and Medway ICBcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board is the primary funder and commissioner of EK360's Healthwatch Kent and Healthwatch Medway contracts. EK360 gathers public experiences of health and social care on behalf of the ICB, providing insights that inform strategic decision-making and service commissioning across the health system.
• Healthwatch (national)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEK360 operates under the Healthwatch brand for Kent and Medway, part of the national Healthwatch network established by statute to gather public experiences of health and social care. They contribute to national Healthwatch consultations and share data with the national network.
• Medway CouncilcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMedway Council works with EK360 on multiple initiatives including the Marmot Place programme, Healthwatch Medway commissioning, and co-producing health initiatives with local communities. The council uses EK360's community insights for strategic planning.
• Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS TrustmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMental health trust receives Mental Health Voice insight reports from EK360 and participates in Local Mental Health Network meetings. The trust uses feedback to improve mental health services and care pathways across Kent and Medway.
• Medway Therapeutic AlliancemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEK360 works with the Medway Therapeutic Alliance which provides mental health and wellbeing services for children and young people aged 5-18 in Medway, including Kooth, North Kent Mind, Oasis, Chums, and other specialist providers.
• Carers FirstminorOthersCarers First is a charity providing support to unpaid carers across Kent and Medway. EK360 engages with Carers First as part of community outreach and shares feedback on carers' experiences of health and social care services.
• Mental Health TogethermajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMental Health Together is cited as a key mental health service praised by residents in feedback gathered through the Mental Health Voice programme. EK360 works with the service to improve mental health support through shared insights.
• Hypertension Heroes Community PartnerscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEK360 partners with community organisations across Kent to deliver the Hypertension Heroes programme: Fusion Healthy Living Centre (Maidstone), Salvation Army Sheppey Matters (Swale), The Beehive and Sunflower House (Gravesend), Youth Ngage and Rethink Sahayak (Ashford). These partners host community champions trained in hypertension management and smoking cessation.
• Kent & Medway Medical SchoolminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHealthwatch Medway's sleep health research was showcased at Kent University's Sleep Education Event. The medical school plans to repeat the event to educate healthcare professionals using local research findings gathered by EK360.
• 21 TogetherminorOthers21 Together is a community organisation in Kent that works with EK360 on health engagement activities and community outreach across the region.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• PPL: Public sector consultancy providing insight, evaluation, and strategic support to NHS, local government, and voluntary sector clients. Comparable to EK360's commissioned research and insights work for NHS and local authority commissioners, with a broader national footprint.
• User Voice: Charity that gathers lived experience feedback from people in prison and other criminal justice settings to influence service design. Directly comparable methodology to EK360's Mental Health Voice and Lived Experience Academy, but applied to a different service user population.
• Healthwatch England: Statutory national body that oversees the Healthwatch network of which EK360 is a local operator in Kent and Medway. Direct peer because they define the standards, training, and policy framework that EK360 operates within, and both exist to amplify patient and public voice in health and social care.
• Care Opinion: UK-based online platform that collects and publishes patient and service user experiences of health and care services. Directly comparable to EK360's Healthwatch patient feedback function but delivered via a digital national platform rather than regional community engagement.
• Traverse: Social research and participation consultancy that designs engagement, co-production, and evaluation programmes for public sector and NHS clients. Closely comparable to EK360's commissioned project work and co-production methodology, but operates as a commercial consultancy across the UK.

Broad incumbents

• Turning Point: Large national health and social care provider delivering mental health, substance use, and learning disability services across England. Adjacent to EK360's mental health and social care engagement work, but a much larger provider offering direct service delivery rather than community insight.
• Change Grow Live: Major UK charity providing health, justice, and social services including substance use, mental health, and homelessness support. Overlaps thematically with EK360's health inequalities and social determinants focus, but operates at national scale with direct service delivery rather than community engagement.

Others

• NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations): UK membership body supporting the voluntary sector with research, policy, and infrastructure. EK360 operates as a CIC within the same voluntary and community sector ecosystem that NCVO represents; related but not a direct competitor to EK360's commissioned engagement work.

Regional players

• Healthwatch Essex: Another local Healthwatch organisation delivering comparable statutory engagement, insight reporting, and volunteer-led community voice work in a different UK geography. Direct functional comparison to EK360's Healthwatch Kent and Medway operations, but operating in its own regional market.
• Help & Care: UK social enterprise delivering community engagement, advocacy, and health and social care support services across southern England. Comparable to EK360's mix of Healthwatch-style engagement, community programmes, and lived experience work, primarily in a different regional footprint.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/EK_360
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@EK-zh3fp
• Facebookfacebook.com/p/EK360-61578724326213
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ek360
• Instagraminstagram.com/ek360_hq

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about EK360