Merger update
November 03, 2021
On 17 September 2021, the Action for M.E. board announced a decision to merge with The ME Trust following a thorough review of the potential benefits to people with ME started in June, and after consulting with key stakeholders of both charities. We had anticipated merging both charities in late November/early December.
We have now been informed that our application to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the regulatory body that oversees and audits clinical services in the UK, won’t be processed within the 12-week timescale stipulated by the CQC. We have jointly agreed that delaying the merger until January should allow time for our application to be processed and registration secured.
Both the Action for M.E. and ME Trust boards remain committed to merging our charities in order to enhance the services and support available to people with ME. We now anticipate the two charities merging and launching our combined service offer in January 2022. We will continue to keep our website updated with further information about the merger including timescales.
Background Information
The M.E. Trust is a UK charity that offers individually tailored whole-person care to people with M.E., including access to doctors, nurses, physios, nurses, counsellors and chaplains. As well as listening and caring for the needs of the whole person, the charity offers encouragement and support to families and immediate community of carers.
Both Action for M.E. and The ME Trust remain frustrated by the considerable lack of provision for people with M.E. with a postcode lottery in access to specialist services and huge variability between them. There is simply not enough support for children and adults with M.E. now, let alone with an increase in diagnoses following Covid-19.
In response to this public health crisis and gaps in existing service provision for people with post-viral syndromes like M.E., we will merge with the M.E. Trust, allowing us to combine the power of our organisations and strengthen the services we offer to people with M.E.
We plan to scale up the current clinician-led, holistic health and wellbeing support currently delivered by the ME Trust to fill the gaps more quickly.
