Membership: hold your postcode area for your profession
Membership is free. PCN charges nothing to join and takes nothing from referrals.
Join online in about five minutes. Nobody needs to approve you.
Your area is held for 48 hours while you confirm it from the email we send.
You can leave at any time from your account. Your postcode area then reopens for the next firm in your profession.
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Hold your area
What does membership include?
- Your postcode area, for your profession. While you hold it, no other firm in your profession can join PCN there.
- Referrals from the other four professions in your area. When a member there has a client who needs your profession, the referral comes to you.
- Somewhere to send your own clients. Refer to the firm that holds any postcode area in PCN, for any of the other four professions.
- Introductions to the firms in your area. When a firm joins your postcode area, PCN introduces you to each other by email, with each firm’s profile.
- A members’ directory. Find firms in any area and connect with them. Contact details are shared once you’re connected.
- Member offers. Firms can post an offer for other members, and a weekly email lists the new ones. You can switch it off.
- A member account that keeps track. Every referral you’ve sent and received, with its status, and which ones became clients.
What it doesn’t include
- A promise of a number of referrals or new clients. Referrals depend on which firms hold your area and on their clients.
- Advice to your clients. PCN passes summaries between firms; it doesn’t advise or take instructions.
- Any fee per referral, paid or charged by PCN.
What happens after you hold an area?
Every step below runs automatically. Nobody at PCN needs to approve, introduce or chase.
- 1The area is held for 48 hours
We email you a link to confirm it, create your login and finish your firm’s profile.
- 2Your firm is live
The area shows as taken for your profession, and you’re introduced to the firms already in your area.
- 3Referrals start as others join
Until firms from the other professions in your area join, nothing is sent your way. We’d rather say so now.
- 4Leave from your account
No call to make. The area then reopens for the next firm in your profession.
What you agree to when you join
The five rules are the same for every member, in all five professions.
- One firm per profession in each postcode area
Each firm holds one postcode area. While you hold it, no other firm in your profession can join there.
- The client agrees before any referral
Every referral needs the sender to confirm the client has agreed to be passed on.
- The client stays anonymous until the firm accepts
The receiving firm sees a summary and the postcode area. Names and contact details follow only after it accepts.
- PCN takes nothing from referrals
There’s no fee per referral. If two members agree a fee between themselves, it’s theirs to agree and to disclose under their own regulator’s rules.
- You can leave, and unused areas reopen
You leave from your account, with no call to make. Your area, or one held by an account that’s been inactive for 12 months, then reopens for the next firm in that profession automatically.
Cost and leaving
Membership is free. PCN charges nothing to join and takes nothing from referrals.
You can leave at any time from your account. Your postcode area then reopens for the next firm in your profession.
Questions before you join
Anything else, call the Independent Check team on 0800 246 1094.
All questionsWhat if no one else in my area has joined yet?
Then no referrals will come to you yet. Referrals start when firms from the other professions in your postcode area join. What you get straight away is the area itself: no other firm in your profession can join there while you hold it.
What if my area is taken?
The form tells you before you go any further, and the postcode areas page shows the nearest open ones. If the firm leaves or is inactive for 12 months, the area reopens automatically.
Does anyone check my firm before I’m live?
No one approves members by hand. You give your firm’s regulator or registration number when you finish your profile, and other members see it on your firm’s profile.
Do I have to send a set number of referrals?
No. There are no targets. You refer a client when it’s right for them.