The NHS in England introduced the Right to Request scheme in 2008, which enabled healthcare staff working in the public sector to carry over community health services into social enterprises. Staff wanting to do this had to apply to primary care trust boards, which were required to consider their requests and, if accepted, to guarantee contracts of between three and five years. This article reviews the Right to Request scheme and provides an overview of the organisations that have been launched to date. It then considers the implications of the scheme in relation to its implied objectives of improving patient care and empowering staff, as well as the impact on the health and social care system and on the third sector more widely