GP Contract 2020/21 2023/24 24/25
October 2024
GP Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS)
The updated PCN DES bringing in the GP ARRS was released last week. GPs employed via the Scheme must be within 2 years of their CCT on 1/10/24 and PCNs will be required to provide terms no less favourable than the BMA salaried GP model contract, in line with the GMS/PMS contract. GPC England and the Sessional GPs Committee have released guidance for PCNs, and individuals employed under this scheme. It can be found here. Whilst there is progress in acknowledging the difficulties currently faced by many GPs struggling to find jobs, GPCE continue to stress to NHSE and the Department of Health the underlying issue of GP unemployment and how this needs to be better addressed through additional support and funding at a practice level, reinforcing the need for a new GP contract to support this. Interesting blog by Dr Mark Steggles, Chair, Sessional GPs Committee.
Focus on how the 24/25 DDRB award is added to national funding and distributed
PCN DES Published September 26th 2024
GP Contract Documentation Published August 2024
GP Contract 24/25 Imposed Changes Guidance
Highlights
- The global sum will be a figure of £107.57 per patient based on the contractor weighted population figure.
- Practices under GMS, PMS and APMS contracts will all see an uplift of £2.84 per weighted patient unless the contract specifies the raw list.
- Adjustments for not providing minor surgery are 0.6% of the initial global sum monthly payment, and the opt-out figure for out-of-hours provision is 4.75% of the initial global sum monthly payment.
- The average number of patients registered with a practice in England is just short of 10,000 patients, at 9,964 patients on average.
- QOF Aspiration payments will be made at 80% of the prior year’s Unadjusted Achievement Payment.
- The value of each QOF point will be £220.62; this increase relates to the increase in the average practice list size.
- The Network Participation Payment will be £0.147 per weighted patient.
- Payment for the Learning Disabilities Health Check will be £140 per completed health check.
- Payments for vaccination and immunisations remain at an item of service fee of £10.06.
- There are changes to the amount paid for both dispensed and personally administered items.
2023/24
GP Contract 2023/24 financial information
- Update to the GP contract agreement 2023/24: financial implications
- Standard GMS Contract Variation Notice August 2023
- Practice and PCN income ready reckoner for 2023/24
- Implementing the 2023/24 GP Contract Changes to Personal Medical Services and Alternative Provider Medical Services contracts
NHS England Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service (DES) 2023/24
Practice and PCN Ready Reckoner 2023/24
Frailty - Core contract requirements - updated January 2024
GP Core Contract Business rule specification - Frailty, Alcohol and Named GP
GP Contract Services: Supporting Information - INLQI
2022/23
New directly bookable appointment guidance to support GP practices published Nov 22
Enhanced Access FAQs July 2022
GPC Contract Webinar slides 2022/23
Link to PCN National Information and Key Dates
Supporting general practice, primary care networks and their teams through winter and beyond
GP Contract 22/23 – Guidance for Practices: Please Read GPC guidance about the contract changes to support practices in their decision making and next steps.
Safe Working in General Practice: GPCE has published a safe working guide to enable practices to prioritise safe patient care, within the present bounds of the GMS contract. Present resource in general practice is finite, though we must continue to deliver high quality, safe care to our patients. As a result of resource decisions by practices, it may be the case that some patients will regrettably wait longer to access GP care for their non-urgent problems, or are directed to another more appropriate provider.
Priorities and operational planning guidance - 23 December 2021 - This guidance reconfirms the ongoing needed to restore services, meet new care demands and reduce the care backlogs that are a direct consequence of the pandemic. The objectives set out in this document are based on a scenario where COVID-19 returns to a low level and we are able to make significant progress in the first part of next year as we continue to rise to the challenge of restoring services and reducing the COVID backlogs.
2021/22 Contract
NHSE published a further letter on 23rd August 21 with PCN plans for 21/22 - 22/23 . This details the NHSE plan for the gradual introduction of new service requirements for PCNs and confirming how PCNs will access the funding available for their activities through the IIF across the second half of 2021/22 and 2022/23. The main implementation focus is 2022/23 rather than 2021/22, so that PCNs have the maximum possible time to prepare. In addition, NHSE also confirm new funding for PCN leadership and management support, of £43m in 2021/22.
Recognising current pressures in general practice, service requirements will not be introduced in full from October 2021, but phased over the coming eighteen months in a gradual way.
Summary
An additional £43m nationally for CD leadership capacity- this is welcome as it will allow the CDs to work beyond the c. two days per week they are funded for via PCN core funding where able.
Remaining PCN DES specifications deferred or diluted:
- CVD- now focus on hypertension only for 21/22
- Health inequalities- deferred until April 22
- Anticipatory care- deferred until September 22
- Personalised care- deferred until April 22
Instead there will be five new ‘areas of focus’ covering the next 18 months:
- Improving prevention and reducing health inequalities
- Improving proactive primary care
- Improving access to GP services
- Improving medicines management
- Supporting a more sustainable NHS
- IIF funding and business rules are confirmed up to the end of 22/23- IIF will now primarily support the five areas of focus
BMA Update July 2021 - NHSEI has confirmed that the temporary changes to the GP contract under the pandemic regulations which were due to lapse at the end of March have now been extended until 30 September 2021.
As with previously, this means:
- a continued suspension of the Friends and Family Test requirement
- a continued suspension of the requirement for individual patient consent for electronic repeat dispensing (eRD)
- a continuation of the amendment to NHS 111 direct booking - sufficient slots available for NHS 111 to refer into a triage list; for most practices offering 1 per 3000 is likely to be sufficient but this can increase to 1 per 500 if demand requires.
GP Contract Changes 2021/22
Implementing the 2021/22 GP Contract
PCN National Information and Key Dates
Primary Medical Services Directions
NHS Operational planning Guidance 2021/22
GMS Statement of Financial Entitlements 2021
2020/21
Investment and evolution: A five-year framework for GP contract reform to implement The NHS Long Term Plan (full document)
Implementing the 2020/21 GP Contract
NHS England Enhanced Service Specifications
PCN Network Contracted DES specification 17.09.20
PCN Network Contract Guidance 17.09.20
PCN DES Covering Letter 17.09.20
GPC Contract Update via u tube
GP Contract Agreement England 2020/21
GPC England has negotiated an update to the GP contract 2020/21 - 2023/24. This contract will build on the Primary Care Networks created in 2019 (with additional funding and additional workforce), expand recruitment and retention initiatives for GPs (supported with additional funding), thus reducing workload, while retaining GP and partnership autonomy and ensuring GPs have a leadership role at the centre of primary care. The changes will significantly increase funding into the contract (both core and PCN), the details of which are set out below.
- The new value of Global Sum from 1st April will be £93.46.
- The new value of a QOF point will be £194.83.
- More roles added to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme.
- Between 2020/21 and 2023/24, the scheme will expand to 26,000 additional roles.
- All roles to be reimbursed at 100%, freeing up the existing £1.50/head to contribute to management support for PCNs.
- Funding entitlements increase from £257m to £430m next year and, in 2023/24, from £891m to £1,412m.
- Extra investment will fund new GP training, recruitment and retention measures with £20,000 plus training support for every new partner.
- Payment arrangements for vaccinations and immunisations to be reformed with an item of service fee for childhood vaccinations, beginning with MMR in 2020/21.
- QOF to be updated.
- PCN service specifications significantly reduced and improved.
- Investment and Impact Fund introduced worth £40.5m in 2020/21.
- Taken together, more funding available at practice level.
CCGs will be expected to provide LMCs with an annual report to enable them to monitor local investment in general practice. There is also reference to the important role of LMCs throughout the agreement document.
2019/2020
GPC Contract Roadshow Presentation
BMA PCN Page (this page is continually updated as further documents are released)
Primary Care Networks Structures Governance and decision making webinar
Setting up a PCN-Checklist for discussion and agreement
Setting up a meeting to make decisions about establishing a PCN
BMA Primary Care Networks Toolkit
Sessional GPs and Primary Care Networks
Offering 25% of appointments online
PCNs Top Tips
3. Network DES Registration Form
5. Network Contract VAT Information Note
6. GP contract 2019/20: NHS England National enhanced services specifications
9. Brief Introduction to Quality Improvement
10.Quality Improvement Case Studies
11.Quality Improvement Module Document: End of Life
12.Quality Improvement Report Template: Safe Prescribing
Guidance and Audit Requirements 19/20
Legal Guidance for PCNs from BMA Law
the BMA and NHS England have reached a sensible position on the pre-requisites. While most should be achievable by the 15th May deadline, the necessity to enter into a Network Agreement was causing concern as any network is going to need to consider its objectives and operating model before moulding the Network Agreement to suit. Indeed, all PCNs should consider “function before form”.
With this in mind, it has now been agreed that practices need only sign up to the core elements of the Network Agreement by the 15th May 2019. They will then have up to the 30th June 2019 to finalise the full agreement. Even then, if agreement has not been reached the commencement of the DES will be delayed until agreement is reached.
Foreword and summary
General practice is the bedrock of the NHS, and the NHS relies on it to survive and thrive. This agreement between NHS England and the BMA General Practitioners Committee (GPC) in England, and supported by Government, translates commitments in The NHS Long Term Plan1 into a five-year framework for the GP services contract. We confirm the direction for primary care for the next ten years and seek to meet the reasonable aspirations of the profession. In our discussions we shared five main goals:
• secure and guarantee the necessary extra investment;
• make practical changes to help solve the big challenges facing general practice, not least workforce and workload;
• deliver the expansion in services and improvements in care quality and outcomes set out in The NHS Long Term Plan, phased over a realistic timeframe;
• ensure and show value for money for taxpayers and the rest of the NHS, bearing in mind the scale of investment;
• get better at developing, testing and costing future potential changes before rolling them out nationwide.
Specifically, this agreement:
1. Seeks to address workload issues resulting from workforce shortfall. Through a new Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, Primary Care Networks (PCNs) will be guaranteed funding for an up to estimated 20,000+ additional staff by 2023/24. This funds new roles for which there is both credible supply and demand. The scheme will meet a recurrent 70% of the costs of additional clinical pharmacists, physician associates, first contact physiotherapists, and first contact community paramedics; and 100% of the costs of additional social prescribing link workers. By 2023/24, the reimbursement available to networks amounts to £891 million of new annual investment. Practices will continue to fund all other staff groups including GPs and nurses in the normal way through the core practice contract, which grows by £978 million of new annual investment by 2023/24 and will support further expansion of available nurse, GP and other staff numbers. NHS England will also create and part-fund a new primary care Fellowship Scheme2 aimed at newly qualifying nurses and GPs, as well as Training Hubs. Current NHS England recruitment and retention schemes under the General Practice Forward View3 will be extended. Rises in 4 employer superannuation contributions will be fully funded. We have asked the Government to introduce a partial pension scheme.
2. Brings a permanent solution to indemnity costs and coverage. The new and centrally-funded Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice will start from April 2019. All of general practice will be covered, including out-of-hours and all staff groups. Membership will be free. The scheme is funded through a one-off permanent adjustment to the global sum. Practice contract funding nonetheless rises in 2019/20 by 1.4%, as a result of the overall investments agreed. Future costs of NHS practice under the scheme will be funded centrally, not met individually by practices.
3. Improves the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). We are implementing the findings of the QOF Review4. 28 indicators, worth 175 points in total, are being retired from April 2019. 74 points will be used to create a new Quality Improvement domain. The first two Quality Improvement Modules for 2019/20 are prescribing safety and end-of-life care. 101 points will be used for 15 more clinically appropriate indicators, mainly on diabetes, blood pressure control and cervical screening. The current system of exception reporting will be replaced by the more precise approach of the Personalised Care Adjustment. This will better reflect individual clinical situations and patients’ wishes. In 2019, we will review the heart failure, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease domains. In 2020, we will review the mental health domain for change in 2021/22. Long term Quality Improvement module and indicator development will benefit from the new primary care testbed programme.
4. Introduces automatic entitlement to a new Primary Care Network Contract. In The NHS Long Term Plan, Primary Care Networks are an essential building block of every Integrated Care System, and under the Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service (DES), general practice takes the leading role in every PCN. The Network Contract is a DES established in accordance with Directions given to NHS England. Eligibility depends on meeting registration requirements. The Network Contract DES supports practices of all sizes, working together within neighbourhoods. Like existing GMS, the Network Contract DES will be backed by financial entitlements. If every network takes up 100% of the national Network Entitlements we intend, including a recurrent £1.50/patient support, plus a new contribution to clinical leadership, £1.799 billion would flow nationally through the Network Contract DES by 2023/24. CCGs could also add local investment through Supplementary Network Services. We expect 100% geographical coverage of the Network Contract DES by July 2019, so that no patients or practices are disadvantaged. Each network must have a named accountable Clinical Director and a Network Agreement setting out the collaboration between its members. Together, the Clinical Directors will play a critical role in shaping and supporting their Integrated Care System and dissolving the historic divide between primary and community medical services. A new Primary Care Network development programme will be centrally funded and delivered through Integrated Care Systems.
5. Helps join-up urgent care services. The NHS Long Term Plan envisages Primary Care Networks joining up the delivery of urgent care in the community. Funding and responsibility for providing the current CCG-commissioned enhanced access services transfers to the Network Contract DES by April 2021 latest. From July 2019, the Extended Hours DES requirements are introduced across every network, until March 2021. Following an Access Review in 2019, a more coherent set of access arrangements will start being implemented in 2020 and reflected in the Network Contract DES with coverage everywhere in 2021/22. 111 direct booking into practices will be introduced nationally in 2019. As part of these access arrangements, £30 million of additional annual recurrent funding will be added to the global sum from 2019/20. Working with NHS Digital, GP activity and waiting times data will be published monthly from 2021, alongside hospital data. Publication of the data will expose variation in access between networks and practices and we will include a new measure of patient-reported experience of access.
6. Enables practices and patients to benefit from digital technologies. NHS England will continue to ensure and fund IT infrastructure support including through the new GP IT Futures programme, which replaces the current GP Systems of Choice5. Additional national funding will also give Primary Care Networks access to digital-first support from April 2021, from an agreed list of suppliers on a new separate national framework. All patients will have the right to digital-first primary care, including web and video consultations by April 2021. All patients will be able to have digital access to their full records from 2020 and be able to order repeat prescriptions electronically as a default from April 2019. A Review of Out-of-area Registration and Patient Choice will start in 2019. The rurality index payment and London adjustment will be changed from April 2019 to avoid unwarranted redistribution between different types of provider. To safeguard the model of comprehensive NHS primary medical care, from 2019 it will no longer be possible for any GP provider either directly or via proxy to advertise or host private paid-for GP services that fall within the scope of NHSfunded primary medical services. NHS England will consult in 2019 on expanding this ban on private GP services to other providers of mainly NHS services. In recognition of income loss and workload from subject access requests, £20 million of additional funding will be added to the global sum for the next three years.
7. Delivers new services to achieve NHS Long Term Plan commitments. The scale of the investment in primary medical care under this agreement was secured for phased and full delivery of all relevant NHS Long Term Plan commitments. The annual increase in funding for the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme is subject to agreeing seven national Network Service Specifications and their subsequent delivery. Each will include standard national processes, metrics and expected quantified benefits for patients. The specifications will be developed with GPC England as part of annual contract negotiations and agreed as part of confirming each year’s funding. Five of the seven start by April 2020: structured medication reviews, enhanced health in care homes, anticipatory care (with community services), personalised care and 6 supporting early cancer diagnosis. The other two start by 2021: cardio-vascular disease case-finding and locally agreed action to tackle inequalities. A Review of Vaccination and Immunisation arrangements and outcomes under the GP contract will take place in 2019 and also cover screening. Available by 2020, a new Network Dashboard will set out progress on network metrics, covering population health, urgent and anticipatory care, prescribing and hospital use. Metrics for the seven new services will be included. A national Network Investment and Impact Fund will start in 2020, rising to an expected £300 million in 2023/24. This is intended to help networks make faster progress against the dashboard and NHS Long Term Plan goals. Part of the Investment and Impact Fund will be dedicated to NHS utilisation, which could cover: (i) A&E attendances; (ii) emergency admissions; (iii) hospital discharge; (iv) outpatients; and (v) prescribing. The Fund will be linked to performance and its design will be agreed with GPC England and Government. We envisage that access to the Fund becomes a national network entitlement, with national rules as well as locally agreed elements. Networks will agree with their Integrated Care System how they spend any monies earned from the Fund.
8. Gives five-year funding clarity and certainty for practices. Resources for primary medical and community services increase by over £4.5 billion by 2023/24, and rise as a share of the overall NHS budget. This agreement now confirms how much of this will flow through intended national legal entitlements for general practice under the practice and network contracts. GPC England and NHS England have agreed that we do not expect additional national money for practice or network contract entitlements, taken together, until 2024/25. Funding for the practice contract is now agreed for each of the next five years, and increases by £978 million in 2023/24. As a result, DDRB will not make recommendations on GP partner net income. Under this agreement, we assume that practice staff, including salaried GPs, will receive at least a 2.0% increase in 2019/20, but the actual effect will depend on indemnity arrangements within practices. NHSE and GPC have asked the government to ask the DDRB not to make recommendations for salaried GPs for the 2019 pay round. We have further asked the Government to continue to include recommendations on the pay of salaried GPs in the DDRB remit from the 2020 pay round onwards. Recommendations will need to be informed by affordability and in particular the fixed contract resources available to practices under this deal and will inform decisions by GP practices on the pay of salaried GPs. We have asked the Government to ensure that DDRB continues, as usual, to recommend on GP trainees, educators and appraisers. As now, the Government will decide how to respond to DDRB recommendations. A new Balancing Mechanism will, if required, adjust between the global sum and the workforce reimbursement sum in the Network Contract DES, depending on real terms partner pay levels. This will be designed by NHS England and GPC England in 2019. As a corollary of major investment, and to safeguard public trust in the GP partnership model, pay transparency will increase. GPs with total NHS earnings above £150,000 per annum will be listed by name and earnings in a national publication, starting with 2019/20 income. The Government will look to introduce the same pay transparency across other independent contractors in the NHS at the same time.
9. Tests future contract changes prior to introduction. A new testbed programme will be established to provide real-world assessment. Under this, different clusters of GP practices in Primary Care Networks will each develop or test a specific draft contract change such as a service specification, QOF indicator or QI module. Some clusters will work with innovators to discover promising approaches and develop prototypes. Testing is likely to include rapid cycle evaluation, with assessment of costs and benefits. Each cluster will be commissioned nationally, topic by topic, normally through open calls for practice or network participation. Network participation in research will also be encouraged from 2020/21, given the proven link to better quality care. This document marks the expansion of a major programme of collaboration between NHS England and the BMA over the next five years. We include a schedule of planned work. We now need to get the further design work and implementation detail right. The profession and patients expect the benefits we intend to bear fruit.
DR RICHARD VAUTREY IAN DODGE GPC ENGLAND CHAIR NHS ENGLAND NEGOTIATING TEAM
