NHS England has reassured GP practices and ARRS staff that the future of PCNs is ‘secure’ for the next financial year.
The commissioner clarified this during a webinar for GPs yesterday evening, after being told that some practices have had ARRS staff resigning because of ‘uncertainty’ about the future of PCNs until the new Network Contract of Directed Enhanced Service (DES) is published in March.
It comes after the Government announced an expansion of the ARRS scheme to include newly-qualified GPs, and the first details of the next GP contract revealed last month also included the addition of practice nurses to ARRS.
It had already announced that funding for GPs hired via ARRS would continue beyond March, but has not given details.
One GP attending the webinar asked NHS England: ‘Is there any confirmation coming out about the future of PCNs for 2025/26? Many ARRS staff are very worried about their jobs beyond March 2025.’
Another GP said: ‘Good to hear about GPs in ARRS, although some detail would be helpful.
‘But we need to know about the other ARRS roles as we have staff leaving because of the uncertainty about the future of PCNs until the new DES is published or announced.’
NHS England responded: ‘The future of PCNs is secure for 25/26 with additional funding being implemented through ARRS.’
NHS England’s group director for primary care Alex Morton said that this ‘should give some assurance’ to practices around ARRS staff.
‘Ordinarily, we would recognise ARRS staff as kind of part of the operating budget of PCNs, and take that into account in budget setting,’ she added.
NHS England was also told during the webinar that there are practices ‘struggling’ to find GPs who will ‘accept a salary within ARRS level funding’, particularly within London.
The Government announced over the summer that GPs would be added to the ARRS in a bid to hire 1,000 more doctors, as an ’emergency measure’ to tackle GP unemployment in 2024/25.
NHS England guidance later revealed that only GPs who had qualified in the last two years would be eligible for the scheme, and that the £82m allocated for GPs must used separately to the main ARRS funding pot.
But the BMA has since criticised this policy, saying the amount of funding made available for PCNs to pay ARRS GPs is ‘derisory’ and ‘uncompetitive’.
And according to the RCGP, only just over 300 newly-qualified GPs had taken up posts under the scheme as of last month.
However, NHS England reiterated during the webinar that practices are ‘encouraged’ to make ‘full use’ of the funding available to recruit.
Ms Morton said: ‘I wanted particularly to encourage colleagues, now that there is absolute confirmation that recently qualified GPs employed by the ARRS scheme will continue to be supported next year, I wanted to really encourage people to really take the opportunity to make those appointments.’
The health secretary previously clarified that funding to hire GPs via ARRS ‘will continue beyond March’ next year, but the BMA added that despite this there needs to be an ‘appropriately funded’ transition period when the scheme will eventually end.
The BMA has also recommended that GPs employed under the scheme should only work across a ‘limited’ number of practices within their PCN.
When was the future of pcn in doubt?
The whole endeavour seems poorly throughout – only newly qualified GPs, so no experience, limited time offer, so why would they accept – I certainly wouldn’t have at the start of my career, and only 300 GPs actually working under these conditions. God only knows how much money has gone into devising and announcing such a move. It’s a joke
It’s good that NHS England says PCNs are secure for now, but there’s not enough detail to stop staff from worrying and leaving. Adding newly-qualified GPs to ARRS is a step in the right direction, but the funding is too low to attract people, especially in places like London. Waiting until March for the new DES makes it hard for practices to plan properly, and that’s putting even more pressure on us.