ARRS GP figures to be released in April

The number of GPs employed through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) is to be released by NHS England on 3 April.

NHS England does not currently report the figures separately.

However, in a statistical update on the primary care workforce, it said: ‘On Thursday 3rd April at 9.30am we will be releasing data on the number of GPs employed by PCNs through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) since 1st October 2024.

‘These data will be published on our Supplementary Information pages, the link to which will be provided directly below the existing Resources made available with this publication.’

The most recent data, released today, reported that the number of GPs hired by PCNs has increased by 60 over the past month. However, this includes both GPs hired via the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) and those employed through the PCN extended access DES.

There were 309 GPs employed by PCNs as of the 28 February, compared to 249 in January.

Prior to October when the GP role first became available via ARRS, there were only 70 GPs employed by PCNs (see graph).

The data also showed that the top three roles employed by PCNs continued to increase in number, with pharmacists up by 27 to 5,491, care coordinators saw 40 added to their number to total 4,893, and social prescribing link workers were up by 7, to 2,777.

Physician associate numbers continued to drop across PCNs, down 8 from January to 1,135.

The regulation of the profession began in December, however the role has been subject to controversy over the past few months, with reports of redundancies.

The number of enhanced nurses, which is a role that was added to ARRS last year, is still not reported fully. The data has recorded 13 enhanced practice nurses as working in PCNs across England, but they are not labelled as reimbursable through ARRS on the spreadsheet.

Pulse PCN has asked NHS England to clarify if these enhanced nurse roles are reimbursable through ARRS, or if they are employed by PCNs through other funding.

In addition, the table declares that some PCNs may record enhanced nurses in the advanced nurse practitioner role, as the role is not ‘separately captured’ within the National Workforce Reporting Service (NWRS). 

We look at the monthly primary care workforce figures from February, which report on the National Workforce Reporting Service (NWRS) submissions to give a picture of additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) PCN staff across England.

Pulse PCN also reports on the quarterly primary care workforce figures, which alongside the NWRS submissions includes ARRS claims data, to keep a track on the number of ARRS PCN staff in England.

All figures are full-time equivalent.

*While all the above roles from the primary care network workforce statistics are reimbursable under ARRS, NHS England has not confirmed whether the FTE numbers have been claimed for under the scheme.