ARRS workforce has increased over the past three months

We take a look at the quarterly primary care workforce figures, which combine the National Workforce Reporting Service (NWRS) submissions and the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) claims data to give a picture of ARRS PCN staff across England.

The number of staff employed through the ARRS scheme has increased over the past three months, however physician associate (PA) numbers continue to fall, official figures show.

There were 36,029 staff working across ARRS roles within PCNs, according to the quarterly statistics, compared to 35,736 in September and 35,090 in June. These figures have been updated this quarter to reflect that healthcare assistants and health support workers are not reimbursable under ARRS. Previously, the data had included figures for these roles.

The most popular roles continue to be pharmacists (7,253), care coordinators (7,062), and social prescribing link workers (3,543).

The number of PAs continues to decline after a peak of 1,976 in March 2024, to 1,923 as of December 2024, decreasing for three consecutive quarters.

The figures still do not contain the number of GPs employed through the ARRS scheme, although funding for the role began in October.

PCNs that have not yet recruited a GP have been told to report to their ICB to set out their recruitment intentions.

RCGP chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne in December said her most recent update from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) revealed that of the 1,000 ARRS GP jobs available, just over 300 have been filled.

Pulse PCN also reports on the monthly PCN workforce statistics, which are a snapshot from the NWRS alone, whereas the quarterly figures contain ARRS claims portal data as well as NWRS figures, therefore providing a fuller picture of the workforce.

NHS England says of these statistics: ‘Because we do not calculate fully estimated records in the PCN Workforce statistics and not all active PCNs provide valid data through NWRS, the FTE figures presented in the Primary Care Workforce FTE (NWRS only) tables are likely to be under-counts.

‘However, by triangulating NWRS data with that received from PCNs when claiming for staff under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), we can calculate a more accurate picture of overall FTE.’