IIF indicators remain the same for 2025/26

The two Investment and Impact Fund (IIF) indicators remain the same for PCNs in 2025/25, worth a maximum of £13 million.

In a Network DES contract document released last week, PCNs will continue to focus on two national clinical priorities: tackling health inequalities and cancer (see box for full indicators) within the IIF.

The funding available for IIF remains the same as in 2024/25, however a contract document has clarified that this will be a ‘maximum’ amount.

For 2025/26, PCNs can achieve a maximum of 58 IIF points, with £198 per point multiplied by a list size adjustment and prevalence adjustment.

For the tackling health inequalities area, PCNs must record the percentage of patients on the learning disability register, as defined by the statement of financial entitlements, aged 14 years and over who receive a learning disability annual health check and a health action plan, alongside recording their ethnicity.

However, the contract document stated that following ‘concerns’ about patients being inappropriately added to the disability register due to associated diagnosis and SNOMED coding, that a removal code will be available.

On the second indicator, which relates to FIT testing alongside urgent suspected cancer referrals, the document said the implementation of FIT has had a ‘positive impact’ on lower GI referral volumes.

It said: ‘Recent data has shown that referrals for all cancers are 2.3% above the pre-pandemic trend, while lower GI referrals are 14.1% below the trend.

‘At the same time, there has been an increase in the proportion of lower GI urgent suspected cancer referrals that result in a cancer diagnosis, and no significant change to the trend in lower GI detection rates. This suggests that FIT is supporting the most appropriate patients to be referred for colonoscopy.’

The contract documents also revealed that consultant nurses would be added to the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS), alongside general practice nurses and healthcare support workers.

The total ARRS funding pot has risen to £186m for the year and now includes funding for hiring GPs, which core PCN funding has seen a very slight rise of £0.032 from £2.967 to £2.999 in 25/26.

Two changes to the service requirements have been made, including a secondary prevention action on cholesterol within CVD prevention and diagnosis, and ensuring that alternatives to medicines such as social prescribing are communicated when conducting a structured medication review (SMR), where appropriate.