Revealed: How PCNs distribute their staff across practices

Almost half of PCNs vary the way they deploy their ARRS staff with some based in a single practice and others working across all practices, a Pulse PCN survey has found.  

Of the 228 PCN representatives that responded, 46% said they had some staff working across multiple practices and others based in a single one.

A further 26% had all of their PCN-employed staff working across multiple practices, rather than just one.

Only 4% of respondents said their PCN-employed staff only worked for their lead practice, however three of these commented that they were single-practice PCNs.

Just under a fifth (17%) said PCN-employed staff were permanently based at one practice, based proportionally on list size.

It comes as just a quarter of PCNs have reported that they have premises to provide face-to-face care, according to the same Pulse PCN survey.

The results found that of the 228 PCN representatives who responded, 26% said they had a premises for face-to-face care. Most of these (20%) were premises that already existed and were bought or rented by the PCN, and the rest (6%) of which were purpose-built.

Another 6% said they were planning to either get purpose-built premises or buy existing ones.

Earlier this year estates were highlighted as a big issue in a study on whether the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) was able to fulfil its objectives, with some participants in the study saying this was a barrier to the success of PCNs.

Middleton PCN in Rochdale recently told Pulse PCN of its experience using a shopping centre to deliver care, as a solution for its estates problem.

This survey was run alongside our sister title Pulse and was open between 19 September and 18 October 2024, collating responses using the SurveyMonkey tool. After removing duplicate entries from the same primary care network, a total of 228 PCN representatives from England responded to these questions. The survey was advertised to our readers via our website and email newsletter, with a prize draw for a £200 John Lewis voucher as an incentive to complete the survey. The survey was unweighted, and we do not claim this to be scientific – only a snapshot of the PCN population.