A survey of all 42 ICB primary care leaders has revealed that many are focusing on training hubs and the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) as a way of supporting primary care.
The survey was part of our publisher Cogora’s General Practice Workforce White Paper, which looked at why general practice is facing simultaneous recruitment and unemployment problems, and how to solve both.
It found that ICBs were mostly focusing on training hubs and ARRS to support primary care. Out of the 42 ICBs, 16 mentioned training hubs in their responses, and five spoke of how they were using their ARRS budget.
For example, Sussex ICB said: ‘The training hub runs initiatives such as mentoring services, fellowship and development opportunities, groups to support retention, and the new to primary care programme for newly qualified doctors and new clinicians. The latter scheme has so far supported 148 GPs and has expanded to the wider primary care workforce to include nurses and other patient-facing staff.’
Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB said its ARRS roles use was at 98%, while Lancashire and Cumbria said PCNs had been ‘more successful in appointing to ARRS roles than other ICB areas’.
Humber and North Yorkshire meanwhile said they had commissioned a mentoring programme for GPs, practice manager, nurses and other practice staff which has provided more than 700 course places to practice staff since 2021.
Of the ICBs, 15 also provided off the record details, including rating key statements out of five for how much they agreed with them.
The three statements with the strongest average score were around funding. These were that the government should be investing a larger proportion of NHS funding into primary care, that GP practices need more funding to alleviate recruitment problems, and that ICBs should be investing a larger proportion of NHS funding into primary care.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one director said: ‘One of the constraints we have is available funding to support practices’ recruitment. Many are not able to increase their workforce because of this or estates constraints. We are supporting them locally to explore options, but there are some constraints which are not a quick fix.’
Another said: ‘Sustainable primary care requires appropriate resource to be viable’.
One respondent said there were systemic problems: ‘The overall funding model is not creating equity and sustainability.’
However, the ICBs did not blame the practices themselves for recruitment struggles, but they did not feel they could do much to alleviate the issues either. The latter scoring 2.87 out of five in how much the directors agreed with the statement.
Primary care director at Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB, James Roach, recently told Healthcare Leader that his first priority for primary care was resilience and quality.
He suggested the ICB has a workforce plan which focuses on new entrants, recruitment and retention.
‘How can we support GPs have a portfolio career? How do we expand the other roles within primary care?, he said. ‘How do we support our nurses and our pharmacists to work the top of license? How do we create an environment where the GP can develop a specialty area of interest? How do we expand the workforce model.
‘We’re looking at apprenticeships, we’re looking at new ways of working. We’re equipping teams to deal with the digital opportunities. It’s not just recruitment, it’s the environment, it’s the MDT working, it’s development of professionals that will keep people enrolled as well.’
In a separate interview with Healthcare Leader that will be released tomorrow, the chief primary care officer at Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes, Nicky Poulain, spoke about supporting primary care through the ICB’s training hub.
She said that the ICB used the service development funds (SDF) for the hub ‘instead of giving it to practices and PCNs’, adding that, ‘They were very annoyed with us to start with, but I know that well-resourced primary care training makes a difference.’
The white paper has been released today by the publishers of Healthcare Leader, Cogora, on the changing general practice workforce in England, in conjunction with the Rebuild General Practice campaign group. Alongside our sister titles – Pulse, Pulse PCN, Management in Practice, Nursing in Practice and The Pharmacist – we have surveyed around 2,500 general practice professionals, interviewed more than 100 frontline practitioners, analysed hundreds of data for every practice in England and brought together all the editorial expertise within our titles.
The white paper is being launched at a Parliamentary event today, which will be attended by MPs, GP, nursing, pharmacy and practice manager leaders, and numerous frontline GPs.
Download our General Practice Workforce White Paper here.
