ARRS employs 37,000 primary care staff, NHS confirms

PCNs are employing 37,000 staff through the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS), including pharmacists, social prescribers and physician associates, according to NHS England.

A spokesperson said that as of June, there were ‘37,000 roles under the programme currently in place’, which is 43% higher than their original 26,000 target for the scheme. This figure is up from 31,000 in October last year.

This total ARRS figure is drawn from the PCN claims for ARRS staff wages via the ARRS claims portal and information submitted to the National Workforce Reporting Service (NWRS).

NHS England confirmed there was ‘no upper limit’ for the number of staff employed through the ARRS scheme.

A spokesperson said: ‘There is no upper limit in the number of staff employed through the ARRS scheme and although the significant increase in the value of the scheme over the past five years has now flattened, we would expect the numbers of staff to fluctuate as PCNs further develop the best skill mix to meet the needs of their local population.’

The latest NHS England primary care network workforce data, which only uses NWRS data rather than the full claims data, covers up until 31 May 2024, shows that pharmacists continue to be the most popular role employed under the scheme, with around 5,315 FTE employed by PCNs. This is up by seven from April (see table for figures).

Care coordinators are the next most popular, with 4,734 FTE employed through the scheme, however this figure did drop by 37 since April.

Social prescribing link workers follow this, with 2,832 FTE employed as of the end of May, down from 2,845 in April.

The total FTE roles employed by the ARRS scheme according to the primary care workforce data is 24,241.

The new contract added the role of enhanced nurse to the scheme from April, however figures for this role are not yet included in the statistics. The role was capped at one per PCN, or two for those with 100,000 patients.

It comes after some PCNs lost out on ARRS funds due to varying NHS England advice to integrated care boards (ICBs) over when the mechanism for bidding for funding would be removed. PCNs also underspend on the scheme by around £45m, according to figures obtained by Pulse PCN.

A recent study suggested that the rollout of social prescribers had not been ‘sufficiently targeted’ to areas with the highest need.

However, an exclusive survey by our sister title Pulse PCN also revealed that PCN clinical directors believe PCNs have improved patient access to primary care.

*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.

A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse PCN.

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