ICBs have been told to calculate the backdated and future payments due to GP practices and PCNs in relation to the mid-year updates to the GP contract.
In a letter to ICBs and NHS regional directors on Thursday (31 July), NHS England gave details of the financial implications and actions following the pay rises granted to GP staff earlier this year. It said that the global sum for practices would increase by 1.2% to cover the recommended pay rise, which is in addition to the 2.8% already included in the contract funding at the start of the 2025/26 financial year.
The letter said that Primary Care Support England (PCSE) would be reviewing global sum payments this month (August), but for practices and PCNs not included in PCSE’s remit, ICBs will need to:
- ‘Calculate the backdated global sum payments for any practices that are paid global sum or global sum equivalent (“global sum-like”) payments,
- ‘Make backdated payments as soon as is practical, along with the in-month payments that are to be paid at the new rate of £123.34 pwp,
- ‘Continue paying these practices at the new rate for any further payments due in 2025/26, and
- ‘Calculate the backdated and future payments due to PCNs in relation to the uplifted PCN entitlements for Enhanced Access set out in Table 1 on p61 of the PCN DES specification.’
The changes also funded a 4% uplift to the locum reimbursement maximum entitlement and introduced a new provision allowing practices to claim locum reimbursement for GPs absent due to neonatal leave,
ICBs have been told to review all locum reimbursement claims paid to practices since 1 April 2025, and where the amount spent by the practice exceeded the original maximum reimbursable limit, the payment should be uplifted to the new maximum.
It also confirmed there would be an additional £14m in funding for the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) to cover the Pay Review Body (PRB) recommendations for Agenda for Change staff and the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) pay uplift.
The letter added that ICBs may need to increase the payment or reimbursement rates for pay-related GP workforce SDF lines.
‘Additional funding is available, enabling them to backdate uplifts to the pay-related elements for transformational GP workforce programmes to 1 April 2025 as appropriate. Further details and guidance on this will be provided shortly,’ it said.
It comes as social care vacancy rates are now back to pre-pandemic levels according to a Skills for Care report.
