In response to strong feedback from the profession, and to help solve the immediate issue of GP unemployment amongst recently qualified GPs, additional funding of £82 million has been announced to support the inclusion of recently qualified GPs in the ARRS in 2024/25. This issue is, in part, a result of more GPs qualifying following an increase in training places 3 years ago.
This scheme is intended to relieve the pressure on employment for this expanded cohort of GP staff – and is in addition to the anticipated recruitment of recently qualified GPs NHS England would expect to take place – and funded through the practice contract in the normal way.
NHS England is making an amendment to the Primary Care Network Directed Enhanced Service (PCN DES) for 2024/25 to expand the ARRS and to reimburse the employment costs for recently qualified GPs.
NHS England is releasing extra funds for 2024/25; while this is an emergency measure and they will work with the Government on longer-term solutions to GP unemployment, they recognise this as a change to operating costs that will be considered in future budget setting, as in previous years when the ARRS has been expanded and additional staff have been recruited.
Using the ARRS will enable ring-fenced funding to get to primary care networks (PCNs) quickly to employ over 1,000 additional GPs. NHS England will communicate revised ARRS entitlements (budgets) to PCNs, reflecting the separate ring-fenced element that is available for GPs.
As the new funding for GPs is complementary to the existing scheme and separately ring-fenced, it will ensure that the reimbursement of existing ARRS staff is not impacted by the introduction of GPs
The additional funding will be available to fund the employment of GPs who have recently obtained their certificate of completion of training (CCT).
PCNs will be able to draw down funding from October 2024 – and the exact criteria for employing GPs will be set out in a revised Network Contract DES specification, on which NHS England will consult with GPC England. This will include ensuring that the GPs employed are in addition to the existing GP workforce employed by practices.
The existing ARRS portal will be updated so PCNs can use it to claim reimbursement for employing recently qualified GPs. This will allow for the quickest operationalisation of the ARRS changes and is a familiar reimbursement mechanism for PCNs.
This move has been made to expedite the employment of some newly qualified GPs, who may be struggling to secure a practice role. NHS England recognise the ARRS has not previously been used to fund GP employment. They will engage with the profession and stakeholders to review this approach as they look to identify longer-term solutions to GP employment and general practice sustainability – including core GP capacity – as part of the future contract reform discussions.
They also recognise that there have been calls for the scheme to be expanded to include practice nurses. While their current focus is to respond to the immediate issue of GP unemployment among newly qualified GPs, they and Government will keep the scheme under review.