- Practice nurses to be included in ARRS
- QOF indicators slashed
- New online access requirements
For the first time in four years, the Government and the BMA have reached agreement on the GP contract for the next financial year, worth almost £1bn, with the possibility of a further increase if recommended by the pay review body.
The additional funding provides 7.2% cash growth, the biggest investment in general practice for more than a decade, and is in addition to the £433m added to the contract last autumn.
NHS England says the uplift to core funding is to cover an assumed increase in salaries for practice staff of 2.8% in 2025/26. However, this is considerably less than the 20% the BMA asked for.
The 2025/26 contract also includes increased flexibility in the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) to enable primary care networks to fund additional ‘patient facing’ staff, with no restrictions on the numbers or type of staff who are covered, including GPs and practice nurses.
A key part of the new contract agreement is a reduction in bureaucracy by permanently removing 32 indicators from the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), (212 QOF points worth £292m). Of this, 71 points worth £100m will be re-invested in the Global Sum*, item of service fees for routine childhood vaccination and locum reimbursement rates. The remaining 141 QOF points will be targeted towards cardiovascular disease prevention.
From October 2025, practices will be required to keep their online consultation tools open for the duration of core hours for non-urgent appointment requests, medication and admin queries, to enable patients to contact their practice online, by phone or by walking in, to end the 8am scramble. Funding worth almost £60m will continue to support ‘modern general practice access’. Practices will be required to publish a patient charter (to be developed by NHS England) on their websites setting out the standards a patient can expect.
Announcing the contract changes, Dr Amanda Doyle, National Director for Primary Care and Community Services, NHS England, said: ‘The contribution of general practice is vital to the NHS and continues to be highly valued and appreciated. The changes to the GP Contract for 2025/26 mark a major step forward in the government’s mission to shift care into the community, to focus on prevention and to move from analogue to digital. The changes also provide greater freedom to GPs by cutting red tape and empowering patients by improving digital access to practices.’
The BMA GP Committee (England) said that its dispute with Government was now over – provided the Government commits to a full renegotiation of the national contract within the current Parliament. GPCE said: ‘The 2025/26 contract is a foundational step for further substantial reform, but we ultimately need that fully re-negotiated contract that offers the investment and workforce needed to restore general practice and provide all patients in England with family doctors.’
*The amount paid to practices for delivering core services, based on a weighted sum for each patient on the practice list
