Global sum rises to finance staff pay for 2023/24

GP practices in England will see an increase to the global sum from £102.28 to £104.73 per patient to fund the 6% staff pay rises promised by the Government, the BMA has said.

Negotiations between NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care and the BMA’s GP Committee England (GPCE) about extra funding for practices ended last week.

They followed the announcement in July that the Government had accepted the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body (DDRB) recommendation for salaried GPs and practice staff to receive a 6% pay increase for 2023/24.

GPCE said it has now agreed an offer from NHS England (NHSE) that uplifts the staffing expenses element of the GP contract funding by 3.9%, and which equates to £152.93 million.

This is in addition to the 2.1% already added to the staffing expenses element of the contract in April 2023, which provided an extra £80.21 million. This means that overall that practices will have received a total 6% rise in 2023/24 to cover staff pay, representing a total of £233.14 million.

This extra cash will be distributed via the global sum and be backdated to April.

NHSE has confirmed that the uplift covers on-costs, including national insurance, pension contributions and other staff benefits.

The GPCE and the Sessional GP Committee said it ‘encourages all practices to pass it on to their salaried practice staff’.

GP partners are bound by the five-year contract and are excluded from the salary uplift.

The Government published the amendment to the global sum this morning in an updated General Medical Services Statement of Financial Entitlements Directions 2023.

Meanwhile, GPCE’s request that the Trainers’ Grant, which did not form part of the DDRB recommendations this year, should be uplifted by 6% has also been agreed.