Practices in England are to receive an overall 7.4% uplift to the global sum for 2024/25 in order to pay for wage rises of 6% for GP partners and salaried staff, the BMA has confirmed.
This will take the payment per weighted patient to £112.50, a hike of £7.77 compared with 2023/24.
The increased amount will be backdated to April 2024, and is expected to be included within the September 2024 pay run, the BMA GP Committee (GPC) England has said in an internal letter to its members but obtained by our sister publication Pulse and seen by Management in Practice.
It also stated that the out-of-hours deduction will remain at 4.75%, which in ‘absolute terms’ means it will change from £4.97 to £5.34 to align with the total 7.4% uplift. On QOF, the value of a point for 2024/25 remains the same as was announced back in April, at £220.62.
Practices already received a 2.7% uplift to the global sum this April.
Topping it up to an aggregate 7.4% increase for this financial year was a decision taken so practices can implement the 6% pay rise for staff and GP partners recommended by the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration Review Body (DDRB), and accepted by the Government.
Earlier this month, NHS England communicated with GP partners, saying it ‘firmly expects’ them to use the increase in Government income to fund a pay rise for practice staff in full.
However, GPC England said in its letter signed by deputy chair, Dr Julius Parker, that ‘staff pay is a matter for employers as independent contractors’ and that it had reminded the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England of the fact despite any expectations they have.
Instead, the committee has advised employers that they follow existing employment contract terms and conditions where they reference pay and uplift arrangements.
The letter also provides key advice about handling pay rises for salaried GPs (see box below).
And it has said where practices and employers have already given staff an interim salary rise based on the April 2024 uplift, this ‘should be accounted for’ within any further increase.
GPC England goes on to acknowledge, however, that ‘employers will want to reward staff for their commitment and dedication during what has been a challenging time for general practice,’ and to head off recruitment challenges, adding that many practices use the annual DDRB award as a benchmark for staff pay in the absence of other national salary scales.
‘National organisations, such as the Royal College of Nursing, on behalf of GP practice nurses, are likely to take see the DDRB as a benchmark too,’ it warned.
The letter also reminds practices that the global sum payment per weighted patient uplift is capitation-based and not ‘calculated based upon the actual staff salary costs of any practice’ and that wage costs also have ‘on-costs’.
A separate GPC England bulletin sent out by Dr Parker earlier this week warned that because of this funding formula, while some practices may receive enough to pass on a full 6% salary uplift, others won’t, ‘forcing them to make difficult choices about what they can and can’t afford to give hard-working staff’. It effectively puts practices in a similar position to the one they faced last year.
Dr Parker explained that they had raised this issue ‘repeatedly’ with both NHS England and DHSC, as GPs have ‘been expected to do more with less’ for years.
Overall, GPC England said while the 7.4% increase is above inflation, it does not meet its aim of an uplift that ‘restores real-terms GP contract income to 2018/19 levels’, which it says would require a 10.7% increase.
The Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants (AISMA) has also warned that the global sum rise is unlikely to be enough for practices to afford a 6% rise for GP contractors, particularly since there are no increases to income from QOF or enhanced services (both local and national).
Andrew Pow, board member of AISMA said: ‘GP practices have already faced uplifts to the minimum wage of 9.8% in April and are now being asked to backdate 2024/25 pay rises of 6% for other staff. In most cases the Global Sum uplift should cover the additional wage costs, but not for all practices.’
What about ARRS staff?
Meanwhile, then BMA said there is no extra funding for PCNs to meet the cost of pay rises for the 37,000 staff employed via the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme.
This group is usually reimbursed in line with Agenda for Change salary scales, which have been uplifted by 5.5% for 2024/25.
However, the ARRS funding allocation was only increased by 2% for staff pay in 2024.
‘At present, the extra 3.5% will therefore be an unfunded cost pressure for the overall PCN ARRS budget’, GPC England has said.
Applying pay rises to salaried GPs
GPC England says:
- any doctor on the standard BMA salaried GP model contract should receive the full DDRB pay uplift. This contract would usually include the phrase: ‘annual increments on [incremental date] each year and in accordance with the Governments decision on the pay of General Practitioners following the recommendation of the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body’.
- If the above clause is not included in the contract but instead ‘a different calculation/review is provided for, the latter should be applied,’ it has said.
- If the salaried GP employment contract omits any reference to annual pay increases, the BMA encourages employers to pass on the full DDRB uplift, ‘but they are not required to do so’.
