Just over half of the UK’s practice managers report they have received a pay rise of 6% this year in line with the independent review body’s recommendation for GPs, Management in Practice can reveal.
However, 10% said they have had no increase at all for 2024/25.
These are the findings from an exclusive survey carried out by Management in Practice and our sister title Pulse, which received responses from 653 GP practices and 318 practice managers – the majority of whom are based in England.
Earlier this year, the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) recommended that GPs be awarded pay rises of 6% in all UK nations.
In England, the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed the same uplift should apply to practice staff too and the global sum was increased by 7.4% to cover the extra costs for surgeries.
However, fears this additional money would not go far enough seem to be borne out by our survey, with a quarter of respondents saying they ‘only gave the full recommended pay rise to some staffing groups’ due to ‘cost pressures’.
Funding arrangements in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have been less clear. Contract negotiations are ongoing in Wales despite NHS Wales accepting the DDRB recommended uplift for GPs and saying it wanted ‘a fair and proportionate pay uplift’ for practice staff.
In Scotland, the Government has committed to increasing global sum funding to cover a 6% rise for GPs and a 5.5% pay uplift for practice employees.
The DDRB recommended rise hasn’t been accepted in Northern Ireland, according to the BMA.
Our survey, carried out between mid-September and mid-October, reveals that for practice managers:
- 3% say they were given a rise above the full recommended 6% uplift
- 53% have received the full recommended uplift
- 34% have received an increase below the recommended 6%
- 10% have had no pay rise
- Only a handful in the devolved nations received a 6% uplift.
Meanwhile, a third of GP and non-clinical partners (including practice manager partners) have received 6% or more and 46% said they have had no pay increase at all.
A far larger proportion of other practice staff received the full 6% uplift, including salaried GPs (74%) and admin staff (59%) – see box below.
Has your practice awarded staff the recommended pay increase of 6% for 2024/25? (UK-wide responses)
| GP and non-clinical partners | Salaried GPs | Admin staff | |
| Yes, by more than the full recommended uplift | 2% | 3% | 13% |
| Yes, the full recommended uplift | 30% | 74% | 59% |
| No, we offered a pay increase below the recommended 6% | 22% | 17% | 23% |
| No, we did not offer any pay lift this year | 46% | 6% | 4% |
When respondents were asked about the factors affecting decisions on pay, cost pressures was cited as a main reason.
A quarter (24%) of practices said cost pressures meant they could only give the full recommended rise to some staff groups.
Meanwhile, 15% admitted cost pressures prevented them from giving pay rises to any staff group.
A further 4% said that despite being able to afford the full pay award for some groups, they decided to evenly distribute pay rises to all staff groups but at a lower rate than the DDRB recommended rate.
Directors at the Institute of General Practice Management (IGPM) said practice managers have an ‘impossible job’, since the ‘books cannot be balanced’ including around pay rises.
‘Practice managers are already telling us that they have calculated their own redundancy packages because they know practices cannot survive with less front line clinical staff,’ the IGPM said.
‘Who will pick up their work? GP Partners? They are already seeing another year of pay cuts’.
The IGPM warned that practices will close unless general practice core budges are increased but added that it is determined to ‘keep shouting, keep making a noise, and keep supporting our members’.
Tracy Dell, practice business manager and locum working in North and West Yorkshire said the survey findings aren’t surprising but are ‘disappointing’.
She added that despite financial pressures, ‘staff should be awarded the full amount practices receive in the uplift to the global sum,’ while acknowledging not all practices will receive enough extra money to award the full 6%.
Ms Dell said: ‘Staff who don’t feel valued usually leave – often going to neighbouring practices who pay more and have improved terms and conditions. It costs more to recruit, induct and train staff who replace them as well as takes time and puts pressure on existing staff in the process.’
She also said that as business manager it is her responsibility ‘to assess the pay increase income received, apply the budget fairly and propose what pay award should be given to staff’.
Ms Dell explained that to afford increases at her practice the team had to do a lot of work ‘to review, assess and implement systems and processes‘ in order to maximise efficiency and income and reduce expenses.
‘We also adopted forms of automation and streamlined systems to save time and costs,’ she told Management in Practice. ‘The whole practice team was involved in the process and understands that we need to continue to review opportunities to remain sustainable.’
Gareth Thomas, business manager at West Quay Medical Centre in Barry, said that in Wales a failure to agree a contract ‘following a very poor offer from Welsh Government means that many practice managers will have no option other than to hold back any pay increases’.
Overall, he added that the survey results ‘clearly demonstrate that not all practices can easily afford to provide the recommended uplift of 6% due to the precarious financial position that practices find themselves in.
‘Unfortunately, this becomes very difficult to manage with workforce retention and morale, but is also completely unavoidable if contracts specifically state any pay increases are linked to DDRB recommendations’.
Earlier this year, a Management in Practice salary survey showed that the average annual salary of a full-time GP practice manager is £48,802.
This survey was run with our sister title Pulse and was open between 19 September and 18 October 2024, collating responses using the SurveyMonkey tool. After removing duplicate entries from the same practice and removing ‘don’t know/not applicable’ responses, it was found that a total of 653 practices and 318 practice managers responded. The survey was advertised to our readers via our website and email newsletter, with a prize draw for a £200 John Lewis voucher as an incentive to complete the survey. The survey was unweighted, and we do not claim this to be scientific – only a snapshot of the practice manager and GP population.
