Practice Manager of the Year Award 2025 – achievements of the finalists

What successes and innovative changes have those shortlisted for this year’s Practice Manager of the Year Award brought about at their surgeries?

Six practice managers have been chosen as finalists for this year’s Practice Manager of the Year Award 2025, which forms part of the 17th Annual General Practice Awards (see box below).

The trophy recognises achievements in making a tangible difference to a practice’s performance, a commitment to professionalism, suppporting the development of team members, embracing innovative ways of working, and more.

So, how did each finalist beat off stiff competition from all the entrants to be shortlisted? Here, we outline more about what they have accomplished to change patient care and their workplaces.

Management in Practice wishes all the finalists the very best of luck.

Muhammad Ahmed – Group Business Manager, North Trafford Group Practice, Manchester

Muhammad has shown vision and leadership, delivering projects to ensure quality care and tackle local health inequalities.

For example, he laid the foundation for the creation of a Women’s Health Hub in North Trafford PCN that promoted health literacy and empowered women to access the support they need closer to home. The hub, which delivered more than 250 appointments, offered a tailored, holistic approach to address the full spectrum of women’s health needs, from adolescence to post-menopause. It received 90% positive feedback from patients.

Muhammad also focused on low MMR uptake amid an increase in measles cases in North Trafford. His strategy involved making strong partnerships with community centres to address vaccine hesitancy, developing culturally sensitive education campaigns, and improving access for underserved populations. The initiative significantly boosted immunisation rates and resulted in an overall 33% increase in MMR uptake among his practice population. 

Meanwhile,  Muhammad implemented a modern digital appointment system that has improved patient access and reduced call waiting times. He oversaw the integration of an online triage tool, dynamic clinical rotas and improved signposting and care navigation to ensure demand is managed more efficiently.

Muhammad has championed staff wellbeing and created a positive, inclusive workplace culture. He holds regular one-to-one meetings with frontline staff to understand the pressures they face and brought in mental health support services. Job satisfaction rates among staff have now reached 84%, and productivity has risen.

Caitlin Clarke – Business Manager at Castle Partnership, Norwich and Managing Partner at Fleggburgh Surgery, Great Yarmouth

Described as an exceptional business manager, Caitlin has navigated challenging times for local healthcare with resilience and innovation. She played a central role in the creation of Central Norwich PCN following the collapse of OneNorwich Practices in 2023, ensuring continuity of services for 70,000 patients and a smooth transition of all affected staff to the new employer.

Under her guidance, the practice has significantly improved patient access and experience. Patients can now submit queries at any time thanks to the introduction of a 24/7 online contact system, while telephone wait times have reduced to under two minutes. Caitlin facilitated a major change in the appointment system too. All GPs now offer 15-minute appointments, with a daily clinical meeting to encourage joined-up working.

Caitlin spearheaded the development of a dedicated Home Visiting Team that provides care for housebound and vulnerable patients across the PCN’s five practices. This includes support for both acute and long-term conditions, helping to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and promote better long-term health outcomes.  

Caitlin has also been committed to improving staff morale and retention. Last year, the first ever ‘Castle Awards’ took place, with staff able to vote for their peers in a range of categories. Caitlin’s commitment to culture has supported successful recruitment, with the practice fully staffed for over a year—including newly recruited ARRS GPs.

Alongside her work at Castle Partnership, Caitlin has also been managing partner at Fleggburgh Surgery, a small rural dispensing practice. When its single-handed GP partner retired in 2023, its future was uncertain. However, with Caitlin’s support it’s has become secure and profitable. It has also become a  research accredited practice, and hosts GP Registrars and medical students.

Tracey Clarke – Practice Manager, Magdalen Medical Practice, Norwich

Tracey’s journey from GP receptionist to senior NHS management has equipped her with immense insight and experience.  Joining the practice in 2022, she has taken steps to modernise operations and make it more patient-centred.

Examples of this include Tracey introducing ARRS roles, including physiotherapists, pharmacists, mental health practitioners, GP assistants, and care coordinators, to broaden the scope of care available within the practice. Embedding these roles effectively into workflows with appropriate triage pathways and patient access models has dramatically improved access, reduced pressure on GPs, and enabled more specialised care for patients, increasing satisfaction and outcomes.

Tracey also secured and commissioned specialist services such as a vasectomy clinic and sexual health service that covers other local GP surgeries too, reducing referrals and waiting times. The vasectomy service has virtually no waiting list anymore.

Tracey has significantly increased the practice’s income by successfully bidding for additional services and optimising existing funding streams. This has provided the surgery with greater financial flexibility and allowed reinvestment into patient services, including staff training and recruitment, and service development.

And she has been a passionate advocate for environmental sustainability. She spearheaded a project to install solar panels that has significantly reduced the practice’s carbon footprint and energy costs and launched greener practice initiatives such as reducing paper usage, and the development of a wellbeing garden for staff.

On a wider system level, Tracey’s contribution is vital. She helped establish Norwich North PCN and now serves as its transformation lead, supporting multiple practices in adopting best practice, securing funding, and aligning with national NHS priorities.

Kate Mansi – Practice Manager, Wokingham Medical Centre, Wokingham and Modality Wokingham PCN

Multi-award winning Wokingham Medical Centre, a training practice, has been looking after patients for at least 100 years and Kate is said to be ‘acutely attuned to this historical legacy’, embedding herself in the local community.

She draws on experience across sectors to manage complex challenges and deliver sustained improvements.

One challenge comprised managing a practice merger that took place last year just 10 days before QOF’s year-end.  Kate led staff through the technical complexities as well as managed the emotional fallout but also put in place a patient information campaign that included a comprehensive Q&A document and a video addressing queries from patients posted on Facebook and YouTube. This engagement proved so successful there was no negative feedback from patients. And the practice’s QOF performance that year turned out to be the strongest to date.

Kate operationalised Modality Wokingham’s care management programmes, which involved a comprehensive overhaul of its long-term condition call/recall methodology, the biggest since QOF’s inception in 2004.

Data from Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB has shown the clinical effect of this was profound – Modality Wokingham Diabetes Care Management Programme patients have a 37.7% lower A&E attendance rate than Berkshire West diabetics as a whole.

As a Wellbeing Champion, Kate has initiated support structures for staff, led engagement activities, and modelled the importance of inclusion and psychological safety. She has developed various wellbeing initiatives with Protected Learning Time (PLT) bingo being among the most popular. In staff survey results, as a result of Kate’s efforts, management support consistently receives one of the highest scores.

Nicola Rice – Senior Practice Lead, NPC Ponteland, Newcastle upon Tyne

Nicola took on the role of senior practice lead at a time of significant instability, when there was high staff turnover, high levels of long-term sickness absence, poor patient access, and a falling list size. Under her guidance, the practice saw improvements in all areas.

Nicola set about implementing a ‘cultural reset’.  This included a new focus on staff wellbeing, creation of tailored training plans for admin and secretarial leads that have helped to build confidence and capability within the team, more regular communication, staff award nominations and team events.

The result has been a dramatic reduction in absence (from 20% to just 2.95%), improved recruitment and retention and development of a positive working environment. Staff across all roles – clinical, administrative, and managerial – report increased morale, reduced stress, and greater job satisfaction.

One of Nicola’s most significant achievements is the successful introduction of a digital consultation model, now used by more than 80% of patients and that complements rather than fully replaces traditional means of access via the phone or in person. The digital first approach has freed up in-person appointments for those who most need them and enhanced the practice’s capacity to respond to complex cases. NPC Ponteland’s transactional closure rate (defined as without needing to use a clinician’s booked appointment) has consistently been around 40%.  

This has had clear benefits for patients who report greater satisfaction around ease and speed of access, a more personalised experience, and improved continuity. Furthermore, this more patient-centred and responsive approach has led to another powerful outcome – greater numbers of people actively choosing to sign up with the practice, helping to reverse and stabilise a decline in their patient list size.

Scott Ridley – Practice Manager Partner at the Harefield Practice, Middlesex

Scott’s arrival at Harefield was a turning point for the practice, which had suffered a rapid turnover of leadership and saw three practice managers leave in quick succession.

He quickly brought with him a sense of stability and strong, steady direction that has led to improvements for both patients and staff.

One notable achievement has been the modernisation of technological infrastructure. Working together with a GP from the practice’s PCN, Scott developed and implemented a digital telephone triage system that ensures patients who don’t require a GP appointment can be appropriately signposted to alternative services such as Pharmacy First or minor injuries units.

It has freed up the equivalent of 1.6 doctors’ sessions a week, with average call queuing times dropping from 45 minutes to just three. The practice was also offering online access for patients throughout the entire working day long before the GP contract changes in October mandated it – and was the first in its PCN to do so. Significantly, with patients feeling less stressed and frustrated about access there has also been a sharp reduction in negative feedback, allowing staff to focus on admin that helps with patient care.

Another groundbreaking initiative Scott led on is a ‘medication by phone’ service created for patients without access to IT (or who aren’t confident using it), and those with literacy issues but who still want a convenient way of requesting medication without needing to leave their home.

It allows for safe, accurate repeat prescription ordering 24/7 using just a standard phone. The new service exceeded expectations with just under 6,000 patients registering for the service as of this summer,  with 60 to 90 prescription requests processed each month.