Final Seniority Figures for GMS GPs in England 2017-18

The analysis is based on superannuable income data for GMS Contractor GPs with a full accounting year. See Annex A for further information on the rules for inclusions and exclusions. This is the agreed methodology and has been used since the calculation of the 2004/05 Final Seniority Figures.

Superannuable income data is derived from the NHS pensions dataset, however, this data covers both England and Wales and contains no country or contract markers. Therefore, these markers, which relate to the practice a GP works at, are taken from the NHS GP payments system, and matched to GPs appearing in the payments system for Wales GPs and in the workforce Minimum Data Set (wMDS) for England GPs. Only GMS GPs who work solely in England are used in the FSF calculations, in keeping with the agreed methodology.

It is important to note the average superannuable income figure will include an unknown component representing the actual seniority payment made to individuals for that year.

However, by considering each GP’s date of birth, and assuming that each individual began to accrue Years of Reckonable Service from the age of 23 onwards, it is possible to estimate the seniority payment that was made to each individual in 2017/18 (periods of part-time and full-time working are treated the same). Hence, it is possible to estimate the average superannuable income figure excluding the seniority payment component. This figure is, by definition, the FSF that is required.

The average superannuable income figure for England has been calculated for 2017/18 and presented in Table 1. Among 9,764 GMS Contractor GPs, the average NHS superannuable income is £99,995 in 2017/18. 

By taking the same GP coverage and analysing their dates of birth and superannuable income in the manner described above, the average seniority payment for England is £3,700. The calculations behind the average seniority payment are shown in Annexes C.

Table 1 shows the breakdown of the FSF calculations for England. It is important to note, however, that this is merely an estimate of what the average seniority payment was, rather than a precise calculation. In the absence of central recording of NHS superannuable pay before seniority payment, it is not possible to do more than estimate what the size of the seniority component was for any one individual GP in the sample.

Table 1: Breakdown of FSF calculations, England, GMS Contractor GPs, 2017/18

^{Note: Calculations are based on unrounded figures.}

By deducting the average seniority payment from average superannuable income, the FSF for England can be calculated as shown in Table 1, which shows the FSF for England as £96,296.

Annex D shows a comparison of Interim Seniority Factors (ISFs) and FSFs from 2006/07. The FSFs for 2008/09 as calculated in this report are noticeably lower than the ISFs. TSC intended to calculate a high ISF for 2008/09. As was the expectation, there is not such a difference between the ISF and FSF in subsequent years.