Primary Care Workforce Quarterly Update, 30 September 2022, Experimental Statistics

In May 2022 we released the first quarterly update to the existing Primary Care workforce publications. These updates bring together staff working in general practice with those in Primary Care Networks (PCNs) using data collected by the National Workforce Reporting Service (NWRS). Data will be updated for different staff groups at different points during the quarter as it becomes available. Where appropriate, additional data sources will also be incorporated for some staff groups.

NWRS data provided by General Practices and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) is being combined to give a complete as possible picture of the workforce in primary care for all staff groups. For GPs, this will allow data on ad-hoc locums to mature (due to the known time lag between activity and reporting) to be included in the GP figures each quarter. As data on GP locums takes two months to mature, the release of GPs will follow the release for other staff groups.

However, there are known gaps in the completeness of NWRS data. Most notably, at present not all PCNs are providing valid data using the NWRS tool. Triangulating with additional data sources can help provide as full a picture as possible of the primary care workforce. Therefore, we have also used data from the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) to provide an enhanced view for staff in the Direct Patient Care (DPC) group, which may help bring reported FTE closer to actual figures.

Data entered into the NWRS by general practices and PCNs are combined and then compared to reported FTE in the ARRS claims data. Through a series of rules, a collated figure is created for each DPC job role and reported on a quarterly basis under the ‘Experimental Statistics’ badge. The results of this analysis are presented in the Primary Care Workforce, England - collated full-time equivalent (FTE) - Direct Patient Care staff Excel bulletin tables and the PCN-level CSVs. Net change is presented in bulletin tables 1a and 2a since ARRS claims can only be made for additional staff recruited since March 19, and monitoring therefore tends to consider changes net of the baseline.