General Practitioners: Recruitment

(asked on 30th April 2025) - View Source
Questioner
Luke Evans Portrait
Luke Evans
(Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the underspend for the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme was in the most recent year for which data is available.

Answered by
Stephen Kinnock Portrait
Stephen Kinnock
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 12th May 2025

The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent direct patient care staff positions that have been recruited as of each December over the last four years, within general practice and primary care networks, (PCNs) and breaks this down by the role they were recruited to:

Role

December 2021

December 2022

December 2023

December 2024

Total for all Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme eligible roles

15,369

24,499

35,808

37,539

Advanced Dietician Practitioners

-

11

10

10

Advanced Occupational Therapist Practitioners

-

20

19

22

Advanced Paramedic Practitioners

-

434

594

669

Advanced Pharmacist Practitioners

-

679

831

916

Advanced Physiotherapist Practitioners

-

113

197

219

Advanced Podiatrist Practitioners

-

4

6

5

Apprentice Physician Associates

-

-

20

13

Care Coordinators

2,082

4,143

6,822

7,062

Dieticians

67

127

176

168

General Practice Assistants

-

-

2,148

2,670

First Contact Physiotherapists

1,063

1,620

2,046

2,156

Health and Wellbeing Coaches

516

1,031

1,341

1,294

Mental Health Practitioners

-

-

1,050

1,238

Nursing Associates

334

630

985

1,242

Paramedics

1,288

1,705

2,212

2,227

Pharmacists

5,156

6,534

7,935

8,153

Pharmacy Technicians

1,140

1,891

2,598

2,806

Physician Associates

1,041

1,541

2,009

2,068

Podiatrists

30

57

60

60

Social Prescribing Link Workers

2,229

3,125

3,664

3,543

Therapists - Occupational Therapists

111

187

224

218

Trainee Nursing Associates

310

647

859

781

Source: the data is only available from September 2021, and is published quarterly by NHS England at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/primary-care-workforce-quarterly-update

This data does not distinguish between staff recruited through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme or through other routes. The most recent complete year for which data is available on underspend for the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme is 2023/24. The maximum value of PCN level entitlements available under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme in 2023/24 was £1,412 million. Total expenditure by PCNs in 2023/24 was £88 million, below the maximum entitlements.

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