Government details £485m uplift as part of imposed GP contract

The Government has released details of the 2026/27 GP contract in England, promising a £485m uplift and a new scheme providing practices with funds to hire new GPs and increase sessions of their current doctors.

The contract, which was unilaterally imposed, also made changes to the QOF, and specified that urgent queries must be ‘dealt with’ on the same day.

A letter sent out to practices from Dr Amanda Doyle, NHS England’s national director for primary care and community services, this lunchtime, detailed all the changes to the contract, including the 3.6% – or 1.4% in real terms – uplift in funding.

The main changes to the contract include:

• A £292m practice-level GP reimbursement scheme to enable practices to recruit new GPs or increase the number of sessions from GPs already working in the practice, funded by abolition of the PCN Capacity and Access Payment (CAP);
• A revision of the additional roles reimbursement scheme to enable PCNs to hire experienced GPs by removing the requirement for the funds to be spent only on newly-qualified GPs;
• The addition of  two new obesity related indicators to support referrals into structured weight management programmes and medicines optimisation;
• Amendments to targets around childhood vaccinations, which NHS England says will benefit practices in deprived areas;
• A requirement for PCNs to make arrangements for eligible nursing home residents to receive seasonal vaccinations;
• A new requirement that patients identified as clinically urgent will be ‘dealt with’ on the same day, with the GP practice determining which patients are urgent;
• Embedding the use of advice and guidance in the contract;
• Practices will not be allowed to request patients call back later, or cap the number of online requests from a patient;
• PCNs will be required to  use risk stratification tools to identify and prioritise cohorts of patients for continuity of care.

Pulse exclusively reported last year that the Government had removed the BMA as the negotiating partner for the GP contract in England and, as a result, this contract was released without approval from the union.

In her letter to practices, Dr Doyle wrote: ‘The changes to the contract in 2026/27 continue to build on the changes you have made over recent years, particularly those that have improved access for patients; three-quarters of patients now say it is easy to contact their GP. Our focus this year is GP capacity, supporting the shift from treatment to prevention through changes to the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) and vaccinations and enabling practices to prioritise clinically urgent needs.

‘In 2026/27, investment in the GP contract will increase by £485 million, bringing the combined total estimated contract value to £13,863 million. This provides a 3.6% cash growth or 1.4% real terms growth relative to the GDP deflator.’

She added increasing GP capacity was ‘the most effective and sustainable way to improve access and patient experience of general practice’, and they would achieve this through the new reimbursement fund for hiring and increasing the sessions, and the changes to the ARRS.

New guidance and specifications will be added in the coming weeks, she said, with a  dedicated webinar being held between 5pm and 6pm on 2 March 2026.

Andy Pow, adviser to the Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants, said: ‘A cash uplift of 3.6% is unlikely to leave practices with a significant funding increase for the year ahead.

‘The 2.5% pay assumption looks low, compared with a rise in the national minimum wage of 4.1% and the Agenda for Change staff pay increase of 3.3%. Consumer price inflation remains at 3% for other costs. As in previous years a further uplift may arise once the DDRB publishes its review.’

Read all of our coverage of the 2026/27 contract here.