GP contract to include QOF ‘refinements’ and additional points worth £25m
A series of ‘refinements’ to QOF will be made for 2026/27, supported by an additional £25m, NHS England has told practices.
In a letter seen by Pulse, the commissioner confirmed to practices that two new obesity-related indicators will be added to QOF to ‘support referral into structured weight management programmes and medicines optimisation’, as already announced by the Government.
NHS England added that the changes will be supported by an additional 18 QOF points (circa £25m) and are ‘intended to enhance clinical outcomes’ and ‘modernise the scheme’.
Other amendments to QOF will also introduce ‘additional improvement thresholds’ for the three childhood vaccination indicators, to ‘reward’ practices that may not meet the existing achievement thresholds but demonstrate ‘meaningful and sustained improvement’ in vaccination uptake.
NHS England said it will update the QOF guidance to introduce additional improvement thresholds for the three childhood vaccination QOF indicators (VI001, VI002 and VI003) for 2026/27 and the Statement of Financial Entitlements (SFE) will be updated during 2026/27 to reflect this change.
The letter added: ‘Current thresholds for these vaccination indicators remain unchanged. However, for 2026/27, practices will have an additional opportunity to earn QOF points by improving against their own baseline, calculated as a two‑year average.’
At year‑end, practices will receive whichever points allocation is higher:
• points based on traditional achievement thresholds, or
• points awarded on a sliding scale for improvement from baseline
The improvement thresholds will be ‘stretching but achievable’, the letter added, with the lower improvement threshold set at five percentage points above baseline for all three indicators and an expanded range between lower and upper improvement thresholds to ‘reward significant progress’. The maximum QOF points available for each indicator is unchanged.
Other changes to QOF include:
- updating the childhood vaccination indicators to reflect the introduction of the MMRV vaccine
- introducing a new diabetes indicator requiring delivery of all eight NICE recommended care processes
- updating the heart failure indicators to reflect the NICE recommended ‘four pillars’ of treatment
However, the BMA said that proposals on funding for childhood vaccinations ‘will not go far enough’ to support those practices serving deprived communities with vaccine‑hesitant populations, and that none of the proposals outlined to date will help shifting care out of hospital as pledged by the Government.
The Government has released details of the 2026/27 GP contract, promising a £485m uplift and a new scheme providing practices with funds to hire new GPs and increase sessions of their current doctors.
And almost £300m will be made available to GP practices to recruit new GPs or increase GP sessions.
Read all of our coverage of the 2026/27 contract here.
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