The global sum for GP practices in England has been increased from £102.28 to £104.73 per patient, in order to finance a 6% staff uplift.
Negotiations between the Department of Health and Social Care and BMA concluded last week and the GP Committee said they had done so ‘satisfactorily’.
The Government published the amendment to the global sum online this morning.
Amendment to the Statement of Financial Entitlements (SFE)
Amendment of the Principal Directions—
2.—(1) The Principal Directions are amended as follows.
(2) In Part 1 (global sum)—
(a) in Section 3(4), for “£102.28” substitute “£104.73”; and
(b) in Section 3(9)(d), for “£102.28” substitute “£104.73”.
Source: DHSC
A GPC news update sent to GPs on Friday said: ‘We are pleased to confirm that negotiations with NHS England have satisfactorily concluded and details will be published on Monday, together with updates to the statement of financial entitlements. We shall be writing to practices separately and communicating a press release then.’
Meanwhile an update to the BMA’s website said that GPC ‘has accepted an offer from NHSE’.
It said this ‘uplifts the staffing expenses element of GP contract funding by an additional 3.9% (this is in addition to the 2.1% already added to the staffing expenses element of the contract in April 2023, meaning practices will have received a total 6% uplift in 2023/24 for staffing expenses)’.
‘NHS England has confirmed that the uplift covers on-costs (national insurance, pension contributions and other staff benefits),’ it added.
‘This additional 3.9% of funding will be distributed via the Global Sum (guaranteed payment per weighted patient), and this translates into an increase to the Global Sum payment per weighted patient of 5% for 2023/24 compared with the previous year. This uplift will be backdated to April 2023, and GPCE and the Sessional GP Committee encourages all practices to pass it on to their salaried practice staff,’ the BMA said.
The uplift will be backdated to April and the Government has previously said it expects the funding to be ‘passed on promptly to all general practice staff’.
For salaried GPs the 6% pay award is expected to raise the minimum salary by around £3,900 and the maximum by around £5,900. GP trainees should get a 6% uplift, as well as an additional consolidated £1,250 increase.
GP partners are bound by the five-year contract and are excluded from the salary uplift.
£102.28 + 6% = £108.42
So this looks to be a less than 6% increase in the global sum to “finance” a 6% staff pay rise that will be present in perpetuity.
Why is the GPC giving itself a pat on the back for negotiating this?
£2.45 is only 2.395% rise. Inflation is more than this and 6% pay rise for staff will not be matched. No mention for the partners too. We should reject this.
The Barristers got 15% rise without lifting a finger or strike.
This increase is in addition to the GP forward view annual increase in April 2023 (way below inflation)
We know they don’t want to give a 6% increase to partners.
So the impact on practices will vary depending on the ratio of staff wages total to the global sum total which will vary from practice to practice.
Would like to see the working out not just the final answer!
That will cover about 60% of my increased staff costs – thanks!
Not the best but if negotiation
We need a big increase for 24/25
Surely, it depends on your staff mix. If you have lots of salaried GP’s, this is unlikely to meet the 6% uplift.
Hmmm be great if the GPC would provide their calculations to support their “satisfaction”.
I seem unable to get the numbers to work out correctly based on staff salary costs as % of global sum income.
Be interested to see if it is I or the GPC that need to go back to school.
@North London GP
Your sum would apply if your entire global sum was spent on staff costs. Which is not the case.
Some goes to partner pay – which is not supposed to be a 6% increase this year.
Some goes on other expenses which may be going up by a lot more than 6% -but are not part of this calculation.
And this increase is not meant to cover all of the costs of the payrise – some of that would have been expected from the previously agreed (terrible) deal.
So while I think the underlying deal is not very good at all, I would say that this not meeting your calculation is not necessarily the problem.
@ David Baker and Beaker
I too would like to see the BMA’s sums. I think some of the dissatisfaction is the expectation (e.g. from DB) that this extra payment should cover the entire payrise. Some payrise was expected from the previously agreed 5-year forward view deal.
To me it should cover about two thirds of the uplift (expected 2% 4 years ago, but actually 6%). So DB’s sums are about right.
My practice it covers nowhere near two-thirds.
@ Truth Finder – there was already an increase in April – so the starting figure was £99.70 not £102.28.
That is still a rubbish below inflation increase overall. But the figure would be 5% for the year.
In terms of mention for partners – it has been stated and it is somehow expected to deliver a payrise of 2.1% for partners. 2.1% is well below inflation and that calculation must involve some magical maths, because nobody can see how it will result in anything other than a pay cut in nominal terms rather than a 2.1% increase.
This was always going to be a guesstimate fudge given DOH have no clue what practices pay their staff. But £2.45 per patient increase is a pathetically low amount that for most will be some way off the suggested 6% increase once again eating into pertnership profits covering around 60% of our increase if we pay our staff the 6%
Oh ffs
It’s still A LOT cheaper than I spend on pet insurance. How ridiculous
So, DHSC are NOT paying practices 6% for staff pay, but a notional £2.45 instead. Why are we surprised? The lowest of all NHS settlements, AGAIN.
Quite agree Drachula
Woof woof !!!
I don’t understand how this is inclusive of on costs. Is it 6% + on-costs, or essentially the 6% is inclusive of on-costs, so not really a 6% rise at all for salaried staff? Guess it’s insufficient either way.
Very dodgy maths
Old – 2022/23: £99.70 per weighted patient
New – 2023/4 £104.73 per weighted patient
Difference =£5.03
Uplift = 5.04%
Have I missed something?
Say staff pay is 70% of our outgoings. This goes up by 5%.
Assuming that the other 30% of our outgoing (locum fees, energy bills, professional expenses) have also only gone up by 5% too (highly optimistic with inflation over the year 8%+) then it doesn’t add up.
Our results estimated that you could insure your Greyhound with a lifetime insurance policy for £21.77 a month, or an annual payment of £248.75.
‘…that’s ‘could insure’ but you might need to ‘shop-around’ and be careful with regards to ‘excess’ and ’disclaimers’ …’
Remove failed and ineffective, NHS resource draining Clinical Directors/PCNs and inappropriate ARR staff and the global sum at least has the potential to increase