General Practice Annual Electronic Self-Declaration (eDEC)

We highlighted to all practices the required completion of the annual eDEC submission to NHS England.  

2024 submission deadline: Monday 25 November 2024

Questions Removed  

The eDEC has been modified from 2023 and a number of questions have been removed; these include: 

• Q. 2N and Q. 2O which related to the pay transparency Regulations, which colleagues will recall caused significant semantic difficulties last year. 
• Q. 4Y offering an on-line new patient registration option, which has been superseded by new national arrangements. 
• Q. 6S offering registered patients the ability to access prospective Medical records online. Eight questions within the GP IT sections have been replaced, but with similar questions. 

Question Guidance 

In terms of this year’s questions, the LMC can offer the following commentary on certain questions. Some practices will have received advice or comment from their ICB in terms of the eDEC and questions within it, which often aligns with LMC advice. 

• Q. 2D(r) This relates to an NHS England indicative locum engagement rate of £73.77 per hour. 
  
  This should not be taken as an indication either that this is what locums should seek to charge, nor what practices should pay. There are no required Regulations in this regard, it is a matter for individual negotiation. 
  
  It is helpful for NHS England to be aware of the fees locums are currently charging; this is relevant, for example, in Statement of Financial Entitlements (SFE) reimbursements for parental and sickness leave locum cover. 

• Q. 2L(r) has been amended to include all staff participation in Prevent training, rather than just General Practitioners within the practice. 
• Q. 2L(r)  Prevent duty: guidance for healthcare professionals – GOV.UK 
• Q. 5F(r) practices should follow regulatory (and, the LMC would recommend, professional) guidance on patient removal; there is LMC guidance available on this process. 
• Q. 2Q(n) practices are reminded it is a contractual requirement to complete the National Workforce Reporting Service. 
• Q. 4Z(n) there is no contractual requirement for practices to agree a process with the ICB to refer patients to NHS 111; NHS England clearly wish to give the impression that patient “diversion” to NHS 111 should only be on an “exceptional basis”. This, however, is incorrect; signposting the use of NHS 111 as part of the options available to patients to obtain advice and care, is neither exceptional nor a diversion, and may be entirely appropriate either following practice assessment, or as a signposted option for self-referral. It is an integral part of the rich tapestry of NHS services commissioned by NHS England to provide NHS care to patients, and practices can signpost patients to this service. It is also integral to implementing BMA Safe Working Guidance. The LMC therefore recommends practices respond No (N) to this question. 
• Q. 5QA(n) it may be difficult to define exactly what processes are in place to address this point, but practices who have audits of prescribing patterns, or receive local Medicines Management updates would in the LMCs view satisfy this issue. 
• Q. 8TA(n) the NHS England GPIT operating model is currently in draft form with ICBs, and therefore Practice Agreements are not yet rolled out. Practices should therefore answer No (N) to this question. 
• Q. 8XAB practices are unlikely to have in-house arrangements in place to verify third party providers have a similar level of security in terms of encryption on its website and are not required to do so; if this is the case practices should respond No (N) to this question. 
• Q. 8XCA practices will need to log onto their NHS UK website profile to ensure these details are accurate. 
• Q. 8XAB/8ZA. This constitutes a series of questions in terms of access to on-line booking and communication with patients, and practices should answer according to their current understanding of their practice’s normal operational processes. 
• Q. 8ZC(n). This applies only if the practice premises are used to provide PCN DES Extended Services (or other extended services). There is no requirement to use any specific premises, as the requirement is to offer such services if commissioned to do so, and not to offer specific premises.