LMC advice letters
I am writing to update colleagues following my letter of 17th July 2023 regarding this year’s DDRB Award.
Unfortunately, my update is essentially to say that neither NHS England nor the Government has provided any further information in terms of the proposed 6% uplift to the GP Contract; colleagues should note that, in recent years, no supplementary uplift to the Contract has been made available. This year, the Government announced, following the 6% DDRB Award, that the Contract would be uplifted to cover all salaried General Practice staff; this would be an unprecedented extension of financial support, but without further details, it is not yet known how this will be implemented. The LMC is aware many practice colleagues are aware of this development, and the RCN has written to all Practice Nurses, asking them to request a 6% salary uplift, in the light of the announced 6% Contract uplift. This is even though the College must be aware no such contractual uplift has been received, or in fact offered, because the uplift was to cover an increase in staff salaries of 6%, which does not imply a full contract uplift of 6%.
In fact, at present, it is unclear how a capitation-based contract can be uplifted to reflect expenses that will be individual to each practice, even though list size will be an approximate proxy for employed staff numbers. It is also unknown if any supplement to cover a salary uplift will also cover increased employer on-costs, be recurrent in terms an uplift, or reflect the 2.1% element of the 2023/24 Global Sum uplift for expenses that has already been received.
The only contractual uplift practices are currently expected to apply is to salaried GPs on the BMA Model Contract, and to any other contracts that also specifically reference an annual uplift linked to the DDRB Award, which the BMA Model Contract does.
The LMC is aware that some practices will have already provided staff with what may have been intended to be an interim pay uplift from April 2023, in anticipation of the DDRB Award,which some practices use as a benchmark. At present, unfortunately, the LMC does not have further advice to colleagues on this issue; once it is available, I will circulate to all practices.
Dr Julius Parker, Chief Executive