DDRB Award

Doctors and Dentists Pay Review Body Recommendations 2026/27

The Government has confirmed that it has accepted the DDRB’s recommendations for both Doctors and Dentists for 2026/27

The previous financial calculations in the LMCs recent updates and webinars included a pay assumption of 2.5%; NHS England will now apply the 3.5% uplift to the pay elements of the GP Contract; this will affect:

This will increase to £130.07, representing a £6.73 (5.5%) uplift to the £123.34 2025/26 Global Sum value. The uplifted pay elements of Global Sum (GP Contractor ‘pay’ and staff expenses) represent 84% of the total.

The Global Sum element of the Contract includes three elements:

  1. contractor “pay” (31%)
  2. other staff costs (including on costs) and (53%)
  3. other expenses. (16%)

For 2026/27 these comprise 31%, 53% and 16% of Global Sum respectively. These % proportions are not subject to negotiations between NHS England and GPC England but are based on HMRC data. Once Global Sum is known, this is translated to practice uplifts through the Car-Hill Formula. This means the uplift practices actually receive will be affected by the demographic make up of a practices list (together with non-demographic metrics, such as rurality and a geographical wage cost factor).

Practices whose patients have a Metropolitan postcode receive a flat rate £2.18 additional allowance for such patients.

This remains at 4.7%, but as a result of the Global Sum uplift will rise by 26p to £6.11.

The locum reimbursements (such as for sickness and parental leave) will be uplifted by 3.5%. However, the details of this uplift will appear in the updated SFE in May 2026. This delay is to allow details of the GP practice reimbursement scheme to be agreed and included within the SFE. ICBs will make backdated payments to take into account the applicable uplift from 01 April 2026, and practices should continue to make such claims in the normal way.

Other “pay” elements of the GP Contract that will be uplifted by 3.5% rather than the 2.5% assumption, are:

  • ARRS uplift, in relation to the GP reimbursed claims; other relevant elements of the ARRS allocation will be uplifted in relation to the Agenda for Change (AFC) 2026/27 uplift of 3.3%.
  • Enhanced Access service element of the PCN DES.

Further details in terms of the GP Educator pay scales, trainers grant, and GP Fellowship funding are awaited.