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Publication, Part of

General Practice Workforce, 30 April 2022

Official statistics

NHS geography updates

There have been changes to the NHS England and Improvement regional structure since this release. From 1st July 2022, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) were established as statutory bodies replacing CCGs and STPs. From the General Practice Workforce, 31 July 2022 publication, data is instead aggregated to Sub-ICB Location, and ICB level. These geography updates also involved boundary changes, with some practices moving to different Sub-ICB Locations and ICBs than they would previously have been situated.

In order to have a consistent and comparable time series at regional level, all Individual and Practice-level CSVs were reproduced as part of the 31 July 2022 release, with practices and Sub-ICB Locations remapped to reflect this latest structure. National totals are unaffected by this remapping but some figures at Sub-ICB (previously CCG) and ICB (previously STP) levels may differ to those previously published.

The regional bulletin tables 6a, 6b, 7 and Annex C, and the Practice and Individual-level CSVs presented here reflect the old structure. Therefore, users are encouraged to use the remapped CSV files released with the 31 July 2022 publication for historical regional general practice workforce figures. The time series table Annex C in the 31 July 2022 bulletin file has also been remapped.

1 July 2022 00:00 AM

Changes in this series

New publication - Primary Care Workforce Quarterly Update

In May 2022 we introduced a quarterly publication using additional data sources to complement this publication, which brings together FTE staff working in general practice, including ad-hoc locums, and those working in Primary Care Networks. The first experimental edition was released on 19 May, initially presenting FTE primary care workforce statistics for the direct patient care, nurse and admin/non-clinical staff groups. The GP staff group is scheduled for release on 16 June, once final ad-hoc locum data becomes available. 


Forthcoming changes

Regional restructure

Each year we re-produce historical practice and individual-level CSVs, with practices and CCGs remapped to reflect the latest NHS England and Improvement regional structure. In 2022, changes to the structure include the establishment of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) as statutory bodies and they will succeed Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs). When ICBs are legally established, all Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) are due to be statutorily abolished.

It was originally expected that these changes would come in to effect in April 2022. However, this target date has now been changed to 1 July 2022 to allow more time for the remaining parliamentary stages and to enable organisations to manage their more immediate pandemic response priorities. Once these changes have been implemented, they will be reflected in this publication and the most relevant historical Practice and Individual-level CSVs will be reproduced to reflect the new structure, and republished.

Further information

If you have any comments or questions about these changes, please contact NHS Digital on 0300 303 5678 or email Primary[email protected].



Last edited: 25 August 2022 1:57 pm