We have made some significant changes to this series of Official Statistics following discussions with our stakeholders and thorough testing of estimation methodologies, to make the series as robust and statistically sound as possible. Please refer to Methodology Review and Changes for more details.
Impact of methodological changes
Because fully-estimated records have been reinstated with a new methodology, we have revised the entire time series of these Official Statistics back to September 2015.
Figures in the publication of data for December 2021 are not comparable with any earlier releases, which should not be used.
For the publication of December 2021 data, all Individual-level CSVs since September 2015 have been reproduced, now with fully-estimated records included, as well as a CSV presenting December 2021 data. Previous versions of these files should no longer be used.
Practice-level CSVs do not include fully-estimated records, and so the re-introduction of full estimation does not affect the numbers in these files. However, the reprocessing of the historical data can, in some instances, lead to a small reduction in headcount within these files. This is because, as time goes by and we receive more information about individuals from practices, we can retrospectively and more accurately assign identifiers to individuals and identify where they are the same person.
Additionally, although full estimations are not included in the practice-level figures since we calculate them at CCG-level and upwards, we do include information in the file to indicate which practices have provided no data and which ones we have calculated full estimations for, for each staff group.
Because of this additional information and the chance that headcounts may decrease by very small numbers, but no other figures are affected, we have reproduced practice-level CSVs only for September in each year.
The most relevant practice and individual-level CSVs will be re-produced in summer 2022 to reflect the new NHS England and Improvement regional structure.
Additional adjustments to September 2018 figures
The re-processing of the data to calculate and introduce full estimates for each reporting period highlighted a processing error when data for September 2018 was first produced, which had resulted in 354 staff records being excluded in error. This error has been corrected and the September figures released in this publication, within the bulletin tables and Individual and Practice-level CSVs, now include these reinstated records.
Timing
These changes have been implemented in the General Practice Workforce publication on 10 February 2022. All England-level figures in the time series have been recalculated. We have revised all figures in the Individual-level CSVs for each quarter (March, June, September and December) since September 2015 but will not recalculate the subnational figures.
Forthcoming changes
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].