This is the fifth time that information about the PCN workforce has been published. By 31 March 2021, around 93% of PCNs had activated user accounts on the National Workforce Reporting System (NWRS) tool, which is the system used to collect data on the PCN and General Practice workforces. Although many of these users were already experienced with the GP practice-level submissions, this was a new collection early in 2020 and completion rates were initially very low.
This is still a relatively new collection and the completeness and coverage of the data are gradually improving. When we first collected data on the PCN Workforce in March 2020, we received valid data from 15% of active PCNs, which increased to 40% in June 2020. User feedback and other evidence suggest that the NWRS completion rates by PCN users were adversely affected early in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, data coverage and completeness continue to be low - even for a new data collection - which should be taken into consideration when reviewing the figures. For September 2020, 50% of active PCNs had submitted data. This figure rose to 60% for December 2020 and, for this release of data for March 2021, was 68%. We continue to work with PCNs and other stakeholders to improve the data quality.
Of the 1,253 PCNs active during the first quarter of 2021:
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93% had activated their NWRS user account by the end of March 2021 and 855 (68.2%), across 99 of the 106 CCGs, had submitted data including 30 CCGs where every PCN submitted workforce data.
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Conversely, all PCNs in 7 CCGs failed to submit any valid workforce data.
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Twenty two PCNs provided information about contracted services only; as we cannot determine how many people are working in the applicable roles, this means that these PCNs show a count of zero in the PCN-level headcount Table (2b) and the England-level headcounts presented in Table 1b are based upon returns from 833 PCNs.
Although the count of active PCNs is the same as it was for December 2020, there have been slight changes to the list of active PCNs as a result of one PCN closing and another opening during the first quarter of 2021. Practice membership of these PCNs is also fluid.
This publication is based on the CCG structure as at 1 April 2021 which, following a restructure and several mergers, comprises 29 fewer CCGs than in the year from 1 April 2020. Consequently, the above data coverage figures and percentages relating to CCGs are not comparable with earlier releases.
The PCN population is still evolving, the size of their respective workforces varies, and from their inception, there was always an expectation that the PCN workforce would grow over time as new roles were introduced. For example, in December 2020, 62% of the PCNs submitting workforce information reported fewer than five FTE staff, while by March 2021 this figure had fallen to 44%. Initially, targeted funding focused on the recruitment of Clinical Pharmacists and Social Prescribing Link Workers, and additional roles have gradually been introduced such as the recently added Care Coordinators and Health and Wellbeing Coaches.
In March 2021, 398 PCNs provided details of their clinical directors, of which 15 were sharing the responsibility between a Medical Director (GP) and a Nursing or Direct Patient Care clinical director. Clinical director submissions from a further 23 PCNs failed data validation as no working hours were provided, and the affected records had to be excluded.
The figures reported in this release are effective on 31 March 2021. However, because the data are not complete and the coverage is poor, users should be mindful that these figures may not be properly representative of the size of the PCN workforce.
There have been increases in headcounts and FTE counts for the majority of job roles between December 2020 and March 2021. However, comparisons between periods are not advised since it is likely that, as a greater proportion of active PCNs begin to engage with the NWRS collection tool, staff who were in post in previous quarters are being recorded for the first time in the most recent quarter. As a result, increases in staffing levels are likely to be smaller than is apparent by making quarter-to-quarter comparisons, as those increases are likely to be distributed across the whole span of the publication series.
These increases are also unlikely to be a result of temporary staff being employed to support the national Covid vaccination programme, since the NWRS does not include this job role / task and so any individuals employed solely for this reason will not have been captured in the March 2021 data extract.