The Primary Care Workforce Quarterly Update presents snapshot data of the Primary Care workforce for General Practice and Primary Care Network Staff. Snapshot data refers to the situation at a specific date. This relates to the end of the quarter (June, September, December and March), however, data are made available at different times due to availability according to the release schedule below.
The statistics present data at Full-time equivalent (FTE) for all staff groups with breakdowns of individual job roles within these high-level groups. In line with our other Workforce publications, 1 FTE equates to a working pattern 37.5 hours per week, while a colleague working 30 hours would be classed as 0.8 FTE.
This publication presents two different measures of full-time equivalent (FTE) primary care workforce statistics – 1. Primary Care Workforce FTE for all staff groups as reported through the National Workforce Reporting Service (NWRS only), 2. An enhanced view of the direct patient care (DPC) staff group only FTE using Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) data in combination with NWRS data to form what we are calling the ‘collated’ FTE.
For the Primary Care Workforce FTE as reported through the NWRS only, FTE figures represent the FTE reported for each job role by both general practices and PCNs via NWRS. They are presented in Excel bulletin tables for the nurse, DPC and admin/non-clinical staff groups, with the FTE for the GP staff group released separately, four weeks after initial publication to allow for final ‘ad-hoc’ locum FTE to be included. England-level figures will be presented, as well as NHS England and NHS Improvement Region and Integrated Care Board (ICB) breakdowns.
The results of the ‘collated’ FTE analysis are presented in an Excel Bulletin table with time series data starting from September 2021, updated each quarter to show collated FTE net of March 2019 (tables 1a and 2a) and the total collated FTE (March 2019 FTE plus the net change since then - tables 1b and 2b). The data is split for the DPC roles between NWRS / ARRS claims portal roles and NWRS-only roles. For each release, we also show breakdowns at NHS England and NHS Improvement Region, Integrated Care Board (ICB), Sub-ICB Location and Primary Care Network (PCN) levels. A CSV for each reporting period is also be published, showing the net change and total collated FTE figures for each job role and PCN, as well as the NWRS FTE included in the calculations.
We are continually working to improve our publications to ensure their contents are as useful and relevant as possible for our users. We welcome feedback from all users to [email protected].
Key Facts
Full-Time Equivalent is a standardised measure of the workload of an employed person and allows for the total workforce workload to be expressed as the equivalent number of full-time staff. 1.0 FTE equates to full-time work of 37.5 hours per week, an FTE of 0.5 would equate to 18.75 hours per week.
FTE GPs working in primary care networks and general practices on 31 March 2023
Based on National Working Reporting Service (NWRS) submissions
FTE nurses working in primary care networks and general practices on 31 March 2023
Based on National Working Reporting Service (NWRS) submissions
FTE admin / non-clinical staff working in primary care networks and general practices on 31 March 2023
Based on National Working Reporting Service (NWRS) submissions
FTE direct patient care staff working in primary care networks and general practices on 31 March 2023
Based on National Working Reporting Service (NWRS) submissions
More FTE direct patient care staff on 31 March 2023 compared to 31 March 2019
Based on collated calculation using NWRS submissions and Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) claims data