Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee

Recommendation 10

10 Deferred Paragraph: 49

Need to explore ARRS uplift for non-staff costs and weighted salaries.

Conclusion
The Government and NHS England should explore the possibility of providing an uplift to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to support non-staff costs such as supervision and training or to provide weighted salaries in areas where the cost of living is high or it is hard to recruit. Consideration should also be given to allowing staff to be employed on Agenda for Change terms and conditions as soon as resourcing allows.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response discusses ongoing work and future plans for improving primary care IT systems, digital consultation tools, and cloud-based telephony, which bears no relation to the recommendation regarding Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) uplift or Agenda for Change terms.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference: 49
Government Response Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract Deferred
Partially Accept. The Department partially accepts this recommendation. While supervision and training are not explicitly covered through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) for all roles, the support for the growing multidisciplinary team does create supervisory capacity, particularly in the Advanced Practitioner roles. We have recently increased the cap on recruitment of Advanced Practitioners, and are reimbursing Primary Care Networks (PCNs) for the time that First Contact Practitioners spend out of practice undertaking education and training to become Advanced Practitioners. We are exploring measures to improve supply into these roles in 2023/24. The ARRS reimburses time spent in training for some roles, balancing the overarching aim of the scheme to increase direct patient care with support for staff development, and PCNs are able to access other pots of funding through the contract to cover the costs of either staff backfill or training itself (e.g., PCN funding based on the population size, leadership, and management funding). System Development Funding for primary care provides systems with investment to commission programmes from training hubs which focus on the training and development of primary care staff. It also includes a broad ‘GP Transformational Support Fund’, worth £78m in 2022/23, which can be used to build staff skills and capabilities. Within the ARRS itself, we have allowed the use of apprenticeships for some roles, such as those providing a supply of practice nurses, and NHS England will continue to explore the expansion of these schemes through the ARRS review. We are supportive of practices and PCNs employing their staff on Agenda for Change terms and conditions. Inner and outer London weightings are reflected within the current ARRS allocations to PCNs.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗