NHSE confirms funding for salaried practice nurse pay rise

NHS England has confirmed that funding to support a 4% pay rise for employed practice nurses and other staff has been uplifted and that it ‘expects’ employers to pass on the rise for 2025/26.

In a letter last Thursday, NHS England announced that the global sum for GP practices in England has been increased from £121.79 to £123.34 per patient to allow for the pay rise recommended by the pay review body.

For 2025/26, the government committed to ‘uplifting the pay element of the GP contract’ by 4%, following the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) recommendations around partners and salaried general practice staff, including nurses.

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Now NHS England has confirmed the global sum will rise by 1.2% to cover the recommended pay rise, in addition to the 2.8% already included in contract funding at the start of 2025/26. This will be backdated to April, it confirmed.

In a letter to integrated care boards (ICBs) last week, NHS England said: ‘The GP contract has been amended to uplift the pay elements of the contract by 4%, backdated to 1 April 2025 (a further 1.2% in addition to the 2.8% already included in contract funding at the start of 2025/26).

‘The DDRB pay uplift will be implemented through an increase to the global sum, with payments backdated to 1 April 2025 in the August Primary Care Support England (PCSE) payment runs. The new global sum for 2025/26 is £123.34.’

NHS England said this increase to practice funding ‘enables the 4% pay uplift with backdated payments to be passed on to salaried and contractor GPs’ and pay uplifts for other practice staff’.

‘NHS England expects general practice contractors to implement pay rises to other practice staff in line with the uplift in funding they are receiving,’ it added.

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The government has also agreed to backdate uplifts to the ARRS maximum reimbursement amounts – which also includes nurses and nursing staff – to 1 April 2025 and uplift the pay-related elements of the general practice workforce transformational (SDF) funding.

In July, the government confirmed that primary care networks (PCNs) would be given additional funding to cover a 3.6% pay uplift for ARRS pharmacists and other non-GPs employed under the scheme, in line with the 2025/26 pay recommendation for NHS Agenda for Change staff.

Also last month, Nursing in Practice revealed that a new substantive GP contract – due by 2028 – ‘could address’ practice nurse terms and conditions.

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Meanwhile, the health and social care secretary has also now kickstarted the 2026/27 pay round for general practice and NHS staff by asking the independent review bodies to support an ‘earlier’ and ‘more timely’ pay announcement.

A version of this article was first published by our sister title Pulse