We’re supporting general practice to deliver change through the national General Practice Improvement Programme (GPIP), which was introduced as part of the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care. The programme provides tailored support to general practice to make changes and improvements.

Why does general practice need support?

Demand and complexity in general practice are increasing, and practices are facing a widening gap between patient demand and the capacity available to meet that demand. All practices have pressures and workforce challenges, with these often felt most acutely in practices working in areas of high need and deprivation, and in rural areas.

A wide range of GP practices across England have innovated in response to these challenges and have created the different elements of a ‘modern general practice model’. We have collated and codified these and are sharing them more widely to help practices and PCNs make changes more easily and realise the benefits more quickly.

The modern general practice model

The Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care commits to supporting practices move to a modern general practice model.

Support for general practice

The General Practice Improvement Programme helps practices implement modern general practice and realise benefits quickly. The objectives of the improvement programme are to support practices to:

• better align capacity with demand
• improve the working environment for staff
• improve patient experience
• build their capability to sustain improvement

Practice Level Support offer

The Practice Level Support offer is a hands-on support package available for practices willing and ready to improve how effectively patients contact the practice and are navigated to the most appropriate care. This can help improve care, raise patient satisfaction and take pressure off the team. It is delivered through weekly sessions in the practice and enables and supports practices to plan and deliver improvements.

Practices will benefit from on-site support as well as group-based learning sessions to facilitate peer to peer learning and sharing of experiences across practices.

This element of the General Practice Improvement programme provides pragmatic, helpful, hands-on support to practices using experienced and skilled quality improvement facilitators who have worked in and with general practice for many years.

In 2024/25, access to this support is via ICBs – this is to help ensure better alignment between GPIP support and local transformation and improvement work. Please contact your ICB primary care lead explaining your interest in the GPIP Practice Level Support. Places are limited so please express your interest as soon as you can.

Universal offer

Also part of GPIP is a universal offer that every practice in England can access, which includes:

• online resources on modern general practice including ‘how to’ guidance and quick wins
• webinars covering the components of modern general practice and advice on how to make practical changes and improvements in general practice
• online problem solving sessions where general practice staff can ‘ask an expert’ for help.

See our resources page and FutureNHS for more guidance and to view webinars.

Primary care network support

Facilitated support is being provided to primary care networks (PCNs) to help implement modern general practice and realise benefits quickly. Existing cohorts are underway, with future cohorts planned to focus on understanding how PCNs can best be supported to implement at-scale and integrated neighbourhood working.

Capability building

In 24/25, the Digital and Transformation Leads Development Programme, General Practice Improvement Leads Programme and Fundamentals of Change and Improvement Programmes are continuing for those already on the programmes, but are not recruiting to new cohorts. The future of these programmes is being considered as part of a more general move for transformation and improvement support to be provided via integrated health systems (integrated care systems). Resources to support general practice with building capability on quality improvement are available on our resources page and via FutureNHS, including:

• webinar series on primary care improvement topics and approaches
• resources – getting started series guides on primary care improvement

Funding

While provision of GPIP support is funded nationally, there is no funding to practices for participation. However, there are other relevant funding streams that are linked to the Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care (PCARP) (see Annex 3 of the Delivery plan update)

Transition cover and transformation support funding also continues to be available in 2024/25 via ICBs. This funding is to support practices to move to a modern general practice model more easily (see guidance ‘transition cover and transformation support funding’).