The General Practice Improvement Programme (GPIP) provides nationally funded support for practices and primary care networks (PCNs) to implement modern general practice and help them realise benefits quickly.

Practices and PCNs need time and headspace to make the changes to move to modern general practice. There are different funding streams available to integrated care boards (ICBs), PCNs and practices which can be used to support practices and PCNs to participate in the general practice improvement programme and implement modern general practice. Where PCNs and practices need additional help beyond the initiatives outlined below, this should be discussed locally with the ICB.

The funding and initiatives listed below are not directly linked to GPIP, i.e. it is not necessary to participate in GPIP before receiving funding or help from the programmes or initiatives below. However, participating in GPIP and participating in or accessing the funding and initiatives below should be complementary and mutually reinforcing.

Funding available to practices or primary care networks

Investment and impact fund (IIF) national capacity and access support payment: total £172.2 million, paid to PCNs, proportionally to their adjusted population, in 12 equal payments over the 2023/24 financial year. Equating to an average of ~£11,500/PCN/month. This is ‘unconditional’ funding (see guidance – Network Contract DES – capacity and access improvement payment for 2023/24).

IIF local capacity and access improvement payment: part or all of a total of £73.8 million, paid to PCNs based on commissioner assessment of a PCN’s improvement in three areas over the course of 2023/24. The maximum a PCN could earn is £1.185 multiplied by the PCN’s adjusted population as of 1 January 2023. This equates to ~£56,000/PCN/year (see guidance – Network Contract DES – capacity and access improvement payment for 2023/24).

Transition cover and transformation support funding: an average of £13,500 transition funding is available to support practices to move to a modern general practice model. It is to provide additional capacity to help smooth the transition to a new model. To access transition cover and transformation support funding, practices need to contact their ICB to confirm that they are planning to make the change to modern general practice and when they will need the funding to support this change. It is not necessary to participate in GPIP support in order to receive this funding, however, by participating in GPIP will help practices to make the changes and move towards modern general practice more easily (see guidance ‘transition cover and transformation support funding’).

Quality and outcomes framework (QOF): The QOF quality improvement workforce, wellbeing and capacity and demand modules are aligned to the move to modern general practice and provide an incentive to practices to take forward change and improvement.

For 23/24 this equates to approximately £15,800 per practice:

• workforce and wellbeing (37 points)
• optimising use of staff capacity (22 points)
• reducing avoidable appointments (15 points)

Each point is worth £213.43  (see guidance – Quality and outcomes framework guidance for 2023/24).

Funding for digital tools and wider support to enable modern general practice

There is significant investment in digital tools, public communications and other support to make it easier to enable modern general practice and reduce pressure on practice teams, this includes digital tools and training to enable more efficient routes of access and ways of collating and responding to need: 

Funding for digital telephony: £90 million distributed based on need to support practices to move from analogue to cloud based telephony systems available via national frameworks.

Funding for digital tools: £71 million for online consultation, messaging and appointment booking tools. The majority of this to be added to ICBs’ allocations to spend on accredited digital systems that will be made available via a national digital pathways framework. A percentage to be retained nationally for commercial work to develop procurement frameworks and standards and to take forward national interoperability work.

Primary care service/system development funding: provided to ICBs to deliver primary care transformation and other programmes (see guidance – Primary care service development funding and general practice IT funding guidance 2023/24).

Care navigator training for general practice staff – funded and contracted nationally: practice and PCN managers to nominate one member of staff to complete the training.

Communications campaign: The implementation of the Delivery Plan will also be supported by a nationally-funded communications campaign to explain the new model of general practice to the public.