The 6% Payrise And What It Really Means For Your Practice

In the summer of 2023 the rumour mill began flying when it was announced that GPs were expected to pass on a “funded” 6% payrise to their staff.

The narrative behind the announcement was relatively vague with GPs not knowing;

a) who exactly the rise was for;

b) how it was being funded and;

c) when the payrise should be given.

This caused ripples within the GP community when it quickly became apparent that the £2.50 per weighted patient payrise you were given in April 2023 (the equivalent increase of 2.5%); which was intended to cover an increase to partners, with the remainder to support practices with increasing inflationary rises in services such as heat and lighting, telephone and repairs; was not going to support practices to pass on anywhere near as much as 6%.

I am aware that during the summer an audit took place within practices across England where NHSE asked a selection of practices to submit all their staff data. This audit including details of every member of their paid workforce, their roles within their practice, their pay and the number of hours worked. This, I can assume based on the recent information provided, was to enable NHSE to calculate an appropriate amount to pass on to practices to facilitate a 6% payrise.

It was then announced in October 2023 that practices would be receiving an increase in their Global Sum of £2.45 per weighted patient dating back to April 2023. If you check your NHS statements for October 2023 and November 2023 you will notice, when comparing to September 2023, that the additional £2.45 is now being calculated within your Global Sum.

What you should now notice on your November 2023 monthly statement (or on a separate November statement if PCSE missed your original statement run) are two lines with the narrative BABALP GSUM Uplift for Q1 2023/24 and Q2 2023/24. There are a few statements I have reviewed whose two adjustment lines are blank but working back the numbers ie. ¼ x £2.50 x list for Q1 x 3 months should be able to justify the balances as correct.

What I have been repeatedly asked now is if this balance has come through “can I now pass on a 6% payrise on to all my staff?”. Firstly, I understand this payrise to be intended for all practice staff excluding ARRS, who are on their own agreed pay scale and who received a 5% payrise back in April 2023. I also understand it to be a 6% payrise on an individual’s current salary. Therefore, the practices need to factor in on costs (employers NIC and pension) on top of this 6%. However, this payrise is (unless Salaried GPs have a stipulation in their contract about payrises in line with DDRB uplifts) discretionary and it will depend on individual practice finances as to whether they can “afford” to pass the full 6% on or not.

For most practices I have calculated this for, it works out as between 3% and 4% plus on costs for a practice to breakeven based on the £2.45 alone. If you are looking to pass on the full 6% you might have enough to cover it based on the additional £2.50 per patient being received from 1^st April 2023 but bear in mind that leaves nothing else back to cover expenses and certainly does not leave anything for the partners; if anything, it is going to reduce partners profits as this full 6% payrise will likely eat into personal profits.

Going back to the earlier reference to the review of practices across England, it was announced that the “average” practice spends 40% of their Global Sum on staffing their practices and this, I believe, was used to calculate the additional £2.45 per patient. However, I have reviewed the data for 97 RBP practices and the average client here (London and surrounding areas) spends on average 58% of their Global Sum on practice staff.

For your staff who were on minimum wage they have already had a 10.1% payrise from March 2023 to April 2023 so they are not necessarily subject to the additional 6% (especially considering it has just been announced there will be a further 9.8% payrise to minimum wage with effect from 1^st April 2024). However, it will boil down to whether you as a practice can afford to pass on the full 6% recommended or whether you will need to only offer a payrise up to the amount you are being awarded.

If you have already given a part payrise this year, say 2% back in April 2023 and you want to honour the full 6%, then it is only an additional 4% on top that is expected; not another 6% on top of already awarded payrises.

Please do bear in mind that if your list decreases you are effectively losing income and therefore your individual profits will be eaten into further as that additional £2.45 per patient disappears.