GPC England has now fully agreed changes to the 2025/26 contract. We have received the Government’s commitment in writing "to working with GPC England to secure a new substantive GP contract within this Parliament, without preconditions, based on collaborative work, and in the spirit of mutual trust and good faith...with General Practice at the heart of a neighbourhood health service."
We will now focus on the next steps for key aspects of this current 25/26 contract and look forward to beginning work with the Government on a substantive new contract that can provide safety, stability and hope to general practice. This is just the start on the long road to recovery and we urge practices to continue to prioritise their delivery of safe, high-quality patient care, and to work with LMCs and re/negotiate local contracts that are under resourced or are required to fill gaps in service for some of our most vulnerable patients.
The 2025/26 GP contract (England)
These are the key headlines from the 25/26 GP contract changes:
- £969 million new investment uplift – comprises £889m additional core contract funding and £80m for use of e-RS advice and guidance between GPs and consultants.
- This investment is on top of the £433m added to the contract during autumn last year.
- Enhancement of ARRS, with GPs and practice nurses added in to the main scheme, minimum GP salary + on-cost reimbursement increased in line with the BMA salaried GP pay range and with no caps on numbers.
- Enhanced service for ‘pre-referral’ advice and guidance with a £20 item of service fee payment per request by GPs
- Uplift to SFE payments: locum reimbursements and childhood vaccination payments
- Changes to requirements for patient online e-consultation access to general practice from October 2025
The guidance on the 2025/26 contract page contains more information.
GP Contract Webinars 2025
Join us to hear the GPC England Officer team discuss the detail of what has changed in the GP Contract and funding for 2025/26. After the presentation there will be time for questions and answers. You can register by following the links below:
Mind the gap: staying safe, organised and united
GPCE continues to recommend that all colleagues work safely, and that where commissioning gaps exist or where commissioned pathways are failing practices and patients, these are raised with LMCs and ICBs (Integrated Care Boards) to be renegotiated locally. Practices should be appropriately resourced for the work they undertake in providing vital care for patients.
While the national dispute with the Government is resolved, GPCE urges practices to address local commissioning gaps. Practices who are undertaking such unfunded work should either be resourced, to ensure patient care is sustainable, or, after consulting with their LMC consider serving notice on them to ICBs. LMCs are central to this process of achieving a fair collective position for practices supported by our national advice and resources. Refer to our guidance on local action for GPs and secondary care colleagues in England for further information.
Our safe working guidance has been GPC England policy for a decade and continues to be so. We will continue to update our guidance in line with contractual changes as they develop. Contractual asks, such as patient access to e-consultations for routine care as well as requesting fit notes or medication queries, does not mean GPs must offer unlimited capacity that jeopardises safe patient care
We still have the template letters available within our long-standing safe working guidance to help practices manage workload and limit capacity to deliver safe, high-quality care.
What we still need: our vision for general practice
The 2025/26 contract is a foundational step for further substantial reform, but we ultimately need that fully re-negotiated contract that offers the investment and workforce needed to restore General Practice and provide all patients in England with family doctors.
We are in ongoing liaison with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Minister of State for Care, and shared our vision for the future of general practice with them after the 2024 General Election. We are committed to working tirelessly with them and their team to secure this vision, which was informed by our conversations with thousands of GPs across our roadshows in 2024. You can view the recording if you were unable to attend a roadshow.
The next phase of contractual and service reform includes:
- Setting out the investment plans for General Practice in the Government’s forthcoming three-year Comprehensive Spending Review
- Including what is needed for General Practice in the forthcoming NHS 10-year plan
- The Government working in partnership with us, within this Parliament, to secure a fully re-negotiated and resourced deal for GP practices across England, which delivers what our patients need.
Delivering what patients need will involve:
- Bringing back the family doctor – by seeing the same clinician, patients can build trust in who delivers their care and receive a better service
- More GPs and more Practice Nurses to meet the needs of our patients by delivering more appointments
- To put patient safety first by aiming for a gold standard of 1 FTE (full-time equivalent) GP per 1,000 patients by 2040 alongside a safe number of 25 appointments per GP per day
- A minimum general practice investment standard that protects and builds neighbourhood services
National insurance blow for GPs
The autumn 2024 budget announcement has left GP partners concerned about the significant rise in employment costs from April 2025 and the impact this will have on their practice. Without support, for many the cost of these changes to National Insurance contributions and the lowering of the threshold will be devastating.
Whilst the 2025/26 GMS contract agreement has seen £889m of additional funding put into the core contract, there still remain serious concerns about the impact that the national insurance increases will have on practices and their ability to employ staff. We are continuing to lobby the Government to ensure that practices are not unduly affected by these NIC changes and will be monitoring the situation through the coming year.
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