The following documents offer guidance as to how to navigate the recent changes to the 2024/25 GP contract in England. 

• Focus on the 2024-25 DDRB pay award
• Focus on dispensing and prescribing
• Focus on GP data sharing and GP data controllership
• Focus on limited liability partnerships and the GMS contract
• Focus on medical associate professions
• Focus on the 2024 premises costs directions
• Focus on the use of enhanced access appointments
• Focus on vaccinations and immunisations
• Focus on proforma and referral forms
• Focus on spending and the PCN DES capacity and access payment funding
• Advice and guidance update
• Covid & flu letter
• Cloud Based Telephony update (August 2024)

Custom and Practice work

Can an ICB impose a superseding contract on a GP practice as a result of an implied contract being established through the actions or conduct of the practice?

Our view is that it depends on the terms of the contract and the conduct of the parties whether it will/has renewed at the end of a fixed term. However the starting point for a commercial fixed term contract is that it terminates at the end of the fixed term, provided the parties have not agreed for it to continue/renew either expressly or through their conduct. 

For an ICB to make the case that a practice is contractually bound to provide the services for another year (or on an indefinite ongoing basis) it would need to be able to point to clear evidence this is what is agreed between the parties. It could do this for example if there was an established history between the parties of the contract ‘rolling over’ to another year in circumstances where neither party has served notice to terminate. The ICB could potentially rely on that history of conduct to argue a practice was tied in for another year.

However, in ordinary circumstances, a practice that has entered into a fixed term contract can rely on the contract ending at the end of the fixed term, subject to notice provisions in the contract. It will not be bound to continue the contract or enter into a new contract simply by virtue of having performed obligations under the first contract; it must have in some way agreed to continue the previous contract (or agreed terms of a new contract). 

Practices that have no intention of renewing or continuing the contract should comply with any notice requirements in the contract. In addition (or if there are no notice requirements in the contract) in order to guard against arguments by the ICB that they impliedly agreed a new contract, practices should write to their ICB giving as much notice as possible that they have no intention of providing the services beyond the end of the fixed term.  The more a practice does to rebut any assumption on the apart of the ICB that the services will continue, the stronger their position will be.