Practices to receive thousands to support newly qualified GPs and nurses

NHS England is offering £10,000 for each newly qualified GP and £7,000 for each newly qualified nurse they employ to support them with their continued professional development, as part of two schemes from this year’s GP contract.

The fellowship scheme will provide practices with funding to allow their newly qualified GPs and nurses to spend a session a week doing CPD, plus a sum for administrative fees.

A news mentoring scheme will also fund experienced GPs up to £289 a week to provide mentorship to younger GPs for a session.

The fellowship scheme has been running since 2019, but the guidance detailing the funding was only released yesterday.

Under the two-year scheme:

• Practices will be given £7,200 to provide backfill GP cover, plus £3,000 for ‘programme delivery’, including administration and CPD costs
• For nurses, practices will receive £3,800 for backfill cover, plus the £3,000 for programme delivery
• The CPD will be focused on ‘PCN portfolio working, learning and development post-registration, supporting nurses and GPs to take up substantive roles, understand the context they are working in’;
• Newly qualified GPs will undertake ‘rotational placements within or across PCNs to develop experience and support transition into the workforce’.

NHS England says there is sufficient funding available for all newly qualified GPs and nurses to go through the scheme.

The mentorship scheme will allow more experienced GPs to train as ‘mentors’, which will result in a industry recognised qualification. Those that are accepted onto the scheme and go through the qualifications will be provided with £289 per weekly session to provide mentoring to a number of newly qualified GPs.

The mentors will have to be doing at least three clinical sessions a week alongside this.

In a letter to GPs on expanding the GP workforce in 2020/21, Dr Nikita Kanani, NHS England medical director for primary care, and Ed Waller, primary care strategy director, wrote: ‘We have now published the arrangements for the GP fellowship scheme and the GP mentors scheme. We encourage all practices and PCNs to make maximum use of all three schemes.

‘Systems and CCGs will need to put local implementation arrangements in place for the fellowship and mentors scheme, working with their training hubs. The ambition is that as close to 100% as possible of newly-qualified GPs participate in the general practice fellowship scheme.’

The Fellowship Scheme – a summary

• Two-year programme of support, available to all newly qualified GPs and nurses working substantively in general practice, with an explicit focus on working within and across a PCN. ICSs/STPs should encourage all eligible clinicians to sign up, and aim for as close to 100% coverage as possible
• It is a programme of support, PCN portfolio working, learning and development post-registration, supporting nurses and GPs to take up substantive roles, understand the context they are working in, become embedded in the PCN, and increase and maintain high levels of participation in the primary care workforce
• Participants receive funded mentorship and funded CPD opportunities of one session per week (pro rata), and rotational placements within or across PCNs to develop experience and support transition into the workforce.

Who is it for?

• Fellowships is an entitlement for all newly-qualified GPs and nurses working/ about to work in substantive roles in general practice
• Every newly-qualified GP coming out of training will have a guaranteed opportunity to benefit from the scheme
• The Fellowship offer is for substantive staff working to provide primary medical services. They may be employed by a practice, across a PCN, cluster of PCNs or another body
• The scheme is open to those who work LTFT on a pro-rata basis

How does the funding work?

The funding covers two elements:

• Reimbursement to the employer for one session per week (pro-rata) in order the individual can undertake ‘support and networking’ and ‘learning and development’ opportunities
• Funding for programme delivery including CPD provision (except GP mentorship*), administration and oversight at £3,000 per participant (pro-rata)

Cost calculations are based on:

• A nine-session week
• Reimbursement for one session per week (4 hours 10 minutes/ 52 weeks)
• GP reimbursement based on an average £65,000 starting salary
• GPN reimbursement based on an average £34,000 starting salary

*The recent update to the GP Contract agreement separately committed to a scheme to create and fund GP Mentors. As such, local delivery leads should link the capacity and funding from that initiative once established – to support the ‘GP mentorship’ component of your local Fellowship programme.

Full details of the scheme are available here.

The Mentorship scheme – a summary

• Supported by national funding, delivered by ICSs/STPs, aimed at supporting GPs through creating an opportunity to develop mentoring skills, and to work in a different way
• The overarching aim is to retain experienced GPs working in primary care through creating this portfolio working opportunity, while supporting less experienced GPs through high quality mentoring
• The scheme should be delivered to link directly to the General Practice Fellowship programme, with mentors providing mentorship to fellows participating in the programme

Who is it for?

The scheme supports GPs who currently deliver – or agree to deliver – a minimum of three clinical sessions (4 hours 10 minutes each) per week, and are looking to conduct an additional weekly session of mentoring

GPs who have experience in leadership roles, medical education, or are currently a GP partner are particularly encouraged to participate

GPs who want to give back but are not looking to retire yet

What do participants receive?

Participants are able to access two aspects of this scheme: a) mentorship training which results in an industry recognised qualification b) A financial payment of £289 (‘mentoring supplement’) for the weekly session utilised for delivery of mentorship activities

How do GPs join the scheme?

The onboarding process is led locally by the respective ICS/STP. It is expected interested GPs will complete an application template and provide supplementary evidence, such as a statement outlining their motivation for becoming mentors. An example application form can be found on FutureNHS

Full details of the scheme are available here.