Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will review the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) to allow diverting ring-fenced ARRS funding towards core GP funding so that those practices can recruit more core staff before creating new roles.

The Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) is designed to be used for reimbursing those salaries and on-costs of roles included in the Scheme. The range of roles have been selected due to the ability to support the core work of general practice and new service specifications in the Primary Care Network (PCN) Direct Enhanced Service. As private contractors, general practitioners make their own workforce plans and recruitment decisions

NHS England evaluates the Scheme’s effectiveness, taking into account the views of stakeholders and making adjustments as necessary. This includes the incorporation of London weighting in response to such feedback. The funding available for PCNs to recruit additional staff will increase by £280 million to approximately £1 billion in 2022/23. PCNs will continue to have flexibility to recruit into any of the 15 roles within the Scheme.