Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the number of mental health practitioners employed in primary care through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme.

Through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), Primary Care Networks (PCNs) recruit additional staff including mental health practitioners (MHPs), pharmacists, physiotherapists, and social prescribing link workers. There are a wide range of clinicians that are well suited to providing care in general practice as part of a multi-disciplinary team, and these roles are in place to assist doctors in general practice in reducing their workload, assisting patients directly with their needs, allowing doctors to focus on more complex patients and other priorities, including continuity of care.

As of 30 June 2025, there were 1,158 full time equivalent (FTE) MHPs working across practices and PCNs in England, an increase of 314 FTE compared with June 2023, when the time series in the collated data began.

While there are no specific plans to increase the number of MHPs employed through the ARRS, under changes to the GP contract announced earlier in the year the scheme will become more flexible to allow PCNs to respond better to local workforce needs. The two ARRS pots will be combined to create a single pot for reimbursement of patient facing staff costs. There will be no restrictions on the number or type of staff covered, including mental health practitioners.