Changing staff roles
Can we use the funding to change the contractual status of a GP, eg from salaried to partner recognising this will not necessarily increase the number of GP sessions worked, but would improve sustainability of the practice?
Yes, this is a fully permitted use of the funding and there will be scope for practices to indicate through their submission that this is their intention.
Does a GP retainer count as GP workforce expansion and if so which box would it be in on the priority table?
Yes, the funding can be used to recruit retainers and comes under the heading of salaried GP
Funding arrangements
If we want to recruit but the GP is unable to start until after Q2, do we need to start using the money now or can we wait and save the money to employ a larger number of sessions from their start date?
The money can be held until later in the year, but practices should be aware that they need to achieve tranche 1 intentions by 30 September to release tranche 2 within this financial year. The detailed arrangements for how tranche 2 will be triggered are being finalised and will be shared as soon as possible.
When will we expect to receive the money? If we are advertising now to fill a role will this count?
Tranche 1 funding will be paid out to practices monthly and the first month’s payment will be made in May and backdated to April. Practices can report through the workforce survey that they have filled a vacancy prior to 31 March 2026/27 and they intend to use the new funding for this post in 2026/27.
Tranche 2 will be allocated provided the practice’s workforce survey returns show that tranche 1 intentions were achieved for Q2 - that will mean partners or staff in post, not just posts advertised.
Is the workforce funding achieved by practices each year recurring?
The funding is recurrent and we would expect to be baselined into core practice funding following the three years
Why are we not being given exact amounts to work with for all three years?
Exact figures depend on changes to practice populations in the same way that global sum payments fluctuate from quarter to quarter. Funding will be set at the start of each financial year based upon practices' quarter 1 positions and remain the same throughout that year, with changes only coming in between financial years. Confirmed figures for 2026/27 have now been sent to practices.
Will posts have to be agreed by HSCPs (or Health Boards) before recruitment?
No, practices are free to decide what staffing arrangements suits them.
If looking to expand other clinical roles, practices should have regard to the current and planned Board-employed MDT capacity being provided to the practice, and aim for complementary provision and additionality, and should liaise with the LMC and HSCP leads as appropriate if planning to expand these staff groups.
Will funding have to be returned if the post becomes vacant?
No, but practices will need to show they have progressed from the 31 March 2026 baseline staffing level to what they intend to achieve by the end of Q2 in order to secure tranche 2 funding.
Will the election have a bearing on future funding that requires approval?
We do not expect it to. While it will need to be part of Scottish Government's annual budget process which requires annual approval from the Scottish Parliament, the same is true of the entirety of the Scottish public sector. Scottish Government fully understands that there would be consequences to reneging on an agreement reached with the BMA in order to avoid industrial action, regardless of which party or parties are in office.
What is the definition of a length of a session for the purposes of the workforce funding?
Practices are asked as part of the workforce survey to report how long a session is in their practice. This is then converted to a session length of 4 hours 10 minutes to allow comparability between practices. Practices can expand capacity either through additional sessions of the length already used in their practice or in additional hours if expanding by less than full sessions. GP capacity will continue to be measured in sessions in 2026/27.
Indirect clinical care
Can practices use this resource to support a move from 10-minute appointments to 15-minute appointments? What about adding in previously non-existent protected time for clinicians to manage results, referrals, supervise colleagues and run our practices?
Using additional sessions to support a move to higher quality 15-minute appointments, as recommended by the BMA's safe workload guidance, or building in more time for indirect clinical care or other practice tasks is absolutely an appropriate use of the resource and will help to build practice sustainability by reducing the risk of burnout.
Can practices use the funding to build time into our weeks to handle ‘hidden’ non-patient facing workload. Will this be acceptable for reporting needs?
There has been a huge growth in hidden non-patient facing work - indirect clinical care, quality improvement, CPD, training and supervising others etc. And while the growth in this work has expanded, GPs often only have time built into their working weeks for their clinical commitments. This funding presents an opportunity for practices to make sure they are following the safe workload guidance and also expand their contracted sessions or hours so that there is dedicated time in our working weeks going forward for non-patient facing work.
If partners expand their sessional commitment this must reflect the work they do, be included in workforce survey returns, and stand up to reasonable (though light touch) interrogation. Indirect patient care sessions/hours need to be regularly scheduled, might be staggered at different times to existing sessions to fit building use and could be delivered remotely. Partner changes in sessional commitment should ultimately be reflected in practice partnership agreements when practices have the opportunity to change these.
It is important for practices to spend this money wisely and appropriately to increase workforce capacity. All increases to workforce capacity will improve patient care and so give Government confidence in the profession to make best use of any future funding streams and increase likelihood of future investment.
Partner costs
How should practices calculate how much resource to allocate for increasing partner sessions given the variation between practices? Will it be set by practices or based on a national figure?
We are currently discussing this with Scottish Government, but are clear that it must be based upon an individual practice's circumstances. Guidance on this will be issued shortly.
Premises constraints
Our premises has no physical space to have any more clinicians working from the practice - what do we do and how can we expand the team?
We recognise that premises can be a significant constraint on practices' ability to expand and that more needs to be done to support practices. In the short term there are a number of approaches practices with limited space can consider such as remote working for some additional sessions, hot-desking rather than individuals having specific rooms or desks, staggering surgeries so that clinical work is not all delivered at the same time, or using extended hours. It is also expected that in a lot of cases additional workforce capacity will come from existing workforce and practices have the option to engage more locums such as to cover holiday leave of staff. If a practice is unable to implement any of these approaches to increase their workforce in any way, then their tranche 2 funding may be at risk. There are also other members of the team such as admin staff that can be recruited using this resource.
Low earnings
Some practices have needed to accept lower partnership income to fund additional GP sessions to manage patient demand. Can this funding be used to bring partnership income back into line with practices that have not done this?
This funding is not a pay award and must not be used to increase partner earnings or staff pay for delivering the same level of service. We are considering what other options there might be to address the issue of practices who have sacrificed partner earnings to expand services to patients, but that cannot currently come from this funding. BMA Scotland previously published guidance for practices on maintaining practice profitability and we would recommend practices who have not already done so consider its recommendations.
Staff availability
Are there GPs available to fill all these additional posts the new funding will create?
Parts of Scotland have begun seeing significant levels of GP underemployment which this resource will help to address. Primarily though we expect expansion to primarily come from within practice teams. As more funding comes on stream, we expect there to be more workforce available for external recruitment. The important thing is that the arrangements give practices flexibility to find the approach that works best for them within their own circumstances.
Will practices have to prove they tried to get GPs but didn't manage to then be allowed to recruit non-GP posts?
No, practices could decide at the outset that their particular needs are best met from a non-GP at this time. However, we would encourage practices to use this resource to increase the GP workforce wherever possible.
To date we have been unable to afford to keep pace with the local jobs market and have struggled to recruit and retain staff as a result. Can we use this money to offer terms and conditions that are more favourable than we have offered in the past to allow us to keep pace with local competitors and fill posts?
Practices will be able to offer a rate for new posts that is comparable to the local market, even if this is higher than the practice is currently offering. However, the funding cannot be used to increase the pay of existing staff. The workforce funding is separate to the annual pay uplift process. Practices that are struggling to offer competitive earnings may wish to consider using the BMA’s guidance for maintaining practice profitability.
No need to recruit
If a practice has prioritised having a high staff complement instead of partner earnings and has no issues with patient access, can this money be used to fund a pay increase?
Even in practices that are able to offer comparatively good access to patients, there will usually always still be scope for improvement, particularly given long-term ambitions to reduce the patient to WTE GP ratio in Scotland. Additional practice capacity can also enable more focus on prevention, providing long-term care and improve practice sustainability by having some spare capacity. You may in these circumstances also wish to look at staff welfare and workload options rather than expanded GP time. We are aware of the issue with practices who have taken this approach over a number of years, but this funding is not a pay award.
If we are already delivering a service with good levels of access and do not feel we need to increase staff capacity, how should we use this resource?
Even in practices that are able to offer comparatively good access to patients, there will usually always still be scope for improvement, particularly given long-term ambitions to reduce the patient to WTE GP ratio in Scotland. Additional practice capacity can also enable more focus on prevention, providing long-term care and improve practice sustainability by having some spare capacity.
Rural
When will a copy of the Rural Impact Assessment promised by Scottish Government be made available to view to give small rural practices confidence that this money will also benefit them?
Scottish Government will be carrying out a Rural Impact Assessment that will be available to view when complete. We expect that in small rural practices, the funding may enable them to access locums more readily by being able to offer rates necessary to attract them.
Scrutiny and reporting
By what criteria will Boards assess whether Q2 intentions have been ‘achieved’, particularly where recruitment has been unsuccessful and contingency plans have been used?
The assessment that will be applied will be based upon the practice's workforce survey return, which will be expected to show in Q2 that the intentions to expand the workforce have been achieved. If a practice has been unable to recruit/expand the workforce then it will not receive tranche 2 until the following financial year, after it had been successful. Contingency plans to engage other staff types or internal locums are perfectly acceptable as practices can change their intentions.