We look at the monthly primary care workforce figures from March, which report on the National Workforce Reporting Service (NWRS) submissions to give a picture of additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) PCN staff across England.
The number of physician associates (PAs) employed via PCNs has continued to decrease across March, according to new NHS England workforce figures.
There are now 1,123 full-time equivalent (FTE) PAs recorded as working in PCNs, compared to 1,184 in July. The number has been steadily decreasing since the summer, following the controversy surrounding the role and reports of redundancies.
Earlier this month it was revealed that more than 1,800 PAs had registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) since regulation of the profession began in December 2024.
Last week the BMA lost its High Court case against the GMC for ‘blurring the lines’ between PAs and doctors. The judge dismissed all three of the BMA’s claims, which concerned the GMC’s use of the term ‘medical professionals’ in its standards document Good Medical Practice.
The primary care workforce statistics also show that there are 22 FTE enhanced practice nurses working in PCNs across England. This is the first time the role has been included in the data with the note that the role can be claimed for under the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS).
In February, there were 13 FTE enhanced practice nurses recorded on the workforce data, but they were not labelled as reimbursable through ARRS on the spreadsheet.
The number of salaried GPs reported as employed by PCNs also increased by 68 to 377 FTE GPs at the end of March. However, this figure includes both GPs hired through the ARRS scheme, following the addition of the role in October 2024, and those hired via the PCN extended access DES. The statistics also only include figures from the NWRS and not the ARRS claims portal, which will therefore only provide a snapshot of the PCN workforce.
Earlier this month, NHS England released a separate figure for the number of GPs hired through the ARRS scheme using ARRS claims portal data, claiming there were 1,503 GPs (headcount) hired since October.
The confirmed full-time equivalent figure as of February stood at 851, for March, this figure was 979 as of 7 April, although NHS England has said the figure will be a 'significant' undercount due to when the data was extracted from the ARRS claims portal. These figures have not been updated since 7 April, but NHS England said it planned to 'refresh' the figures in the tables as part of future releases.
| Data collection | Source | Includes | Number of GPs |
| PCN monthly workforce to 31 March 2025 | National Workforce Reporting Service (NWRS) | Full-time equivalent GPs hired through ARRS and extended access DES | 377 |
| ARRS claims for GPs to 31 March 2025 | ARRS claims portal | Full-time equivalent GPs hired via ARRS | 979 |
| ARRS claims for GPs to 31 March 2025 | ARRS claims portal | Headcount GPs hired via ARRS | 1503 |
The recent contract confirmed the role would continue into the next financial year (2025/26), with an increase in funding and the removal of the ringfence around the £82m funding that was initially to be used only to recruit 1,000 GPs.
The bottom of the salaried GP pay range is now £82,418 for 2025/26, with a maximum reimbursable amount of £105,882 including oncosts.
The contract also added consultant nurses, general practice nurses and healthcare support workers to ARRS from April.
| ARRS role | March figures (FTE) | Difference |
| Pharmacists | 5,469 | Down |
| Care Coordinators | 4,926 | Up |
| Social Prescribing Link Workers (Non-Mental Health Practitioners) | 2,767 | Down |
| Pharmacy Technicians | 2,010 | Up |
| Physiotherapists | 1,652 | Down |
| General Practice Assistants | 1,340 | Up |
| Paramedics | 1,188 | Up |
| Physician Associates | 1,123 | Down |
| Health and Wellbeing Coaches | 1,032 | Down |
| Advanced Nurse Practitioners | 548 | Up |
| Nursing Associates | 538 | Up |
| Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioners (Mental Health Practitioners) | 458 | Down |
| Trainee Nursing Associates | 437 | Down |
| Other - Roles under the 'Other' Direct Patient Care category may contain roles which PCNs can claim ARRS funding for, but are not yet reported on within this publication. | 396 | Down |
| Advanced Pharmacist Practitioners | 379 | Down |
| GPs | 377 | Up |
| Digital and Transformation Leads | 272 | Up |
| Advanced Paramedic Practitioners | 238 | Down |
| Therapists (Non-Mental Health Practitioners) | 192 | Down |
| Dietitians | 125 | Down |
| Advanced Physiotherapist Practitioners | 100 | Same |
| Social Prescribing Link Workers (Mental Health Practitioners) | 97 | Up |
| Community Mental Health Nurses (Mental Health Practitioners) | 57 | Same |
| Podiatrists | 47 | Same |
| Enhanced practice nurse | 22 | Up |
| Therapists (Mental Health Practitioners) | 14 | Same |
| Advanced Occupational Therapist Practitioners (Non-Mental Health Practitioners)] | 11 | Down |
| Advanced Dietitian Practitioners | 5 | Same |
| Advanced Podiatrist Practitioners | 3 | Same |
| Applied Psychologists – Clinical (Mental Health Practitioners) | 2 | Same |
| Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioners (Mental Health Practitioners) | 2 | Same |
| Peer Support Workers (Mental Health Practitioners) | 1 | Up |
| Social Workers (Mental Health Practitioners) | 1 | Same |
| Trainee Clinical Associates in Psychology (Mental Health Practitioners) | - | Same |
| Advanced Occupational Therapist Practitioners (Mental Health Practitioners) | - | Same |
| Clinical Associates in Psychology (Mental Health Practitioners) | 0 | Same |
Pulse PCN also reports on the quarterly primary care workforce figures, which alongside the NWRS submissions includes ARRS claims data, to keep a track on the number of ARRS PCN staff in England.
All figures in the table are full-time equivalent.
*While all the above roles from the primary care network workforce statistics are reimbursable under ARRS, NHS England has not confirmed whether the FTE numbers have been claimed for under the scheme.