23 April 2025
Bulletin
GP contract documents published; C the signs; Keep antibiotics working; Education and training; and more

Welcome to this week's primary care bulletin

Key points this week include:
  • GP contract 2025/26 documents published
  • spotlight on C the Signs – supporting earlier cancer diagnosis 
  • keep antibiotics working public campaign - please support
  • final chance to claim your Local Capacity and Access Improvement Payment (CAIP) Modern General Practice Payments
  • anti-virus upgrade
  • general practice pay transparency 2023/24
  • Bowel cancer screening testing on practice screen (for Brent)..
Webinars and training, including:
  • learn from patient safety events (LFPSE) service – easy set-up option.
  • learning from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) – setting up an account
  • uncovering subconscious bias webinars
  • practical pain science session
  • new dates released for polypharmacy action learning set workshops
  • North West London Training Hub newsletter.

If you have any submissions for this bulletin please email them to the communications inbox - nhsnwl.communications.nwl@nhs.net. View previous editions.
GP contract 2025/26 documents published

Following the letter NHS England sent to general practice on 27 February 2025 outlining the contract arrangements for 2025/26, new and updated specifications and guidance have been published for contractors. The following documents have been added to the GP contract hub page:
Advice and guidance service

The advice and guidance enhanced service specification references timescales for the offer and acceptance of the service. The document has been updated to reflect that the service will be made available to commissioners for offer to practices in Calculating Quality Reporting Service (CQRS) on 30 April 2025. 

Childhood immunisation payments

In the letter sent to general practice on 27 February 2025, reference was made to childhood immunisation payments being uplifted to £12.06. The work to update CQRS will be completed by late April ahead of the first data extraction and calculation in May. Commissioners and practices can offer and accept the services and be assured that CQRS will correctly reflect the new payment value when payment calculations start. 
Spotlight on C the Signs – supporting earlier cancer diagnosis 

C the Signs is a digital decision support tool helping primary care teams identify patients at risk of cancer at the earliest, most curable stage. Integrated into EMIS and SystmOne, it supports GPs with real-time, evidence-based guidance at the point of care.

C the Signs has new updates coming soon

Following user feedback two new key features are about to new launched:
  • clinicians will have the option to add photos directly to skin referrals—streamlining the referral process and supporting faster, more informed secondary care reviews
  • after conducting user feedback sessions, there will be several dashboard improvements to streamline your workflow. 
    Practices can received support in completing EDEC (Early Diagnosis of Cancer) audits. Find out more about conducting a retrospective audit using C the Signs. The information includes advice on using support platforms like C the Signs and offers a general approach to these types of conversations.
If you have any questions or need support, please email support@cthesigns.co.uk
Keep antibiotics working public campaign - please support

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) launched the Keep Antibiotics Working public campaign. This campaign aims to raise awareness about the critical issue of antibiotic resistance and encourage the public to use antibiotics responsibly.

Please share messaging on your GP waiting room screens and through other patient channels.
Final chance to claim your Local Capacity and Access Improvement Payment Modern General Practice Payments
 
Please note that all claims can only be in relation to activity up to 31 March 2025 but can be received up to 30 April 2025.

The purpose of this communication  is to provide General Practices and PCNs with clarity on the Local Capacity and Access Improvement Payment (CAIP) requirements, assessment criteria and the ICB evidence requests for these areas in order to the release funds within the year. 

The process is outlined below:
  • all assurance forms need to be signed by the Clinical Lead for each PCN and they takes responsibility for the accuracy of the information supplied
  • PCNs can claim payment for each of the three components separately and at different times in the year,  they need to confirm compliance with all that’s required for that specific component. They can’t ask for partial payment of a component if they are only partially compliant
  • the Digital Transformation Team will check with the regional teams that the practices have signed the data sharing agreements (DPNs) for digital telephony and online requests.
  • care navigation evidence should additionally have a flow chart/process map  which shows the patients journey if contacting the practice by online, face to face  or telephone to ensure a consistent approach
  • all assurance forms should be sent to the NHS North West London Primary Care Digital Transformation Team at nhsnwl.digitalfirst@nhs.net for processing.
A list of relevant documents can be found below:
  1. original practice letter sent from Julie Sands - Primary care are looking after the budget on this incentive but as the payment is based on digital competencies the Digital Transformation Team are approving the applications
  2. the CAP assurance form - This needs to be completed for any of the three components being claimed: (1) Better digital telephony; (2) Simpler online requests; (3) Faster care navigation, assessment, and response
  3. FAQs which should be able to help around any queries
  4. DES contract which has highlighted the elements pertaining to the Local CAIP payment p51 - 53.
Anti-virus upgrade

We are currently upgrading Panda Adaptive Defence, the anti-virus solution installed on NHS North West London devices. This is taking place in the evenings to reduce disruption but if you see the pop-up message below please restart your device at your convenience or wait for the timed re-boot.

If you have any questions about this, please e-mail the ICT Client Systems Team.
General practice pay transparency 2023/24

The general practice pay transparency collection for 2023/24 is now live. Individuals who are required to self-declare their 2023/24 NHS earnings must do so by 30 April 2025.

The guidance sets out who is required to self-declare their NHS earnings, the definition of NHS earnings and how the self-declaration is made
Bowel cancer screening testing on practice screen (for Brent)

GP practices in Brent are asked to share content on their patient facing practice screens.

Education and training
Learn from Patient Safety Events Service – easy set-up option

The Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) Service makes it possible for staff across all healthcare settings to record safety events on the national system. Recording at a national level highlights any new patient safety themes, identifies under-recognised patient safety issues in primary care, and can lead to actions to prevent future harm to patients.

Organisations without a local risk management system – typically primary care providers, such as GP, dental and optometry practices and community pharmacies – are asked to record patient safety events directly onto LFPSE by registering for an account and using the LFPSE service.

In 2025/26 GP practices will be required to have regard to the primary care patient safety strategy and also register for and maintain an administrator account with LFPSE Service.

The LFPSE online service – introductory guide has been updated to help users get set up on LFPSE. To invite a list of staff to access LFPSE, please send their email addresses to the patient safety helpdesk.
LFPSE – setting up an account
 
GP 2025/26 contracts highlights practices will be required to have regard to the patient safety strategy and register for an administrator account (unless their local risk management system is already connected) with LFPSE.  

We are holding a meeting to support staff in Primary Care to set up their own LFPSE account on Tuesday 20 May 2025, 12 - 1pm. Mandy Williams (NHSE lead for the LFPSE is our guest speaker).

If you require any further information or support with PSIRF/LFPSE or any patient safety incidents/concerns, please email them.

Join the meeting via Teams on the day.
Uncovering subconscious bias webinars
 
The Royal College of General Practitioners is running three on webinars on subconscious bias.

The first webinar of the series is taking place 23 April 2025 (today), 6 - 8pm. 

Register for the session and find out about the other two webinars.
Practical pain science session
 
Connect Health and Flippin’ Pain in partnership with Imperial College Health Partners would like to invite you to the upcoming north west London practical pain science for healthcare professionals session on Wednesday 30 April 2025, 12.30 - 5pm. 

Led by leading experts, this informative and interactive session will explore the biological, psychological, and social dimensions of pain. Developing confidence in understanding pain science can lead to more effective patient support, particularly in medication management and prescribing. 

This will be an engaging professional development event suitable for all health professionals working in pain management in north west London. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. 

Please click here to register for the session.  

Feel free to circulate to other colleagues who may be interested.  

Gain insights, network with experts and enhance your skills.

For further information and/or to get involved with the Chronic Pain in Primary Care & Opioid Harm Reduction Programme please contact catherine.caldwell@imperialcollegehealthpartners.com  
New dates released for polypharmacy action learning set workshops
 
The dates for cohort twenty-four are 4 and 18 June, and 2 July 2025.

The National Polypharmacy Programme exclusively invites our north west London prescribers to join the Action Learning Set (ALS). The programme aims to build GP and prescribing health care professionals’ confidence in and understanding of the complex issue surrounding and stopping inappropriate medicines safely. Delegates need to attend all three sessions. The ALS with also help PCNs deliver the medicines optimisation elements of the new directed enhanced services contract and contributes to the QoF.

Learn more about Polypharmacy ALS and sign up.
North West London Training Hub newsletter

The North West London Training Hub Newsletter keeps those working in primary care updated with the latest training offers from the North West London Training Hub. 

Read the issue and previous issues, or sign up to receive via email.