The Business of Primary Care Networks
Over 250 blogs to support the leadership and management of primary care networks 

Occupational health referrals across PCN teams are rising. HR specialist Joanne Harding and occupational health practitioner Dr Shoby Sathananthan explain when to refer, what to ask, how to read the report, and how to handle reasonable adjustments, capability and consent.

If you are looking for ways to improve your productivity, this one is for you. For a while now, I have been playing around with AI, and more specifically, Copilot, and I have settled on a system that is genuinely helping me. I am more intentional with my time, I touch a task only once, and I have stopped going back to the same thing three times before finishing it. This is that system. It works alongside the tools you already have. No complicated setup, just Copilot App on y

The Advice and Guidance Enhanced Service ended on 1 April 2026. There is no sign up and no £20 per request fee. Using Advice and Guidance is now a core contract requirement, with the funding folded into the global sum and delivery moving onto e-RS during the year. This is what changed, what to expect from secondary care, and what your practice and PCN should do now. If you want it shorter for a tighter card (around 30 words): From April 2026 the Advice and Guidance Enhanced S

The primary care events and conferences worth knowing about from June to October 2026, including NHS ConfedExpo, Best Practice Birmingham and the RCGP Annual Conference. A round up for PCN leaders from THC Primary Care.

The 2026/27 GP Reimbursement Scheme moves funding to practice level. Work out what your practice or network is entitled to with our free calculator, then work through a checklist of the other May changes with your team

At THC, we provide resources for primary care leaders. In this blog, I want to introduce a framework I have been developing called the Six Anchors and explain why I think every PCN board should work through it at least once.

Practices and PCNs are calling people HR Managers who have not been trained in HR. In a conversation with HR specialist Joanne Harding, we explore what HR capability actually looks like in a network, the risks of mislabelling roles, the limits of using AI for HR letters, and when to bring in specialist support.

A practical guide to costing NHS primary care services — from asking the right questions and building transparent spreadsheets to anchoring your board presentation. Includes downloadable A3 infographic.

Support PCN pharmacist progression when ARRS roles are devolved: practical insights to unlock development across your network.

This blog explores whether business principles have a place in running a primary care network. Not profit. Not customers. But vision, intentional decision-making, and a long-term view. With the average PCN managing over £1 million in staffing funding, the accountability is significant, and the approach that got you here may not get you there. This blog sets out what business thinking actually looks like in a PCN context.

Four NHS England publications dropped between 1 April and 1 May 2026, covering strategic commissioning narratives, neighbourhood health centre planning, the Network Contract DES variation, and seasonal vaccinations 2026/27. Here is what each one says, with all the key dates in one place.

The Local Variation Arrangement is the route ICBs may use to align the DES with Single Neighbourhood Providers. Here is what it means for PCN leaders.

In a previous post, we shared the GP Contract letter for 2025/26. This post does the same for 2026/27, but goes a step further. As well as covering what has changed this year, we wanted to give those of you who are not GP partners or Practice Managers a clearer understanding of what practices are contractually required to deliver and the income streams available to them.

The 26/27 DES now names cancer safety netting directly. Here's what's changed, what it means, and what PCNs actually need to do.

Primary care leaders are navigating neighbourhoods working with limited resources.

The removal of the Capacity and Access Payment from the PCN budget does not have to be an all-or-nothing story. The contract has taken the money away, but nothing stops a network and its practices deciding together what to do next. Here is what PCN leaders can still choose to do.

This is the seventh year of the PCN DES, and for most of us a lot of the specification will be business as usual. But Q1 is still an opportunity worth taking. A practical guide to the priorities PCN leaders need to focus on in the first 90 days of 2026/27, from year-end tidy-up through to IIF, ARRS and access.

If your PCN had to justify every ARRS role it currently funds, could it? Not in theory. With evidence of impact, embedded relationships, and a clear case for why that role, in your network, is worth protecting.

The PCN Network Contract DES 2026/27 specification is here. Members get a 13-slide key changes deck, updated ARRS salary calculator, financial entitlements tool, templates and AskTHC. All in one place.

This blog, written in partnership with BAXCQC, cuts through the assumptions and sets out what every provider in a shared space needs to understand. The NHS is moving decisively toward a neighbourhood model of care.

At THC Primary Care, we provide resources to support the leadership and management of primary care networks. In this blog, we summarise our recent YouTube Live session with Ben Gowland, Dr Andy Foster, and Dr Hussain Gandhi. This conversation has become something of a yearly tradition, where we come together to discuss the news stories affecting primary care in the run-up to our national conference, PCN Plus Live , taking place on 22nd April. If you want the full discussion,

The 2026/27 PCN DES specification was published on 26 March 2026. This blog covers what has changed in payment rates, ARRS funding, and operational requirements.

Eight pieces to help PCN Clinical Directors, PCN managers and practice managers understand neighbourhood health policy, contract architecture and governance readiness. Start here.

The Neighbourhood Health Framework, published 17 March 2026, is a different kind of document to the neighbourhood health guidelines that came before it. Where the 2025 guidelines provided a framework for local action, the Framework sets named national targets, a formal delivery architecture, and a structured planning timeline. For PCN leadership teams, the most immediately relevant section is the five national goals, each with specific metrics and timescales running to March