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

NHS England's MNP and SNP consultation sets out four routes but only two contracts. What PCN leaders need to weigh up, and how to respond by 10 Sept 2026.

NHS England is consulting on new neighbourhood contract models (MNP and SNP) for primary care, with responses due by 10 September 2026. This plain-English guide breaks down the four routes, the two contracts underneath them, the pros and cons of each, and the four consultation questions PCNs need to answer so your neighbourhood can agree on one coordinated response together.

Community pharmacy is primary care, and it has always worked at neighbourhood level. In her third appearance on The Business of Healthcare, Shilpa Shah of Community Pharmacy North East London explains what neighbourhood working, Pharmacy First and prevention really mean for the sector, and who picks up the bill.

As neighbourhood working evolves, provider-to-provider contracting is helping some areas move faster without waiting for new national contracts. Discover how the approach works, where the opportunities lie, and the key legal and organisational risks PCNs should consider before getting started.

Frailty is top of the list for nearly every neighbourhood, and there is pressure to move quickly. But in most areas, several services are already assessing the same frail patients. Community teams are going in. OTs are going in. FCPs are doing assessments in primary care. Hospital discharge teams are picking up frail patients on the way out. Before commissioning anything new or stopping a service, the first step is to map what already exists. This is how to do it. Step 1: Get

At THC, we create resources for General practice and community pharmacy, which are part of the same primary care family, but anyone who has worked across both worlds knows it does not always feel that way. The two often sit alongside each other rather than together, sharing patients and misconceptions about how and why each party operates as it does. The inaugural community pharmacy conference and general practices conference held on 21st and 22nd June set out to close that g

Meetings are one of the most expensive things PCN leaders do. A practical guide to making them worth the time and money they cost, plus a checklist to take away.

Primary care leaders are navigating neighbourhoods working with limited resources.

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, y

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

SNP and MNP Contracts: Governance Readiness Self-Assessment for PCNs

The 2026/27 GP contract letter has been released, and we’ve created three infographics from the same letter — each telling a very different story. In this blog, we discuss the importance of framing and why the words you choose when sharing information with your network matter more than you might think.

The GP Contract letter dropped on 24th February, and there's a lot to unpack. We've pulled together a slide deck summarising the key changes so you can use it in your next PCN meeting — whether that's briefing your Clinical Directors, your Board, or your wider membership. Download the deck, adapt it for your network, and take it straight into your next meeting. You may find these other insights useful. About Us THC Primary Care is an award-winning healthcare consultancy speci

On 12th February, the HSJ reported that neighbourhood provider contracts won’t arrive until 2027–28 at the earliest. On 24th February, the official GP contract letter for 2026/27 landed from Dr Amanda Doyle. I think it’s important to look at these documents together and to keep in mind what’s still to come to help us take a measured approach. In this blog, we cover: What's actually changing in the 2026/27 GP contract What the neighbourhood health delay means Why do you need

New neighbourhood provider contracts won't arrive until 2027-28 at the earliest. But NHS England still expects local areas to start building neighbourhood health now. What this means for primary care networks.

We've all been there. You leave a meeting thinking something's been agreed, only for someone to ask at the next one: "But did we actually agree?

At the heart of neighbourhood health is the patient. This blog breaks down the three-tier governance model and explains how PCNs, federations, and GP collaboratives can organise themselves effectively – without drowning in meetings or losing the voice of individual practices.

As debate intensifies over the future of primary care in England, it's easy to cast the shift towards neighbourhood models as a zero-sum contest between PCNs, practices and new contractual forms. It shouldn't be.