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

On 16 July, NHS England published its consultation on new contracting models for neighbourhood health. Four routes, a working assumption of around 50,000 people, no new national funding, and it closes on 10 September. We read it, and we had questions. So we brought together primary care leaders from community pharmacy, general practice, optometry, primary care networks and practice management, under the Chatham House rule, and asked what they made of it.

The new NHS Oversight Framework 2026/27 never mentions PCNs. But read Annex B and primary care runs right through the ICB scorecard, from same day access to long-term condition management and screening. Here is how the framework works, where general practice sits inside it, and why your ICB will be paying attention.

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.

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

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.

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.