LMC Update – 28 February 2025
Cambs LMC Committee Election – Voting Opens 4 March 2025
All registered constituent GPs are invited to vote in this election from 4 March until midday on Tuesday 25 March 2025
GP Contract Negotiations – next steps
GPC England met on Thursday 27 February where the officer team outlined the contract proposals, and a full discussion and debate occurred.
More information is coming soon. Cambs LMC will publish any national guidance via usual channels in the comings days/weeks.
GP unemployment crisis
Despite the rising demand for family doctors to provide care, a Kafkaesque situation now exists in which a significant number of highly skilled GPs are struggling to secure work.
The BMA’s UK Sessional GP Committee surveyed salaried and locum members to help highlight this pressing and absurd situation of the growing unemployment/underemployment crisis among GPs. The survey closed on Monday and the results will be shared in due course.
GPC held a virtual rally to address the urgent issue of sessional GP unemployment.
If you missed the rally, you can watch the recording here.
Maternity Leave
We are thrilled to announce a significant enhancement to maternity leave benefits for salaried GPs, following a recent unanimous vote by GPC UK. The number of weeks at half pay for maternity leave will increase from 14 weeks to 18 weeks. This change aligns maternity leave provisions with those of hospital doctors and ensures salaried GPs are no longer at a detriment to their hospital-based colleagues.
We have produced guidance, resources and template letters to aid the implementation of this change. The new maternity leave benefits are as follows:
- 8 weeks of full pay, less any SMP (statutory maternity pay) or MA (maternity allowance) receivable, including any dependants’ allowances.
- 18 weeks of half pay, rather than 14 weeks, plus any SMP or MA receivable, ensuring the total does not exceed full pay.
13 weeks at SMP or MA, as entitled under the statutory scheme.
This change was made possible thanks to the unity and collective resolve of our profession.
By implementing this new maternity leave pay change, we’re not just helping individuals, but also strengthening our profession. These enhanced benefits reflect our commitment to supporting salaried GPs throughout their working lives.
Next Steps: We recommend all practices discuss these changes with their salaried GPs. Following which, we recommend that a contract variation letter is issued to each salaried GP to reflect these changes. Further information and the relevant contract variation letters can be found on our website.
We recommend that you make these changes before 1 April 2025, but we encourage all practices to make these changes as soon as possible, to ensure that no salaried GPs miss out.
2023-24 Type 2 Pension Forms for Sessional GPs
We have recently highlighted the change of form and upload process for type 2 pension forms for 2023-24. Sessional GPs are required to complete a Type 2 Self-Assessment for each pension year, so that NHS England can ensure that all NHS pension contributions have been correctly paid and then accurately allocated to that GP’s NHS Pension Scheme record.
The relevant forms must be completed by those who have undertaken practitioner pensionable work between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, and should be submitted to PCSE by 28 February 2025. PCSE and the BMA Pensions Committee have held two webinars to explain the new form and the process to upload the forms. Watch a recording of the webinar
Spending Review
The BMA recently submitted its representation to the Department for Health and Social Care for the Comprehensive Spending Review, setting the case for sustained investment. The BMA advocated for a 4.2% average annual increase in the day-to-day spending budget of DHSC, with funding reserved to deliver an uplift in the GP Practice core funding (Global Sum) by at least £40 per patient per year, amounting to £2.5 billion extra per year. In addition, the BMA also called on the government to build on the capital investment announced in the most recent budget and increase capital spending by a further £3.3 billion in real terms per year, to help deliver needed improvements to the primary care estate. The full submission can be accessed on the BMA website.
GPC England Regional Elections – coming soon
GPs Committee England will soon be seeking nominations for voting members of the committee for the 2024-2027 sessions, we will be electing one representative from each of the following regions:
- Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire
- Hertfordshire
- North and South Essex
- Barking & Havering, Redbridge & Waltham Forest and City & Hackney
- Cumbria and Lancashire
- Wigan & Bolton, Bury & Rochdale and West Pennine
- South & West Devon and Kernow
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight
- Kent
- Surrey and Croydon
- East Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire
- Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield
For more information about BMA elections
Special Rules for end of life benefits (SREL)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has released an online service for the SR1 form.
Healthcare professionals can support a patient’s benefit claim made with the Special Rules by completing an SR1 form. Once submitted, this tells DWP that a patient might be eligible for financial support as they may have less than 12 months to live.
The service aims to:
- Support GPs to complete and submit the form by providing an online option to current paper and email processes
- remove the need to create usernames and passwords
- allow completed forms to be downloaded and saved
- reduce time to complete a form with the ability to skip optional questions
- include clear and relevant guidance for specific questions
- increase the accessibility for people who use assistive technology to complete tasks
If you have any questions or problems using the service, email DWP at online.sr1@dwp.gov.uk
Access healthcare professional resources for the Special Rules for end of life