Less than half of primary care networks (PCNs) have given their Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) staff – such as practice pharmacists and pharmacy technicians – a pay rise of at least 5.5% since April this year, according to a new survey.

Of the 129 GPs with a PCN role who responded to the survey carried out by our sister title Pulse PCN, some 29% had granted a 6% uplift in pay for their ARRS staff.

An additional 16% said they had passed on a 5.5% increase, while 13% said they had given a pay rise but that this was below 5.5%.

Over a third (38%) said they had not given a pay rise yet and were awaiting guidance from NHS England on ARRS staff pay increases, and 3% said they do not plan to offer any pay increases this year.

NHS England confirmed in October that changes to the reimbursable amounts for ARRS staff were in line with the 5.5% Agenda for Change pay increases that were set out in July.

However, networks were told they needed to find the money for these uplifts within their existing 2024/25 budgets if they were to grant pay rises to staff.

President of the Primary Care Pharmacy Association (PCPA) Dr Graham Stretch said he wished for ARRS pharmacists and pharmacy technicians ‘to be recognised as equals within the NHS workforce’.

‘They richly deserve to receive recognition for their hard work and unique contributions of expertise, safety and capacity in PCNs,’ he told The Pharmacist.

‘Unfortunately, whist individual maximum reimbursement values for ARRS staff have been uplifted… the total cap on ARRS entitlements for PCNs have not been raised commensurably, leaving PCNs who have effectively recruited to that cap unable to claim individual increases,’ he explained.

‘This means to deliver this salary increase practices would need to fund the increase from their core contacts which are also under unprecedented pressure at this time.’

On behalf of PCPA members, Dr Stretch called for urgent reconsideration to be made to increasing the cap on PCN entitlements in line with the 5.5%, ‘to fund well deserved raises’.

Accountants last week warned that PCNs should keep reserves in light of the Budget which increased the rate of employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs).

At the time, Andy Pow, board member of the Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants (AISMA), said: ‘PCNs would be wise to be cautious with their ARRS spending and ensure they have some reserves in place in the event that the full cost increase of employing staff is not met by improved budgets in 2025/26.’

Also last week, Dr Laura Mount, clinical director at Central and West Warrington PCN, told our sister title Pulse PCN her network was due to announce their pay increases for the year but ‘based on the Budget we have had to pause this and revisit what we can give’.

On Monday, the Prime Minister said funding arrangements in relation to the impact of Budget changes on general practice would be set out ‘by the end of the year’.

Introduced in 2019, the ARRS can be used by PCNs to reimburse the salaries of some staff, including pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

A version of this article was first published by our sister title Pulse PCN