Local authority reports and letters reimbursement under collaborative arrangements
Dr Elliott Singer, Medical Director at Londonwide LMCs, recently wrote to the local authorities (LAs) in the 27 London boroughs covered by Londonwide LMCs to raise the issue of practices not being reimbursed for work done for LAs in the fields of education, social services and public health. Practices have an obligation to do this work under 'collaborative arrangements', but it is not part of their NHS contract and therefor needs to be resourced by the LA requesting a report, letters, etc.
Template letters and forms for practices can be downloaded here, the wording of Dr Singer's letter is below.
- Letter and invoice template to Local Authority regarding requests for Collaborative Arrangement payments safeguarding
- Letter and invoice template to Local Authority regarding requests for Collaborative Arrangement payments
Background on GPs and LAs' oblications under collaborative arrangements can be found in this newsletter item from 2017.
Dear Mr/Ms,
Child safeguarding reports and other collaborative arrangement payments
I am writing to you on behalf of [name of LMC] LMC, the statutory body which represents local general practitioners in your area, regarding payments for child safeguarding reports and other collaborative payments.
Primary care demand has been increasing year on year both in volume and complexity, with less than 8% of the NHS budget being invested in general practice. Patients frequently attend GP appointments with requests which do not form part of their NHS provisioned healthcare.
Collaborative arrangements refer to work that doctors can undertake on behalf of local authorities in the fields of education, social services and public health. This is to enable general practices to be appropriately resourced to undertake tasks that are not covered by the GP NHS contract, examples include family planning, psychiatric work, reports for adoption, fostering, children in care and priority housing, Community service certificates for offenders who fail to attend, visiting medical officers to local authority-maintained establishments, and attendance at case conference arranged by social services. Services provided under the 'collaborative arrangements' have been negotiated at a local level dependent upon the individual needs of an area. This work, that goes beyond the provision of basic health care, does attract a fee.
NHS England will be conducting an audit into the legacy arrangements for collaborative fees and seeking to agree with local authorities, a more consistent approach. However currently, Area Teams, pending the development of more consistent future arrangements, have been told to maintain any arrangements for collaborative fees that were previously managed by PCTs.
Disappointingly, we are receiving reports from general practices across the capital that despite the arrangements in place, as set out above, practices are not receiving payments for the work they do under collaborative arrangements. It is imperative that GPs and our practice teams are paid to undertake this work and do not divert resources away from their primary role of providing expert generalist care to individual patients in order to complete the statutory tasks of other bodies. We respectfully request that [name of borough] honours these collaborative arrangements. I attach copies of the template invoices that general practices are being encouraged to utilise.
Many thanks for your help and support.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Elliott Singer
Medical Director Londonwide LMCs and General Practice State of Emergency Lead
Last updated : 10 Dec 2018
M word - Issue 14 - MMR catch up Programme update - 8 May 2013 (08 May 2013)
Dear Colleague,Measles - MMR Catch up Programme UPDATEThank you for all your questions. Here are a few more answers from our GP and practice support...M word - Issue 13 - MMR catch up Programme update - 30 April 2013 (30 Apr 2013)
Dear Colleague Measles - MMR Catch up Programme UPDATE - 30 April 2013 It has now been announced that there will be an MMR vaccination catch-up programme in...M word - Issue 12 - Measles - MMR catch up scheme UPDATE (26 Apr 2013)
Dear Colleague Measles - MMR catch up scheme UPDATE Here is an update based on current information and your...M word - Issue 11 - Measles - MMR Catch up Campaign (25 Apr 2013)
Dear Colleague Measles - MMR Catch up Campaign As you cannot have missed, The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) has announced a national MMR catch up campaign, centred...Cluster contact details (09 Apr 2013)
North East London Borough/CGG Head of Practitioner Performance & Revalidation Medical...The M Word - Issue 10 - Dr Michelle Drage's latest personal briefing for practices on NHS reforms (03 Apr 2013)
Dear Colleague Another April, Another New NHS But this time it’s huge, so please see below for some sanity which I have drawn up from the perspective of practices as...February 2013 Londonwide newsletter now available (19 Feb 2013)
The February 2013 Londonwide LMCs' newsletter is now available. Click in the links below to navigate through the newsletter. Once you have finished reading an item, use the...GPC news - January 2013 (28 Jan 2013)
Each month the General Practitioners Committee (GPC) produces a newsletter which provides a summary of the main items that are discussed at the full committee meeting as well as providing...GPC news - December 2012 (14 Jan 2013)
Each month the General Practitioners Committee (GPC) produces a newsletter which provides a summary of the main items that are discussed at the full committee meeting as well as providing...The M Word - Issue 9 (20 Dec 2012)
Dear Colleague, Just before the second year of NHS ‘transition‘ draws to a close we are beginning to see how it will all fit together in London. There...Guidance
We provide expert guidance for practices in our guidance section, as well as an archive of other materials you may find useful.
GP Support
Contact our GP Support team if you need help or advice.
The team provide professional and pastoral support to GPs and practice teams on a broad range of issues.