Summary
Primary Care Networks were created in July 2019 to provide accessible and integrated primary, mental health, and community care for patients. The bulk of the PCN workforce consists of Direct Patient Care staff, funded by the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), and each PCN has the flexibility and autonomy to determine which roles are required to meet the specific needs of their local populations. Initially, recruitment focused on clinical pharmacists and social prescribing link workers, with more roles being included over subsequent years.
Information about the PCN workforce is provided directly by each PCN and recorded in the National Workforce Reporting Service (NWRS), the same system used to collect information about the general practice workforce.
This snapshot report includes England, Integrated Care Board (ICB), Sub-ICB Location and PCN-level figures for Clinical Directors, Direct Patient Care Workers and Admin/Non-Clinical staff working in PCNs on the last day of each calendar month.
The level of detail in the information that we can collect about each individual varies, as there are different ways that individuals can be contracted to work for their PCN. Please read the Background Data Quality section for more information. The data were first published to a quarterly schedule beginning in March 2020. As both the proportion of PCNs submitting data to NWRS and data quality have improved, monthly publications began in January 2023.
We are working continually to improve our publications and we welcome feedback from all users by email to: (email protected).
Links to other publications presenting healthcare workforce information can be found under Related Links.
Key Facts
Full-Time Equivalent is a standardised measure of the workload of an employed person and allows for the total workforce workload to be expressed as the equivalent number of full-time staff. 1.0 FTE equates to full-time work of 37.5 hours per week, an FTE of 0.5 would equate to 18.75 hours per week.
See the background and data quality statement for a detailed explanation of how we calculate FTE figures.
Other FTE Direct Patient Care staff
Other FTE Admin/Non-clinical staff
Last edited: 26 February 2026 9:31 am
