A number of PCN Clinical Directors have asked me recently, “What should I be doing now?”.  With so much going on at present, it is no surprise that it is difficult for the leaders of PCNs to remain clear as to exactly where their focus should be.  Just because of the volume of things that are happening, now is a good time for a PCN stocktake.

Investing some time now in a stocktake will help provide a clear sense of direction for the PCN, and help create a renewed sense of focus for the months ahead.

But what should the stocktake cover?  Here are my suggested 10 areas for review:

1. Member practice engagement. The number one priority for any PCN is its members, because without unity and a sense of collectivism it is very difficult for anything else to be achieved.  It is easy when the agenda gets busy for this to fall to the bottom of the list, but engagement is an ongoing process and it is important PCN leaders do not let it slip.  Within this (of course) is how the PCN has (and plans to) support member practices with covid, flu vaccinations, and (potentially) covid vaccinations.

2. PCN vision/purpose. It is never too late for a PCN to work on what it is trying to achieve and what it wants to deliver for its members and the population it serves.  Member practice engagement is much easier to maintain when everyone is agreed on the overall direction of travel.  Even if you did this a year or more ago, it is important to keep it under review to maintain alignment across the PCN.

3. New Roles. PCNs submitted their recruitment plans for this year back in August, so now is a good time to review progress made against that plan.  It is also important to review how well the new roles that have started are working, and what can be done to both help them become more effective and maintain a focus on retention.

4. PCN DES specification delivery. We are now over a month into the delivery of three new specifications (enhanced health in care homes, early cancer diagnosis, and structured medication reviews).  CCGs seem to vary in the closeness with which they are monitoring PCN performance against these specifications, but better for PCNs to be on the front foot, understand how they are doing, and make any change that are needed themselves.

5. Social Prescribing Service. It is also a requirement of the PCN DES that each PCN provides a social prescribing service to their patients.  According to the Investment and Impact fund (see below) a PCN needs to offer appointments for up to 0.8% of its PCN population between October and March, so for a 50,000 population PCN that is 400 appointments (15-20 appointments per week, depending on whether or not you have started yet).  Is your PCN’s social prescribing service up and running and how many appointments per week is it offering?

6. Investment and Impact Fund (IIF). An ‘average’ PCN can earn up to £21,534 in this year’s IIF (for my blog explaining how it works click here).  In the current absence of any national reporting on PCN performance against the IIF, it is worth at least keeping back of the envelope workings out on where you think you are, so that it doesn’t come as any huge surprise when the dashboard finally appears.

7. Local projects. It is all very well making sure the PCN has done everything that is asked of it in the PCN DES, but to thrive and make a difference locally a PCN needs to undertake at least one project of its own.  Tracking the performance of your own projects is probably more important for the PCN than performance against national directed initiatives.

8. Local relationships. We are still in the start up period for PCNs, and crucial for future and ongoing success are the relationships a PCN has in place with its local health and social care partners.  Are there individuals in the community trust, acute trust and mental health trust the PCN can contact to sort out issues or take new initiatives forward?  Are relationships in place with the local voluntary sector to enable the nascent PCN social prescribing service to thrive?  Is the PCN working well with the other PCNs in the area?

9. Preparation for extended access. Looming large on the horizon is the transfer of responsibility from CCGs to PCNs for extended access form April next year.  We are still awaiting guidance on the details of this and what this is going to look like in practice, but a PCN would be wise to at least have started working through what it wants the service to look like, and any major changes (e.g. locations etc) it wants, so that when the guidance does finally land the PCN is in position to move quickly and not lose out on the opportunity simply because the timescales are (inevitably) tight.

10. Preparation for next year’s PCN DES specifications. We have also had a pretty good preview of at least some of the outstanding specifications that are on the way, in particular anticipatory care and personalised care which were published in draft last year before they were dropped from this year’s requirements.  A PCN would do well to plan how it intends to meet the requirements of the new service specifications, so that it can make sure it has the staff and resources in place to deliver it when the time comes.