This year’s contract includes a new QI QOF module on staff wellbeing and retention, and we cover this topic in this month’s Practice Index podcast. A key question that emerged was whether there’s anything we can realistically do about staff wellbeing given the parlous state general practice now finds itself in.

There’s something innately galling about the inclusion of staff wellbeing and retention in this year’s contract. If NHS England and the government really wanted to improve staff wellbeing, the first thing they should have done was to keep funding in line with inflation, rather than underfunding the service in a way that means most, if not all, practice staff have been forced to take a real-terms pay cut.

But if we (as our panel had to do!) put that to one side, then QI QOF module represents an opportunity to make supporting our teams, a part of core contract delivery. This means that rather than it being the unpaid work that the practice (and the Practice Manager) simply don’t have time to do (despite us all understanding that it’s essential), it can become income-generating work for the practice.

Regardless, there’s a business case that sits underneath this work for practices. While investing time in staff wellbeing and retention (which inevitably includes listening to the gripes and grievances of staff) can feel like it’s consuming time we don’t have, the reality is that it takes far less time (and is cheaper) than recruiting new staff to replace those who decide they’ve had enough and leave – or worse, trying to find cover for those who’ve gone off with medium or long-term sickness.

And things are different now. Covid has changed the workplace, probably forever. Now we have far more staff wanting flexible working, remote working and portfolio careers. The introduction of the ARRS staff has created its own set of challenges as practices across the PCN have to work out how to make those staff who are working across sites (and maybe without a base) feel valued, that they belong, and that they receive the supervision, training and support they need.

The panel members give some great tips on the approach and types of actions practices could take as part of this work. These include taking a bottom-up approach to understanding the specific stresses that staff are under, focussing on the small number of actions that will make the biggest difference, and taking as much time as possible to work on team building, maintaining it as a practice priority.

Ultimately, will this module make a difference? I have no doubt that any work undertaken in this area by practices will be extremely valuable. But the success of the QI modules isn’t determined at the level of the individual practice but by their impact at a national level across general practice. The question is whether this practice-level work will be able to offset the overall dissatisfaction that this year’s contract imposition has generated, together with whatever ends up being imposed for the years ahead.