The NENC Primary Care Workforce Strategy 2025–2030 has now been delivered to NENC ICB, marking a major milestone in workforce planning for primary care across the North East and North Cumbria. Developed by North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) on behalf of the Primary Care Collaborative (PCC), the strategy presents a shared, five-year roadmap to strengthen and future-proof our workforce across pharmacy, optometry, dentistry (POD), and general practice.
Rooted in extensive stakeholder engagement, the strategy identifies five key workstreams—Recruitment and Retention, Pipeline and Education, Leadership and Development, Protected Learning Time (PLT), and an enabling Estates strand. Together, these are designed to address critical workforce gaps while building a more attractive, sustainable, and rewarding primary care environment.
Development of the strategy followed a two-phase engagement process. In May 2024, phase one involved scoping current workforce issues, establishing whether a regional strategy would be supported, and identifying the key themes to inform phase two. The result was a strong consensus on the need for coordinated action. Phase two, carried out between December 2024 and January 2025, involved nine workshops and six stakeholder interviews across the ICB, helping to shape the final five workstreams and identify shared enablers.
Each workstream sets out tangible outcomes across the five-year period:
• Recruitment and Retention will map current workforce demographics, identify role gaps, develop a regional induction framework and consistent messaging to support recruitment.
• Pipeline and Education will engage with education providers to influence curricula, promote primary care careers, and proposes laying the foundation for a ‘general primary care apprenticeship’ model.
• Leadership and Development will identify training needs across the system and support leadership pathways, particularly for emerging roles.
• Protected Learning Time aims to embed structured, equitable PLT across primary care by 2030.
• Estates underpins all workstreams, with a review of current infrastructure and recommendations for improvements to support growth and development.
Fiona Adamson, Co-Chair of the PCC, commented:
“We’ve developed a plan that addresses the real, everyday challenges faced by our primary care workforce. This strategy isn’t about top-down targets—it’s a shared commitment to building better conditions for care, wellbeing, and professional development across every corner of primary care.”
A strategy aligned with national and local priorities
The NENC Primary Care Workforce Strategy 2025–2030 draws on national evidence, including the NHS Long Term Plan and Fuller Stocktake, and aligns with major professional body publications from across the four pillars of primary care. It also builds on local context—recognising the region’s complex health inequalities and the vital role of a well-supported primary care workforce in tackling these challenges.
The strategy complements the ICB’s People and Culture Strategy, with clear links to its pillars on workforce supply, retention, wellbeing, inclusion, and leadership. Together, they form a unified vision for workforce transformation in the region.
Next steps
With the strategy now complete, the next phase will focus on implementation planning and the co-design of pilot programmes aligned to each workstream. Key performance indicators and evaluation mechanisms will also be developed to measure impact and ensure the strategy evolves over time.