For 2025/26, all NCL PCNs are asked to deliver (required):

Proactive care (approximately 50% of the funding)

• Proactive care case reviews of vulnerable patients to support winter readiness and mitigate the risk of unplanned admissions (delivery from October 2025 to December 2025).

AND

• Improve vaccination uptake of eligible patients in North Central London for seasonal vaccinations (Influenza and Covid-19) focusing efforts on those least likely obtain a vaccination – including housebound population (delivery from October 2025 to December 2025).
• The initial payment is to be used to do the following: undertake outreach activity to address historical inequality, ensure the provision of seasonal vaccinations to your housebound population, deliver enhanced call/recall to eligible populations, provide more effective signposting to community pharmacies.
• A further outcome-based payment will be made based on vaccination uptake at the end of the contract.

AND

Increased capacity (approximately 50% of the funding)

• Increased capacity targeted to specific groups – elderly and paediatrics (delivery from January 2026 to March 2026, and particularly ensuring increased capacity from 2-18 January 2026 as this is the most pressured time for providers).
• Optional: PCNs may also use a proportion of funding for increased capacity to fund Triage Hubs – at scale management of online consultations across a PCN footprint.

Deadlines for PCNs

1. Complete the MoU via the form. This details the requirements for winter 2025/26 and must be completed by cop 26 September 2025.
2. Submit indicative activity plans via this survey by cop 17 October 2025.
3. In April 2026, the ICB will be asking PCNs to report on their winter projects. A link to the evaluation will be added shortly.

Case studies videos

Winter Proactive Care webinars with NCL South Camden and Central 2 PCNs to understand their proactive intervention to support winter pressures – including which population did they focus on, how they delivered the intervention, what went well, what were the challenges and whether they would have done anything differently.

The two recordings are available to view: 

• South Camden PCN (Camden) The conversation took place with clinical directors and the digital transformation lead (DTL), who reflected on their winter proactive care from 2024/25. 
• Central 2 PCN (Islington) The conversation took place with clinical directors who talked about their proactive approaches to Winter since 2022.

If you are unable to access the recordings, contact nclicb.pcstrategy@nhs.net

Additional support and resources during Winter

Bridging Access Service
As in the previous year, during winter 2025-2026, NCL has commissioned Bridging Access Service Providers across all five boroughs to deliver additional paediatric appointments between January and March 2026. The number of commissioned appointments has been allocated according to the paediatric population in each area, ranging from 284 to 1,577 additional appointments. GP referrals remain the primary route for booking into this service, so please ensure you utilise this offer.

Winter wellness communications toolkit
Refer to the Winter wellness communications toolkit for GPs. This document includes downloadable social media content as well as information for digital screens in practices. 

Virtual Wards
Also known as Hospital at Home (HaH), which allows patients of all ages to safely and conveniently receive acute care at their usual place of residence, including care homes. The 10-year NHS NCL vision is to have a virtual hospital at home that provides both generalist and specialist care, supported by remote monitoring where applicable. Working seamlessly across NCL with primary care, social care, community services and secondary care to safely reduce patient time spent in hospital, improve patient experience and improve acute flow. For further information, view the service pages below.