The ICB has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NHSE to allow eligible NCL General Practices, PCNs and Federations to participate in 2025-26 GPSS.

The survey will be open during October 2025 for eight weeks with results expected during spring 2026. The ICB will receive aggregated data at an (NCL) ICB level; this will include aggregated PCN-level data for PCNs that received more than 10 responses.

Practice-level aggregated data is not shared with the ICB; this type of data is provided directly by Picker to the participating general practice organisation where at least 10 responses have been received.

NHSE has defined participating eligibility criteria as: 

• All NHS general practices and PCNs. 
• only ARRS staff employed by Federations or limited companies.
• other eligible employers may include, for example, limited companies established by PCNs to employ Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) staff, or wholly owned subsidiaries of NHS Trusts who employ ARRS workers. 

NHSE has defined ineligibility criteria as:

• NHS Trusts who directly employ general practice staff are not eligible as their staff should be invited to participate in the NHS Staff Survey
• organisations that only employ out of hours staff
• voluntary, community, and social enterprise employers of ARRS staff.

As a reminder, practices may still apply for the Protected Learning Time Scheme (PLT) and 15 minutes of this time can be used to enable practice staff members to undertake this survey. Wellbeing may also be a topic that the practice may wish to focus a PLT session on. See details on how to apply for the NCL Protected Learning Time (PLT) scheme.

Thank you to all organisations who have signed up to participate in the GP Staff Survey this year. Your participation helps to ensure that staff feel heard and valued within the workplace.

Next steps

• Survey Dates: The GP Staff Survey will be open from Monday 6 October to Friday 28 November 2025. 
• Survey Access: Participating organisations eligible staff will each receive a unique survey link directly from the Staff Survey Coordination Centre (via email from picker_surveys@picker.org) and reminders to complete the survey by Friday 28 November.
• Promotional Materials: A range of promotional assets including posters and email signature banners are available to download on the right-hand side of this page. These can be used to promote the Staff Survey and encourage staff in your organisation to respond.

Key things to note

• At least 10 responses are required to receive an organisation-level report detailing your organisation's responses. This is to ensure the anonymity of participating staff. As such, please encourage your teams to take part so that your organisation can benefit from these tailored insights.
• This year the ICB is able to view the number of survey response numbers per organisation. Once the survey opens, if you would like an update on your organisation response number, please reach out to nclicb.pcstrategy@nhs.net. 
• Please remember that participating organisations may allocate 15 minutes of their Protected Learning Time (PLT) to provide staff with dedicated time to complete the survey. If your organisation has not yet signed up to PLT, you can do so via the page below.

Organisations that participated in 2024-25 GPSS have been shared their survey results directly from Picker.

As per NHS confidentiality standards, results can only be provided to organisations with more than 10 responses; reports will not be provided where anonymity could be compromised. Picker will identify the minimum number of responses before suppression is applied to ensure anonymity is protected. This threshold serves two purposes:

1. Disclosure control: to ensure respondent confidentiality is maintained.
2. Statistical robustness: results based on low numbers cannot be interpreted as representative.

Contact the NCL ICB Primary Care Strategy & Change team via nclicb.pcstrategy@nhs.net if you have any queries.