• Home
  • General Practice Staff Survey

General Practice Staff Survey

NCL Wide
Add to Bookmarks Add to CPD

The General Practice Staff Survey (GPSS) aims to give a voice to staff working in general practice organisations because their voice counts. The survey will help develop an understanding of their experience of working in general practice, which will in turn support improvements to working experience and resultantly, recruitment and retention of staff.

The NHS has conducted an annual staff survey for more than 20 years across many NHS organisations, including ICBs and acute providers. However, since 2023 this has been extended to include general practice. 
From 2026, the General Practice Staff Survey (GPSS) is mandated through the GP contract, ensuring colleagues in general practice have opportunities to share their working experiences. 

The GPSS is run independently by Picker (the only approved NHS England (NHSE) contractor to provide NHS Staff Survey services) to the highest standards of quality and accuracy. Responses are kept confidential and anonymous and are only analysed and aggregated by Picker, thereby ensuring no individual is identifiable.

As per NHS confidentiality standards, organisations can only receive local results where there are 10 or more responses. Please encourage staff participation to help ensure your organisation can receive its own anonymous local report.

Listen to this five-minute recording on the GPSS Community NHS Futures Platform (login required) on Why is GPSS important?

The 2026/27 GP contract requires all GP practices and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) delivering primary medical care services under an NHS contract (GMS, PMS and APMS) are to participate in the survey – this is a change from previous years when survey participation was optional.

Action required: Practices and PCNs must submit their staff list via an online portal by 1st September 2026 to participate in the 26/27 GPSS. You can access the submission portal directly via the following link: NHS GPSS Staff List Portal.

Staff should be included based on where they work most of their time, rather than their employment contract. As per previous years, the Staff Survey is due to run from early October (2026) to the end of November (2026), with staff receiving a direct email invitation to participate. 

Organisation Participation Requirement 

Organisation  Participation requirement
GP Practices Mandatory
Primary Care Networks (PCNs) Mandatory
Federations Voluntary
Training Hubs Voluntary

NHSE has published guidance, FAQs and information about how to submit your staff list which can be found: https://www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/2026-nhs-general-practice-staff-survey/

Organisations may allocate 15 minutes of their Protected Learning Time (PLT) to provide staff with dedicated time to complete the survey (when it is planned to run from early October to the end of November). 
If you have any queries, please email nclicb.nclprimarycare@nhs.net for the attention of Sarah Pallis, Primary Care Planning, Operations and Improvement Manager. 

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.

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.

If you have any queries, please email nclicb.nclprimarycare@nhs.net for the attention of Sarah Pallis.

Review date: Thursday, 03 June 2027

Download • DOCX, 187.67 KB
Copy URL

NHS England GPSS: Responding to survey results

Download • PDF, 420.16 KB
Copy URL

Top tips for improving GPSS participation

Download • PDF, 46.92 KB
Copy URL

NHS England GPSS: Methods For Improving Response Rates

Download • PDF, 227.3 KB
Copy URL

GPSS Responding to Survey Results

Download • PDF, 820.34 KB
Copy URL

NHS England GPSS Communications Toolkit (July 2026)

Joining the GPSS FutureNHS Community

https://future.nhs.uk