As with 2024/25, only the following services can be delegated to another provider by practices:
- Children and Young People Phlebotomy Service – 12 – 15 years and 364 days
- Ear Irrigation
- Vaginal Ring Pessaries
- Wound Care, Dressings, Suture & Clip Removal
CBS SERVICE SPECIFICATIONS FOR 2025/26
There are no changes to the following service specifications:
- Children and Young People Phlebotomy Service – 12 – 15 years and 364 days
- Vaginal Ring Pessaries
- Glucose Tolerance Testing
- Urine Beta HCG testing
- Minor Injuries
- Administration of Antipsychotics
The following specifications, have some changes to them which are:
Phlebotomy – Primary and Secondary Care – Adults
Practices will be required to make quarterly claims through CQRS Local
Surveillance of Individuals at risk of Prostate Cancer
Clarification made to aims and objectives of service definitions to improve clarity of included patients.
Wound Care
The change on wound care is advising practices on the process for managing dressings at the weekend and ensuring the patient has a supply of dressings, should the patient need to have their dressing changed and is booked in with an out of hours provider.
Medicines Optimisation Framework
Claim through CQRS Local for the switches element. This work can start and completed in Q1 of 2025/26. The pricing structure is as follow:
| Name | Tariff Currency | Base Tariff | Frequency | Claim Schedule | Start Date | End Date |
| Number of patients reviewed in Stage 2 and NOT switched to generic sitagliptin | Per Unit | £7.50 | Quarterly | Standard | 01/04/2025 | 30/06/2025 |
| Number of patients reviewed in Stage 2 and SWITCHED to generic sitagliptin | Per Unit | £50.00 | Quarterly | Standard | 01/04/2025 | 30/06/2025 |
| Declaration – Please Read the Information Icon – Submitting this claim indicates that the information being submitted is to the best of your knowledge and that the ICB may undertake an audit at any time to verify this information. | Retainer | £0.00 | Quarterly | Standard | 01/04/2025 | 30/06/2025 |
Please refer to the SOP/Service Specification for further information.
Administration of Injectable Medicines
Claim through CQRS Local, the data can be extracted using a report search built by LHIS within the practice system (SystmOne or EMIS Web)
Shared Care Monitoring
Claim through CQRS Local, the data can be extracted using a report search built by LHIS within the practice system (SystmOne or EMIS Web)
Complex Care
The Complex Care Planning specification has had the following changes from 2024/25 to 2025/26:
- The Complex Care Planning specification will remain an activity-based service, with a payment of £193.42 per care plan (for the capped allocation for each practice, as per the August 2023 letter), claims are to be made each quarter via CQRS (the same process as 2024/25).
- The Complex Care allocations will be reviewed during quarter 1 of 2025/26 and the ICB will write out to practices with any updates/changes (if any). Practices are being asked to continue to write new and review care plans throughout Q1.
- This year the focus for care planning will be on Patient Need Groups (PNG) 9, 10 and 11. These groups have been identified as high users of health and care services and they benefit the most from having a care plan in place. You can view your patients classified as PNG 9, 10 and 11 by logging on to Aristotle. Further guidance will be issued to show practices how to do this at the end of April. In addition, a workshop will be taking place on 1st May being led by Dr Priya Kumar, a GP in Frimley. This webinar will cover a number of areas to highlight how focussing on PNGs 9, 10 and 11 has had a positive impact on the care provided to these patients by primary care.
- An audit will be undertaken in year, to review the quality of the care plans written as part of the specification. Practices are asked to gain patient consent for reviewing the care plan as part on an ongoing quality audit. The template will have an option showing when patient consent has been given. All information will be anonymised and will only be used for quality/audit purposes. We will contact practices when this work is to be undertaken.
- An evaluation of the service will also be undertaken this financial year, assessing the impact the care plans have on secondary care and overall patient outcomes. To support this, practices will be asked to share the NHS number and date the care plan was written. We will contact practices when this work is to be undertaken. If you have any questions or need any support, please contact Jo Kerr, Integration and Transformation Manager – joanne.kerr11@nhs.net
UPCOMING CHANGES
Ear Irrigation
We are awaiting on new SNOMED codes to be published for undertaking ear irrigation for each ear (one code for left and one for right), so when a practice completes both ears in one 30-minute appointment, the practice will be required to claim the payment for both ears which will be £27.15 (subject to inflation uplift). This change will be implemented in-year during 2025/26 – we will write out to practices to provide further updates once this change is to go live.
Nursing and Residential Care Home Patients
A review of this specification is to be taken in Q1 of 2025/26, alongside the Complex Care specification. Initial scoping has been undertaken of the two current specifications, reflecting that the PCN DES is now in place that includes funding for care homes as part of the Enhanced Health in Care Homes programme. The allocations will be reviewed to ensure there is equity across LLR and engagement will be undertaken with practices and the LMC.
2024/25 – CLAIMS
The claims window for quarter 4 2024/25 has been extended to 30/04/2025 to allow practices further opportunities to submit claims, however the ICB is unable to confirm payment in month for any claims submitted after 14 April 2025 (initial claims period).
If your practice has any discrepancies, or has missed any claims in previous quarters of 2024/25, please include this information alongside the quarter 4 claim on CQRS Local, ensuring supporting evidence is uploaded which clearly identifies the activity completed per quarter.
Childrens Phlebotomy
The ICB has recently conducted a review of data which shows practices are still referring CYP patients to other providers – if your practice has signed-up for this service, please ensure that patients are seen as required (unless clinically indicated otherwise).
2024/25 – POST PAYMENT VERIFICATION
The ICB will be undertaking a post payment verification (PPV) audit for the services found in Schedule 2a of the 2024/25 contract.
Practices will be informed 1 month prior to the audit taking place. The ICB will liaise with individual practices regarding variations to complete the audit and transact any identified financial reconciliation within three months of the audit being completed.
We would like to thank you for your continued hard work and effort in implementing the General Practice Funding Community Based Services offer during this financial year and look forward to developing and improving services for our patients moving forward.
If you have any queries, please contact llricb-llr.primarycareteam@nhs.net.