Practice Level Support is changing general practice – new podcast explains how

A new podcast explaining how Practice Level Support is transforming general practice has been released this month.

The 40 minute episode is a joint podcast between Develop Consulting and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), exploring how the NHS England improvement programme, now supporting more than 1,000 general practices across England, is helping teams reduce workload, improve patient access and build lasting capacity.

The episode, PLS In Practice, brings together Darren Jones, strategic advisor and host of The Improving Healthcare Podcast, Dr Huw Miles, GP and Deputy Lead for the Primary Care Development Team at RCGP, and Sue Blackman, Commercial Account Director at Develop Consulting, for a question led conversation on what PLS delivers, how it works, and where it is heading next.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Develop Consulting had been granted a new three-year contract to deliver PLS across East of England and North East and Yorkshire, with RCGP delivering the programme across the Midlands, North West and South West.

Data discussed in the episode shows the scale of that impact. Practices have reported online consultation usage increasing by between 15% and 61%, call wait times reduced by up to 50%, abandoned calls down by up to 52%, and an average reduction in avoidable appointments of just over 5%, freeing up as much as nine hours of clinical time per week in some practices.

Dr Huw Miles said the value of PLS lies in closing what he described as the implementation gap. “Practices often already have a strong sense that they need to do something, but they have struggled to get there. What PLS offers is a critical friend to come alongside practices and guide them through these changes.”

Sue Blackman said the programme is best understood as capacity rather than another transformation initiative. “We would really encourage systems to think of PLS as implementation capacity rather than simply another transformation programme. The ambition and the innovation are already there. The gap is having the practical improvement support to translate those ambitions into change.”

The episode also covers two new strands launching alongside standard PLS, PLS Advanced, aimed at practices further along in their improvement journey who want to focus on a specific priority area, and PLS Collaborate, which allows cohorts of practices to work through a shared challenge together. Both are commissioner led and will run through to 2029.

With commissioning responsibility for PLS now sitting with ICBs rather than being centrally funded, the episode sets out what that shift means in practice, and what practices, PCNs, ICBs and regions can each do next if they want to access the programme.

PLS is delivered nationally on behalf of NHS England by three delivery partners, Develop Consulting, RCGP and Qualitas.

The full episode is available now on Spotify, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.