Primary care partnerships
Published on: 10th February 2022 | Updated on: 6th March 2026
Primary care is the main point of entry to healthcare services, acting as the ‘front door’ to the NHS. It includes general practice, community pharmacy, dental, and optometry (eye health) services.
Given their accessibility, community pharmacies are a key part of the primary care sector. In recent years, it has become more important for pharmacy teams to engage with their fellow healthcare professionals.
The NHS in England is divided up into 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICS) which are responsible for planning and funding health and care services in the area they cover. Since 1st July 2022, within each system, there is an NHS body – an Integrated Care Board (ICB) – which took over the responsibilities of the former Clinical Commissioning Groups. The ICS also contains an Integrated Care Partnership, which is a joint committee between the ICB and the upper-tier Local Authorities within the system.
From 1st July 2022, ICBs assumed delegated responsibility for primary medical services (which were previously delegated to Clinical Commissioning Groups). Nine early adopter ICBs also took on delegated responsibility for the commissioning of Pharmaceutical Services in their area with other ICBs expected to take on this responsibility shortly.
NHS England retains the responsibility to identify national priorities, setting outcomes and negotiating national contractual frameworks, such as the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework.
Neighbourhood health is a key part of the 10 Year Health Plan for England, published on 2nd July 2025. The publication acknowledges the current hospital-centric approach of the NHS and the need to shift to provide continuous, accessible and integrated care via the development of a neighbourhood health service. The plans says this will bring professionals into patient-centred teams, reducing fragmentation of care and improving access to general practice and enabling hospitals to focus on providing specialist care.
The Government says the neighbourhood health service will embody their new preventative principle that care should happen as locally as it can: digitally by default, in a patient’s home if possible, in a neighbourhood health centre when needed, in a hospital if necessary.
The NHS Long Term Plan increased focus on local leadership and commissioning with the objective to bring care closer to home.
A PCN consists of groups of general practices working together with a range of local providers, including across primary care, community services, social care and the voluntary sector, to offer more personalised, coordinated health and social care to their local populations. They are the ‘building block’ of local healthcare systems and generally cover local populations of 30-50,000.
For more information on this topic please email comms.team@cpe.org.uk
