In 2024, the NHS chose 22 PCNs to participate in a pilot project to respond to the challenges and pressures that PCNs and their practices are facing. The SHaR PCN was one of the PCNs chosen. 

Upon announcing the pilot project, NHS England said: ‘Anecdotal feedback is telling us there is a demand and capacity gap which is making it hard for general practice to continue in a sustainable way. . . Our aim is to work with general practice to collect the necessary information and data that will give us a better and shared understanding of the gap, the causes and the solutions.’

According to NHS England, each participating PCN will gather extensive data to understand whether the interventions undertaken in the pilot make a difference compared with the current ‘baseline’. This information will help to ‘further deliver’ and inform the implementation of the recommendations included in the 2022 Fuller stocktake report.