HR for GP Surgeries
Expert Support for Practices and PCNs
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GP surgeries in the UK are not legally required to have an in-house HR department, but they must comply with employment law, the Acas Code of Practice and CQC expectations around safe recruitment, training and staff wellbeing.
Most practices meet these obligations by outsourcing to a provider of specialist HR support for GP practices, covering contracts, absence, grievances and disciplinaries at a fraction of the cost of an HR hire.
That’s exactly what Centric HR provides. Dedicated HR support for GP practices, delivered by CIPD-qualified consultants who already understand primary care, so you never have to explain what QOF, ARRS or a PCN is before getting to the actual problem.
We are renowned for our specialist experience within the NHS
The HR Reality of Running a GP Practice
No two days are the same for a practice manager, but the people problems have a familiar shape:
- A receptionist off sick again, and you’re not sure when a pattern becomes a formal process
- A salaried GP and a partner who can no longer work together
- A nurse raising a grievance in a team of twelve, where everyone knows everyone
- Contracts that haven’t been updated since before the practice merged
- A CQC inspection looming, and you’re not confident your HR records would hold up
- An ARRS role shared across the PCN, and nobody is quite sure who the legal employer is
None of this is unusual. What is unusual is expecting a practice manager to handle it all alone, on top of rotas, complaints, QOF and everything else. That’s where specialist HR for GP surgeries earns its keep.
HR Support That Fits Your Practice and Your Budget
Practices tell us the same thing: they want expert help without another unpredictable cost. Whether you need help with a one-off issue or ongoing support, there’s an option to suit.
Pay As You Go
Ad Hoc (£140 per hour
+ VAT)
- Recommended for small employers or occasional users
- Use us as much or as little as you need.
- Newsletter employment law updates
Premium
12-Month Bundle
(Paid Monthly)
- Recommended for 1 – 30 employees
- Discounted hourly rate (Minimum 12 hours per year)
- Any additional hours required also charged at discounted rate
- Newsletter employment law updates
Professional
12-Month Bespoke Fixed Price Package (Paid Monthly)
- Recommended for 30 + employees
- Set Price
- Template letter pack
- Menopause advice pack
- Access to training webinars
- Sickness service (if required)
- Newsletter employment law updates
See What Our Customers Have To Say
Our HR Support for GP Practices
Sickness and Absence Management
Absence hits small clinical teams harder than almost any other business. We support you through short and long-term sickness, occupational health referrals, phased returns and the difficult conversations in between, always fairly and always documented. Our absence management service is one of the most-used by our practice clients.
Grievances, Disciplinaries and Investigations
In a small practice, impartiality is the hardest thing to achieve internally. The person investigating a complaint often works alongside everyone involved. We provide genuinely independent employee relations support, from investigation through to hearing and appeal, protecting both your staff and your position if a matter is ever challenged.
Contracts, Handbooks and CQC-Ready Policies
From salaried GP agreements to zero-hours reception cover, practice contracts are rarely straightforward. We supply professionally drafted contracts and a tailored handbook, keeping you compliant with employment law and giving you documented evidence of well-led workforce management when the CQC comes calling.
Partner-Level and Sensitive Matters
Some issues can’t be handled by anyone inside the practice: disputes between partners, concerns about a practice manager, or allegations against senior clinicians. As external specialists, we handle these with the discretion and impartiality they demand.
Recruitment, Retention and Training
Every vacancy in primary care hurts. We help you recruit safely and compliantly, with right to work and DBS processes built in, and we develop the managers you already have through leadership and management training designed for people who lead teams without an HR background.
PCN and Multi-Practice Support
Primary Care Networks create employment questions that didn’t exist a few years ago. Shared staff, lead employer arrangements, ARRS roles split across sites. We help PCNs and merging practices get the employment structure right the first time, because unpicking it later is always more expensive.
Our Specialist NHS Partners
Who can enhance our workforce transformation and HR services:
Why GP Practices Choose Centric HR
- We already support GP surgeries and healthcare providers across the UK, so we speak your language from the first call
- Every consultant is fully CIPD qualified
- You deal with real people who get to know your practice, not a call centre or a script
- We focus on prevention, resolving issues before they become tribunal claims
- No rigid tie-ins; if your needs change, your package changes
You can read more about our wider healthcare HR services or go straight to booking a conversation.
Book a Free Introductory Meeting
Tell us about your practice, your team and whatever is currently sitting in your “deal with this soon” pile. We’ll tell you honestly how we’d help and what it would cost. No obligation, no hard sell.
FAQs: HR for GP Surgeries
No. There’s no legal requirement for a GP practice to employ HR staff, but every practice must comply with employment law and demonstrate safe, well-led workforce management to the CQC. Most surgeries meet this by outsourcing HR to a specialist provider, which typically costs far less than a part-time HR hire.
It depends on the size of your team and the level of support you need. Options range from pay as you go hourly support to a fixed monthly retainer based on your headcount. A fixed fee is the most popular choice among practices because it makes budgeting predictable.
Yes, and this is one of the most common reasons practices contact us. In small teams it’s almost impossible to find an impartial internal investigator. We conduct independent investigations, chair hearings and handle appeals, keeping the process fair and defensible.
It supports it significantly. The CQC’s well-led framework looks at safe recruitment, training records, staff wellbeing and how concerns are handled. Robust contracts, policies and documented HR processes give you clear evidence for inspection, though clinical governance remains the practice’s responsibility.
Yes. We advise PCNs on shared staffing arrangements, lead employer models and ARRS roles, and we can support multiple member practices under one arrangement.
Our focus is stopping things ever getting that far, and in the vast majority of cases they don’t. If a claim does arise, you’d typically instruct an employment solicitor, but the fair processes and documentation we’ve put in place give you the strongest possible foundation for a defence.
