One Care was proud to take part in Management in Practice (MiP) Bristol, an industry-leading conference connecting practice managers and primary care leaders from across the South West. 

The One Care team welcomed delegates from Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) and beyond to its stand to discuss a range of emerging products and support offers. Conversations focused on how bespoke practice support programmes could help general practice teams respond to increasing operational pressures, alongside opportunities to strengthen resilience and improve efficiency. 

As part of the conference agenda, two One Care leaders delivered keynote sessions, sharing their expertise on important challenges facing general practice. 

Rhys Lewis, Director of Digital and Intelligence, explored how practices can take practical steps towards digital maturity. Speaking after his session, he said: “General practice teams are under significant pressure and digital solutions have an important role to play in easing that burden.  

“The key is adopting the right tools – and using those already at a practice’s disposal – in a way that supports staff and improves patient experience, rather than adding complexity.” 

Steve Mowatt, Director of General Practice Support and Operations, also addressed the evolving landscape of practice finance and funding. Reflecting on the discussions, he said: “Financial sustainability remains a critical concern for practices, with many practices often shying away from difficult decisions which may affect their financial future.  

“By sharing insights and practical approaches from across our federation, we can help teams feel more confident in navigating these challenges and making informed decisions for the future.” 

One Care’s involvement reflects its ongoing commitment to working alongside practices to understand their priorities and develop support that delivers real, measurable impact. The organisation is also hosting its own Digital Roadshow on Friday 20 May for member practices, where attendees can explore cutting-edge tools through live tech supplier presentations, engage in networking with peers and learn more about One Care’s digital support offerings. 

To find out more about how One Care could support your practice, please email practice.support@onecare.org.uk for more information. 

One Care has appointed 15 new general practice Clinical Leads to part time, two-year posts, each focused on a different to health priority and aligned to Place-Based Care (Neighbourhoods), Hospital to Community and Analogue to Digital.

Our Clinical Leadership model provides a framework for general practice clinicians to provide leadership and expertise across BNSSG, championing integration between general practice, community and acute services.

Previous Clinical Leads have ensured general practice has a voice in primary secondary interface decisions, influenced pathway development, championed improvements to patient care and unlocked new funding streams for practices.

The new Clinical Leads and their areas of responsibility are:

In addition to the posts above, Sophie Foot has also been appointed as Clinical Lead for HIV, separately funded for 10 months.

If you have any queries or would like to arrange a meeting with any of the new Clinical Leads, please email One Care’s GPCB Office at gpcollaborativeboard@onecare.org.uk.

BNSSG’s Primary Secondary Interface Group (PSIG), made up of general practice and Bristol NHS Group clinicians, alongside GP federation One Care, Avon Local Medical Committee and the Integrated Care Board (ICB), have agreed local guidelines for working together to improve care for patients. The guidelines set out principles for joined up working between staff across different care providers and champion collaboration.

The Primary Secondary Care Interface Guidance and Summary Infographic have been developed by local clinicians for clinicians and set out principles to reduce duplication, clarify processes and improve communication between our organisations. PSIG aims to continue to develop the guidelines and expand them to include BNSSG’s community and mental healthcare partners.

For more information please contact communications@onecare.org.uk.

One Care is pleased to be partnering with Management in Practice (MiP) Bristol, a free conference for practice managers, GP partners and primary care leaders taking place in Bristol city centre on Tuesday 19 May 2026. 

This free, in‑person event unites practice managers, GP partners and primary care leaders for a day of expert insight, practical solutions and networking. The agenda focuses on issues important to primary care teams, including HR essentials such as people, recruitment; retention and wellbeing; practice finance; governance; workforce planning; and using digital tools to optimise workflows and innovation.

As part of the collaboration – a new partnership for One Care – we have used our understanding of general practice to help shape a practical agenda that addresses the shared challenges and opportunities faced by general practice. Our Director of Digital and Intelligence, Rhys Lewis, will lead a session on digital maturity and building a digital-first GP practice and One Care’s Director of General Practice Support and Operations, Steve Mowatt, will speak on practice finance and funding. 

Management in Practice Bristol forms part of a series of local and national events for One Care in 2026. In June, Rhys Lewis and One Care’s Deputy Director of Digital and Transformation, Morgan Daly, will be joined by BNSSG practice representatives to share insights from our AI scribe pilot at the national NHS Confed Expo, the UK’s leading health and care conference, alongside other local events. 

Please click here to find out more about Management in Practice Bristol and to book your free place.

More than 100 general practice and PCN colleagues from across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) recently attended the One Care and GP Collaborative Board Pan-BNSSG Forum to discuss priorities for the new Neighbourhood Health Fund, the future of local healthcare and priorities for general practice.  

The forum gave colleagues the chance to discuss new ways of working under the emerging Neighbourhood model, and featured guest speakers from system partners across BNSSG.  

Attendees, who represented practices and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) from across BNSSG, said they felt it was vital that service design was locally driven under the neighbourhood model in order to accurately reflect the diversity and varying needs of a large population. They felt services should be designed with input from communities and stakeholders, rather than imposed centrally, and neighbourhoods should reflect natural communities as well as organisational boundaries and prioritise continuity of care.  

Dr Jacob Lee, Chair GP Collaborative Board (GPCB), said: “We’re delighted with the number of attendees from across primary care who attended our most recent forum, as this provides an invaluable opportunity for general practice to share ideas, agree on important decisions and, crucially, to speak as one collective voice.  

“We’re really grateful to everyone who gave up their time, including our guest speakers, and look forward to seeing such meaningful discussions be developed alongside our system partners.”  

The Chief Medical Officer of the new Integrated Care Board (ICB) cluster for BNSSG and Gloucestershire, Dr Ananthakrishnan Raghuram, and Dr Rebecca Maxwell, Hospital Medical Director at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, both spoke about the importance of working with general practice and ensuring that local people are able to access even more community healthcare services in the future.  

General practice and PCN attendees said that shared data systems are needed across BNSSG, including with acute trusts and the ICB, to support population health planning. It was also acknowledged that general practice should have better representation and input into system-level decisions, and engagement opportunities should be planned with sufficient notice.   

The next Pan-BNSSG Forum takes place on Tuesday 9 June with the Neighbourhood model expected to feature on the agenda once again. If you would like to register your interest in attending, or would be interested in being a guest speaker, please email gpcollaborativeboard@onecare.org.uk to find out more. 

The GP Collaborative Board (GPCB) is the decision-making body in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) for general practices to come together as a single entity, working with other providers as an equal partner in an Integrated Care System (ICS). The Board is made up of voting representatives from each of the PCNs in BNSSG and BrisDoc, as well as non-voting representatives from the localities, One Care and Avon LMC. The GPCB is led by the Chair and Medical Director.

4PCN is a primary care network (PCN) in South Gloucestershire made up of four general practices covering over 54,000 patients.

Dr Becky Pegden, GP Partner at Kingswood Health Centre, represents 4PCN as part of the GPCB. Managing Partner Robyn Clark acts as deputy, joining meetings and voting on the PCN’s behalf in Becky’s absence. This ensures the PCN is consistently represented at the GPCB – giving it a strong voice – and enhances engagement between the GPCB and the practices in the PCN. Having clinical and managerial representation also mean 4PCN brings a wide range of experience, expertise and perspectives to GPCB work.

The PCN representatives facilitate the two-way communication between practices and the GPCB. Ahead of GPCB meetings Becky and Robyn gather the views of their practices on agenda items by emailing out to practice leads and subject matter experts. Often the items for discussion affect practices or require discussion so sharing them in advance is essential. The 4PCN representatives then feed these views into discussion and decision making at GPCB meetings. Following the meetings, Becky and Robyn share key outcomes with their practices by email and at 4PCN’s monthly PCN Board meeting and gather further feedback and responses.

These processes enable the “golden thread” of communication and engagement, and amplify the voices of practices at GPCB level, allowing them to feed into system discussions and decision-making.

Becky and Robyn also support the practices they represent gain a better understanding of the GPCB and its plans by discussing within their PCN the wider strategic aims and goals of the GPCB. This helps practices to know more about the opportunities and benefits for their PCN of taking part in GPCB and system work. Equally it also means Becky and Robyn have a strong relationship with practices and a good understanding of their views which they can represent at the GPCB.

Additionally, Becky and Robyn take part in GPCB workstreams, programmes and representation. Over the past two years, they have been part of the following groups and workstreams on behalf of the GPCB:

• ICB LES steering group
• GPCB governance project
• General practice operational pressure escalation levels (OPEL) working group
• System discussions about care homes and P3 beds
• Strategic Development Fund (SDF) task and finish group

This means they both have a solid understanding of how general practice is positioning itself within the wider health and care system in BNSSG, and means they are developing their own general practice leadership within the GPCB.

For more information please contact gpcollaborativeboard@onecare.org.uk

To help practices with their staff recruitment, resourcing and retention, the GPCB workforce programme offers a range of free initiatives. These include access to a recruitment pool, preferential rates with staffing agencies, and work experience opportunities for care leavers.

Here we’re shining a spotlight on initiatives to help practices train and recognise their staff:

Training our staff

Working in general practice – introductory course

Our accredited course supports the induction and training of new team members. Fully accredited by Futureskills, the online course is a useful, practical and comprehensive introduction to general practice and how it fits within the wider health system. It has received 100% positive feedback so far from participants.

The course consists of four units which cover:

• what is general practice and how does it work within an Integrated Care System?
• how general practice is staffed
• clinical patient record systems and how data is shared
• looking after yourself and those around you

Learning is assessed via the completion of a quiz at the end of each unit. Learners can take each quiz multiple times but must achieve a 100% pass rate to claim certification.

The course is free to all BNSSG practices.

Recognising our staff

• Celebrating our general practice workforce

This initiative offers an opportunity to thank and appreciate your colleagues for their hard work and contribution.

All practice staff can nominate a co-worker. Every nominee receives a handwritten appreciation card, including details of their nomination. Each month, with consent, their names are shared on TeamNet in the nomination board.

• Long service award

Celebrate the dedication of your long-serving staff with our long service award, which recognises milestone years of service in general practice. Staff are awarded a digital badge for their email signature as a token of appreciation for their ongoing commitment.

These are just a selection of the workforce support available for practices. Full information on all workforce initiatives and how to make the most of them is available from the GPCB team: gpcollaborativeboard@onecare.org.uk

A close collaboration between our population health team and secondary care has resulted in targeted, transformative care for a group of patients:

The development of innovative treatments using biotechnological methods has transformed the management of numerous modern-day conditions. Patients with diabetes, various cancers, and those benefiting from measles or HPV vaccines are all examples of  people whose lives have been improved by a class of drugs known as biologics. Typically administered via injection in a hospital setting, these advanced therapies hold significant promise for patients  with severe asthma.

Dr. Peter Creber, consultant in respiratory medicine at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, frequently supports patients grappling with acute asthma. They often require multiple GP appointments and are at higher risk of A&E visits and unplanned hospital admissions – a situation that negatively impacts their well-being and places a significant financial burden on the healthcare system. While biologics offer the potential for substantial improvement in these patients’ symptoms, prescription is currently limited to secondary care. This raises the crucial question: how can patients within the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) area be identified and offered these potentially life-changing treatments when their primary health records are kept by their GP?

To address this challenge, Dr. Creber contacted  One Care, a collaboration that quickly revealed a pathway to support patients severely affected by their asthma. Currently 37 practices within BNSSG have agreed to participate in this work, and collaboratively suitable patients for biologic treatment have been identified. This process involved reviewing specific key health indicators within the patient record, as these medications are not appropriate for all individuals with asthma.

Dr. Creber said: “Once a patient has been identified as eligible, the administration of the biologic injection is straightforward, and the positive effect on their physical well-being is often dramatic.”

A single injection can provide relief for up to five years, offering patients the opportunity to significantly improve their quality of life. This not only reduces the need for urgent GP appointments, freeing up valuable primary care resources, but also minimizes unplanned hospital admissions.

One Care’s population health analyst, Phil Gladwin, said: ‘I’m delighted to have been involved in a project which has supported patients with severe asthma, and potentially freed up urgent GP appointments for other patients.’

This successful collaboration between secondary care and primary care, facilitated by One Care, exemplifies how integrated working can deliver optimal care for patients with severe asthma, resulting in positive outcomes for both the individuals and the wider healthcare system. Dr. Creber and the team continue to identify and support eligible patients across BNSSG, demonstrating the power of joined-up healthcare in transforming lives.

If you would like to find out more – or would like to discuss how our population health analysts can help target patient groups – please email business.intelligence@onecare.org.uk

The general practice landscape is always changing, and One Care wants to help practices be as prepared as possible to mitigate any potential disruptions which could impact their day-to-day operations. Our general practice support team has produced resources to help practices review their business continuity plans and fill any gaps necessary.

Last year, the team also conducted reviews on behalf of practices, looking closely at their plans and making recommendations where additional information was needed. They have undertaken reviews for 46% of our member practices’ so far.

One practice manager said: ‘Our practice had been meaning to update our business continuity plan to ensure that we had considered all possible scenarios.

‘We were aware of One Care’s business continuity plan toolkit, but it seemed a bit of an overwhelming task for me as there are at least 80 items to go through. One Care offered to go through our business continuity plan and the checklist for me; to tick off the areas we had already covered and to highlight which elements we needed to add or refine. They also suggested wording to include which was really helpful.

‘The best bit about this process is that One Care suggested I update our plan to include the EMIS business continuity module. I have to admit, I’d never tried it before this point, but I was so glad I did as less than three weeks later we had the global IT outage and using the EMIS business continuity module was invaluable on that day!’

If you have any questions about business continuity plans or would like help reviewing yours, please contact practice.support@onecare.org.uk

One Care’s people services team is launching a pilot programme of free HR workshops for practices, run by our HR business partner Gertruda Grudyte. The workshops will give your staff practical training on essential HR topics and will help build confidence and capability in managing common HR scenarios. Gertruda can facilitate each workshop in-person at your practice or at the One Care offices. 

The workshops include:  

1. Managing short-term absence – 3 hours 

• promoting employee health and wellbeing 
• understanding policy and legal considerations 
• making reasonable adjustments 
• conducting return-to-work and absence review meetings 
• navigating the absence management process, including potential dismissal 

2. Performance conversations – 3 hours 

• holding meaningful and constructive conversations 
• giving effective feedback 
• setting objectives and goals 
• managing different types of performance discussions (e.g. one-to-ones, probation reviews, annual appraisals) 
• supporting personal and professional development 

3. Flexible working – 1.5 hours 

• exploring the benefits of flexible working 
• dispelling common myths 
• understanding statutory rights and legal frameworks 
• managing the application process 
• key considerations before rejecting a request 

The content and duration of each workshop can be tailored to meet the specific needs of your practice following a discussion with our team. Workshops are ideal for line managers and department leads, and we recommend a minimum of six delegates per workshop. 

We’re also happy to explore joint sessions at PCN or locality level to lessen impact on individual practice capacity.  

The pilot will run until 31st March 2026 subject to availability. To express interest, please contact people.services@onecare.org.uk with:  

• preferred dates 
• number of delegates 
• any customisation requests