Understanding the difference between PCN managers and practice managers is important for anyone working in UK primary care. Whilst both roles are crucial for delivering healthcare services, they work at different levels and have distinct responsibilities.
What Does a Practice Manager Do?
A practice manager runs individual GP surgeries or healthcare practices. They are responsible for the day-to-day operations of one specific practice, ensuring it operates efficiently whilst meeting all regulatory and contractual requirements.
Practice managers oversee a comprehensive range of activities within their surgery:
- Recruiting, training, and managing clinical and administrative staff
- Coordinating patient registration and appointment systems
- Overseeing practice finances and NHS contract compliance
- Ensuring clinical governance and quality standards
- Maintaining CQC compliance and regulatory requirements
- Managing relationships with local suppliers and service providers
- Handling recruitment, staff development, disciplinary procedures, and employment law compliance
Practice managers work directly with GPs, nurses, healthcare assistants, and administrative staff to ensure patients receive high-quality care whilst keeping the practice financially viable. They develop deep knowledge of their local patient population and understand the unique operational challenges their practice faces.
Practice managers typically oversee surgeries serving between 5,000 and 15,000 registered patients, though this varies considerably depending on the practice size and location.
What Does a PCN Manager Do?
A PCN manager coordinates multiple GP practices that have formed a Primary Care Network. PCNs are groups of neighbouring practices working together to serve populations of approximately 30,000 to 50,000 patients across their combined catchment areas.
PCN managers have strategic oversight responsibilities that span multiple practices:
- Developing and implementing network-wide strategies and policies
- Coordinating shared services and resources across member practices
- Managing ARRS (Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme) funding and deployment
- Overseeing network workforce planning and ARRS role integration
- Ensuring compliance with PCN DES (Directed Enhanced Service) requirements
- Facilitating collaboration between different practice teams
- Developing population health management initiatives
- Managing relationships with Integrated Care Boards and other healthcare partners.
PCN managers must understand the individual needs of each member practice whilst identifying opportunities for collaboration and resource sharing that benefit the entire network.
Shared Responsibilities and Skills
Both practice managers and PCN managers require similar core competencies, though they apply them at different scales.
Both roles require strong leadership and organisational skills, focus on improving patient care and health outcomes, involve complex financial management and budgeting, require thorough understanding of NHS regulations and compliance frameworks, necessitate close collaboration with clinical professionals, and require excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities.
Both manager types also address workforce recruitment and retention challenges, lead quality improvement initiatives, balance patient care priorities with operational sustainability, and ensure their organisations meet NHS contractual obligations and performance targets.
Key Differences in Responsibilities
Organisational Scope
Practice managers focus exclusively on one surgery and its registered patient population. PCN managers coordinate across multiple practices, managing the collective needs of several thousand more patients across different locations.
Strategic Planning
Practice managers develop operational plans for their individual practice, addressing immediate needs like staffing rotas, appointment capacity, and local service delivery. PCN managers create network-wide strategies that consider population health needs across multiple practice areas, long-term service development, and collaborative opportunities.
Workforce Coordination
Practice managers recruit, manage, and deploy staff within their single practice, focusing on roles such as GPs, practice nurses, healthcare assistants, and administrative staff who work exclusively for that surgery.
PCN managers coordinate workforce across multiple sites, particularly managing ARRS-funded roles such as clinical pharmacists, physiotherapists, care coordinators, and social prescribing link workers who typically work across several practices within the network.
Financial Management
Practice managers handle one practice’s budget, including NHS contract income, expenses, and financial planning. PCN managers manage more complex funding arrangements, including PCN DES allocations, ARRS funding distribution, quality improvement funding, and coordinating financial planning across multiple practices with different baseline positions.
Stakeholder Relationships
Practice managers primarily engage with their immediate practice team, registered patients, and local service providers. PCN managers coordinate with multiple practice teams, diverse clinical professionals, Integrated Care Board representatives, and system-wide healthcare partners across a broader geographical area.
Service Delivery Oversight
Practice managers ensure clinical and administrative services operate effectively within their practice. PCN managers coordinate service delivery across multiple locations, standardise protocols where appropriate, and facilitate sharing of best practices and clinical expertise between practices.
Strengthening Primary Care Together
Successful primary care delivery increasingly depends on both roles working in harmony, with practice managers maintaining operational excellence at practice level and PCN managers facilitating the collaboration and resource sharing that makes the whole network stronger than its individual parts.
Understanding this partnership helps healthcare organisations recognise that effective primary care management requires both local expertise and collaborative coordination, with practice managers and PCN managers each playing vital, complementary roles in serving patients and communities across the UK.
