Overview
- The Department for Work and Pensions and NHS will run four regional pilots from July that test new rules at GP surgeries in England.
- The trials, backed by £3 million in first-year funding, will cover up to 100,000 appointments over about a year across Birmingham & Solihull, Coventry & Warwickshire, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly, and Lancashire & South Cumbria.
- Some pilot models will bypass GPs for fit-note certification and instead refer patients to non-clinical staff or blended teams who will create personalised 'stay in work' or 'return to work' plans.
- Ministers say the change responds to concerns about the current system, which issues roughly 11.2 million fit notes a year with most declaring people not fit for work and that a review found the process often fails to reconnect patients with employers.
- Medical bodies welcome testing but urge clear clinical oversight, training and resources, and the pilots will be evaluated before any wider legislation or permanent change is proposed.