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The Physician Associate debate has dominated headlines for over three years, but the landscape in 2026 is finally settling. With the High Court dismissing the PA union’s legal challenge in July, the Leng Review recommendations now stand in full. For GP practices, this marks a turning point: the PA role is not disappearing, but it is being reshaped into something smaller, safer, and more clearly defined.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the workplace, helping employees improve productivity, streamline administrative tasks and generate ideas more efficiently. As organisations adopt new AI tools, having a clear AI policy and following responsible AI practices is essential to ensure compliance, data protection and ethical decision-making.

In this report, you'll find the high level trends and themes from the last three months of our analysis of CQC GP Practice Inspection Reports. Here you can see what most commonly led to practices being awarded Outstanding, Requires Improvement, and Inadequate. You can also see the trends broken down by Key Question, and some thoughts on practical implications for GP practice and PCN managers.

The NHS has launched a new Leadership and Management Framework designed to create consistent standards for leaders and managers at every level of the health service, including those working in general practice. Published as part of the NHS management and leadership programme, the framework is intended to support delivery of the NHS 10-Year Health Plan and to ensure both clinical and non-clinical leaders have the skills, behaviours and competencies required for modern healthcare.

In this monthly report, FPM reviews the latest GP practice CQC inspections and highlights key CQC inspection findings from July 2026, all anonymised. We highlight some of the behaviours that won practices Outstanding ratings, and the reasons some practices were scored Requires Improvement, or Inadequate. Do you recognise any of the observations the CQC picked up, either good or bad?

This month’s developments across the NHS feel strangely familiar: major reports, stark findings, bold commitments — and the lingering question of whether anything will genuinely change. For those of us who have spent years in NHS management and primary care, the Covid Inquiry’s Section 5 findings read less like revelations and more like a formal acknowledgement of what the service has been saying for years.

A strong speak-up culture is essential for effective leadership, workplace governance and employee engagement. Whether through Freedom to Speak Up arrangements, whistleblowing procedures or informal reporting channels, organisations should ensure employees feel confident raising concerns and reporting risks.

The government has confirmed an additional £200 million in GP premises funding to support GP practice premises upgrades and wider primary care estates improvements across England. The investment aims to expand clinical capacity, modernise healthcare facilities and create more appointment space for patients.

The Care Quality Commission’s regulatory overhaul has been years in the making, but 2026 is the year the changes truly land in primary care. For GP surgeries, PCNs and ICSs, the new model represents a fundamental shift: from episodic inspections to continuous assessment, from process‑checking to patient experience, and from isolated practice oversight to system‑wide accountability. Our Primary Care Correspondent gives his take.