The language of “Neighbourhood Health Hubs” is everywhere right now. Integrated teams. Shared services. Care closer to home. A seamless system wrapped around a population of 30,000–50,000 people. On paper, it sounds transformative. In practice, many working in primary care are asking a more uncomfortable question:How can neighbourhood hubs work when the buildings, workforce, and infrastructure simply aren’t ready?

On March 25th, the CQC gave an official response to the 1,700 responses that providers had given in their 'Better Regulation, Better Care' consultation, which closed in December 2025. They are proposing to return to some measures which had previously been used by the CQC but had been abandoned in favour of the Single Assessment Framework. Share your views through the CQC's online survey by 12 June.

In this monthly report, FPM looks in detail at what the CQC have publicly reported from their GP practice inspections during March 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?

Every few weeks the NHS produces a fresh set of headlines — some hopeful, some troubling, and many that reveal the quiet, complicated reality of a system that millions rely on every day. Looking across the last three weeks, a pattern emerges: progress is being made, but it is happening against a backdrop of strain, scrutiny, and deep human impact.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a wide range of reforms that will be phased in between 2026 and 2027 and will bring some of the most important updates to UK employment law in recent years. The legislation is designed to improve protections for workers while creating clearer standards for employers.