The Hub Plus, Derbyshire welcomes ICB Chair Dr Kathy McLean
A TEAM which helps keep the primary care workforce in Derby and Derbyshire up-to-date with skills, development, wellbeing and learning welcomed ICB chair Dr Kathy McLean for a visit to their ‘Hub’.
The Hub Plus, Derbyshire is a mixed team of 17 core staff members – including GPs, nurses, project managers and more – with extensive experience in general practice.
Supported by a wider network of Associates and Fellows creating a bank of expertise across the County, the team go out to GP practices, PCNs, universities and schools around the county and city delivering training, information and strategic workforce support.
They provide a wealth of free services as a not-for-profit company. The Hub Plus has held the NHSE Primary Care Training Hub contract since 2023, providing over 2,500 training places annually and supporting thousands of individual staff members accessing wellbeing, leadership, retention, and apprenticeships.
Every practice in Derbyshire benefits from one or more of the initiatives they offer with open access to training.
Dr McLean, Derby and Derbyshire ICB Chair, said: “Our general practice workforce is often the first port of call for patients and is the cornerstone of our NHS.
“The Hub Plus are underpinning this workforce with a strong backbone of training and resources to make sure they keep up to date with all the latest information and skills, and this has a direct impact on patient care. Without this service each GP practice could be spending a lot of money commissioning training individually, so we’re very grateful for the work they do.
“We have an incredibly strong primary care workforce in our area, but the constant pressure can lead to difficulties with recruitment and retention. A number of the schemes delivered by the Hub are actually improving this by looking after staff and providing inspiration and morale. The Fellowship schemes and their coaching and mentoring offers for example make a huge difference.
“I was also impressed by how they are already considering their plans for the future in relation to the NHS Ten Year Plan and the requirement to work as a neighbourhood health service.”
Beyond its core contract, The Hub Plus manages additional programmes for local, regional and national partners, addressing clinical needs, patient safety, quality improvement, and workforce wellbeing. It ensures efficient use of public funds, shares resources across counties, and strengthens local expertise.
Dr Susie Bayley, Medical Director for the Hub Plus, said: “It was a pleasure to welcome Dr Mclean for a visit to the Hub Plus and describe to her the work that we do. There are always funding challenges, but we can see a breadth of opportunities for the future with our model sitting nicely alongside the Ten Year Plan vision and can be scaled up to support even more colleagues across neighbourhoods to meet evolving patient needs.
“We know from feedback that our programmes support recruitment and increase retention as well as morale – for example where we can retain one GP for an extra year it equates to a saving of over £300,000. Over time this is a significant saving for the NHS and taxpayers.”