One year on and one pandemic later

A year since the introduction of primary care networks (PCNs), it is timely to look back on how collaboration between secondary, community and primary care is evolving.
The Community Network briefing Primary care networks: a quiet revolution, published in July 2019, supported NHS community health services to navigate the new PCN landscape, often in conjunction with pre-existing partnerships with primary care. Given the challenges facing the primary and community care sectors, this briefing remains relevant today.
Although much of the national policy narrative understandably focuses on the creation of PCNs, we know that community service providers operate a number of partnership models with primary care, including partnerships with and support for individual practices and large scale providers of primary care services, such as super-practices and super-partnerships.
As a number of our case studies show, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has accelerated primary and community care collaboration in some areas, as services came together in creative ways to support shielded patients, care homes and more complex care needs in the community.
However, in other parts of the country, we still hear about the barriers to be overcome, including variable relationships and the levels of support required to establish nascent PCNs in some areas.
As the health and care sector moves to recover and reset after the first peak of the pandemic, community and primary care services are embedding innovative practice and learning from their recent experiences. This progress needs to be supported by appropriate resourcing and contractual mechanisms which facilitate local flexibilities and collaboration.

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