NICON seeks Primary Care Network Lead

In December 2024, Minister of Health Mike Nesbitt published his Three Year Plan for Health and Social Care Northern Ireland (HSCNI), updated by a Reset Plan in July 2025. These plans set out a clear aspiration to support moving care closer to home, using technology and investing in a much greater preventative approach. In this context there are significant opportunities for primary care stakeholders to play a key role in the delivery of these key strategic shifts. 

Working closely with SPPG and local primary care stakeholders, with the support of the NHS Confederation’s Primary Care Network, NICON has agreed that there is an opportunity to create a Northern Ireland Primary Care Network.

This network will provide a collaborative space to support the development of ambitious and strategic approaches, build consensus, share learning, and provide a strong voice for primary care within NICON and HSC system conversations. 

We are now seeking to recruit someone to establish and lead this new network. The Primary Care Network Lead will be a primary care clinician, who will play a critical role in supporting the establishment and development of a thriving primary care network offering, which provides leadership and develops influential perspectives on behalf of primary care.

The PCN Lead will be a strategic thinker. They will have an in depth understanding of primary care arrangements and the role of other partners in the system. They will be a highly effective communicator, and their credibility will enable them to build excellent relationships to influence effectively with local and national stakeholders. They will be able to promote collective working, and role model the behaviours of system working, ensuring that the network adopts an inclusive approach set out in the NHS Confederation’s values.

Please click here to download the information pack.

The deadline for expressions of interest is 4pm on Thursday 14 August 2025. 

If prospective applicants wish to have more detailed conversations, please contact: Heather Moorhead, Director, NICON: heather.moorhead@niconfedhss.org or Rebecca Gale, Assistant Director of Primary Care, NHS Confederation: rebecca.gale@nhsconfed.org.