GPhC council member remuneration has remained fixed at £12,500 per annum since April 2018, making this their first pay rise since then, a GPhC spokesperson told C+D today (May 25).

Members are set to receive £15,000 per annum in 2022/2023 for their duties, amounting to a 20% pay rise, following a council meeting earlier this month (May 12).

The GPhC “will backdate the increase to April 1”, the spokesperson said.

The vote follows a recommendation from the GPhC’s workforce committee, which it made following a report conducted by reward and employee experience consultancy firm QCG

 

GPhC’s remuneration “lower” than other regulators

 

The GPhC’s workforce committee annually reviews how much council members are paid and any recommendations for remuneration changes are introduced on April 1 every year.

Although the regulator “took the decision not to recommend an increase in member remuneration for 2021”, it was decided that “a broader review should be conducted” for 2022.

QCG benchmarked GPhC council members’ pay against equivalent roles at other organisations including the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Dental Council, whose members receive £18,000, £14,724 and £15,000 per annum respectively, according to the council papers.

“The findings of [the QCG’s] analysis showed that GPhC remuneration was lower than the median figure for the wider pool of regulators,” the spokesperson said.

 

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It is “important that [the rise in remuneration] is recognised as a re-basing increase rather than an accumulation of incremental increases for the period from 2019”, the regulator noted in in its council papers.

The GPhC chair’s remuneration, however, which was last reviewed in 2021, “appears sufficient at £60,000”, the regulator determined.

 

Additional responsibilities

 

While the regulator’s “direct comparators” did not have “additional responsibility for premises or businesses”, the QCG’s report noted the GPhC supervises 13,977 pharmacies, which seems to have further tipped the balance in favour of recommending higher remuneration for council members.

“The pandemic has provided a clear example of how pharmacy is developing as a profession and the increased clinical responsibility placed on pharmacy professionals is likely to continue and to develop further,” the regulator wrote in its papers.

“This increases the profile of both the profession and the regulator, as well as the attendant risks,” it said in explanation of the proposal.

The higher remuneration will be “appropriate for members’ responsibilities”, the regulator wrote, and ensure that the GPhC can “continue to attract the calibre of members required”.