As well as using the online recruitment portal, employers will have to meet “minimum standards” to be able to recruit trainees via the system, Helen Porter, pharmacy dean for London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex at HEE told delegates at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham yesterday (October 16).

Following the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPhC) approval of the new initial education and training standards for pharmacists, the intention is for HEE to assume sole responsibility for the “quality management of foundation training across the whole of England”, Ms Porter explained.

While HEE has only been responsible for managing the quality of placements in the NHS-managed sector so far, it will move to managing the training of up to 3,000 trainees in time, Ms Porter added.

As well as being responsible for the quality management of trainee placements, as the statutory education body, HEE will manage the clinical drug tariff and foundation training year and assessment.

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However, Ms Porter added that the move to a single commissioning model is dependent on legislation changes, and strictly related to the Oriel timescales, “so we work 18 months in advance of trainees starting their foundation year”.

She envisages that the single commissioning system will “offer equity of opportunities” to trainees and “provide fair and equal access to training to everybody regardless of sector”.

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“In addition, it will offer a standardised payment so training sites will all see a standard contribution to training a foundation trainee, which will eliminate the variation that we are seeing across the sector,” Ms Porter added.

While community pharmacy employers will still be able to recruit outside of Oriel following the introduction of the single commissioning system, they will only have access to an HEE-funded trainee if they opt to use the Oriel portal, she said.