Pharmacies have always played a vital role in providing healthcare in local communities, and the new 10-year health plan envisages a far-reaching shift towards a wider range of services for patients in community settings.
A new ‘neighbourhood health service’ will bring health to the heart of the high street, delivered by integrated multiprofessional teams. Over the next five years, the plan says community pharmacy will transition from being focused largely on dispensing medicines to becoming integral to the neighbourhood health service, offering more clinical services.
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As community pharmacists increasingly become able to independently prescribe, the NHS will increase their role in the management of long-term conditions, complex medication regimes, and treatment of obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
They will also play a bigger role in prevention – including providing vaccines and screening for risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes.
Over time, community pharmacies will be securely joined up to the single patient record to help them provide a seamless service – and to share records between GPs and pharmacies.
“We remain committed to ensuring the sector’s staffing and training needs continue to be developed and supported”
Making the most of the clinical skills of community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians is a key priority for the NHS, and the results of the latest community pharmacy workforce survey contain reassuring evidence that our workforce, training and professional development goals are progressing.
There are now nearly 1,500 extra pharmacists, with the overall number increasing from 27,284 in 2023 to 28,763 last year – a 5% rise.
The number of independent prescribers (IPs) has also risen and they now account for one in 11 (9%) of community pharmacists, while there was also a 22% rise in the number of posts for pre-registration pharmacy technician trainees.
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Meanwhile, the funding available for foundation pharmacist training in community pharmacies in 2025/26 is now harmonised for all employers across England at £26,500.
In 2025/26, there is a further year of funding for up to 3,000 places for pharmacists on independent prescribing courses. This is in addition to a portfolio of workforce development options commissioned by NHS England (NHSE) through the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE).
The role of pharmacy technicians continues to be developed, with a second community pharmacy cohort of up to 525 trainees to launch in 2025/26, with trainees accessing training via the apprenticeship framework.
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There is ongoing access to workforce training and development for pharmacy technicians to equip them with the essential knowledge and skills they need to provide highly effective clinical services.
Development of the pharmacy technician workforce will, in turn, support and enable the expansion of pharmacist prescribing skills within the community pharmacy sector.
The government’s plans for a neighbourhood health service will transform the roles of community pharmacy professionals, and we remain committed to ensuring the sector’s staffing and training needs continue to be developed and supported.
Richard Cattell is the deputy chief pharmaceutical officer for England