Contacts
Rosalyne Cheeseman	Pharmacy Education & Training Reforms, HEE	rosalyne.cheeseman@nhs.net	07734 551 575

Two separate regulated professions:

Pharmacists
Pharmacy technicians

(Not to be confused with pharmaceutical medicine which is a medical speciality i.e they are doctors)

Regulatory body: General Pharmaceutical Council

Standard-setting body: Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Training route

Pharmacy technicians

NVQ and BTEC - normally 2 years
Assessment and progression managed by local education provider - Skillswise e-portfolio widely used
Technician workforce commissioning varies across HEE local offices

NB - Alistair to check if pharma techs in scope for TIS

Pharmacists

4-year Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) degree (not commissioned - places determined by universities/marketplace)
1 year pre-registration training - workplace-based commissioned by HEE (check this - are the community ones commissioned by NHSE as funded by them?)
Additional qualification to become an independent prescriber (university - normally 6 months p/t) but no further specialty training pathway

Pharmacists - pre-registration training & assessment

c 3k pre-registration (trainee) pharmacists
Train alongside a tutor in hospital or community setting (+ tiny number in industry)
Employed in one-year fixed-term post - NHS trust trainees funded by HEE; community-based funded by NHS England
Trainee records are held by employer not HEE (so not on Intrepid)
Engagement varies by local HEE - some carry out site visits and provide training days

Two parts to assessment and progression (current process)

Competency-based appraisal every 13 weeks signed off by tutor (may be observed or portfolio-based)
Final registration assessment - exam based (by GPC)

Pharmacy training is under review. Key drivers:

Make training and assessment more robust
HEE remit to 'get workforce right for patients'
Close quality gap between NHS Trust and community-based (commercial retailer) pharmacy training
Growing role of community pharmacists as integral part of health service delivery
Better support for pharmacists in training

Growing recognition that some structure needed over next period of foundation training – 1^st 1000 days after registration. Also likely to be some sort of Revalidation process.

New systems need to take account of what’s happening now, but be flexible to meet future requirements.

Small number of trainees piloting use of e-portfolio (East Midlands)
East Midlands piloting panel review with small number of e-portfolio users
Thames Valley have also piloted a panel-based final review

East Midlands Panel assessments pilot

Pharmacy Training Panel – has been modelled on ARCP (from Gold Guide)
A proportion of trainees who are having a go with ePortfolio will have their portfolios reviewed in January and March 2017
Have appointed 6 chairs to convene panels
Outcomes will be edited version of ARCP outcomes (no form or database established yet)
Trainees will be invited for face-to-face feedback if unsatisfactory outcome
Regulations currently that tutor signs off competencies - moving to a panel signing off will require change in regulations (meeting with GPC in December 2016 to discuss) - so initially panel outcome will just provide a core piece of evidence for the trainee
Will develop an appeals process (not yet as relevant as panel not regulatory sign off)

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