NHS priorities

Whether it’s to prepare for the next Quality Payments Scheme deadline, or to increase your confidence in helping people with a learning disability, this section provides topic-specific pages that link to current NHS priorities. This section will support you in keeping your knowledge and skills up to date in order to provide high-quality pharmacy services and be service-ready.


 Antimicrobial resistance
 Care homes
 Child health
 Consultation skills (advanced)
 Consultation skills (foundation)
 COVID-19
 Education
 General practice
 Health and Justice pharmacy (prisons and secure environments)
 Leadership
 Learning disabilities
 Management
 Medication review
 Medicines reconciliation
 Medicines use reviews
 New medicines service
 NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service
 Older people
 Patient safety
 Pharmacy technicians
 Prescribing
 Repeat dispensing
 Return to practice
 Revalidation
 Safeguarding
 Sepsis
 Summary Care Records
 Transfer of care
 Urgent care

More topics coming soon...

Clinical pharmacy

Our clinical portfolio is expanding on a frequent basis, helping you to advance your knowledge and skills and deliver medicines optimisation in practice for all sectors of pharmacy. From two new focal points a year to our small group learning for hospital pharmacists – Optimise – this section focuses on clinical pharmacy, diseases and therapeutics.


 Anticoagulation
 Atrial fibrillation and arrhythmias
 Biochemistry
 Cancer
 Dementia
 Dermatology
 Diabetes (type 1)
 Diabetes (type 2)
 Gastrointestinal
 Heart failure
 Hypertension
 Infections
 Ischaemic heart disease
 Liver
 Mental health
 Minor ailments
 Musculoskeletal
 Neurology
 Pain
 Palliative care
 Renal
 Respiratory
 Surgery

More topics coming soon...

Public health

The public health agenda is embedded in pharmacy, yet topics such as emergency contraception or stop smoking support are as prevalent as ever. As well as our public health workshops, use this section to access a wide range of resources to assure and maintain your competence, all underpinned by the Declaration of Competence system.


 Alcohol
 Contraception
 Emergency hormonal contraception
 Health Checks
 Healthy Living Pharmacies
 Immunisation
 Oral health
 Sexual health
 Smoking
 Substance misuse
 Weight management

More topics coming soon...

Developing your career

Shared decision making

Programme information Cohort detail and application FAQs

Programme details

Welcome to the CPPE Shared decision making programme.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have commissioned CPPE to develop and deliver a programme of learning centred on embedding a shared decision-making approach to consultations in primary care practice (general practice and care homes).

Shared decision making and personalised care are core elements of the NHS Long Term Plan. Pharmacists are seen as being a key provider of personalised care within primary care. Shared decision making is linked to improved outcomes for patients and puts patients at the centre of their own care, making them experts in their own healthcare decisions.

The Shared decision making programme will be funded for, and open to NHS pharmacists working in a patient-facing role in general practice and care homes for at least two days (15 hours) per week.

The programme is delivered online and consists of an e-course and two full day online workshops. Each workshop will last for six hours with a one hour break in the middle. The e-course consists of six units and the two online workshops are placed after unit four and unit six of the e-course.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this programme participants should be able to:

  • define what is meant by shared decision making
  • describe how shared decision making can improve a consultation from the perspective of a pharmacist and the person that they are consulting with
  • demonstrate the use of the tools and techniques outlined in this course to support shared decision making
  • compare these different tools and techniques in order to select those that you will use in practice
  • evaluate your ability to use shared decision making in practice.

Who can apply?

The programme is open to those working in an NHS role that meets the following criteria:

  • Pharmacists working in a patient facing role in general practice and care homes for at least two days (15 hours) per week.

The programme is currently not open to:

  • Pharmacists working in roles in community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, the Health in Justice sector (unless they have been part of the Medicines optimisation in care homes pathway) or the Ministry of Defence
  • Pharmacy technicians.