NHS priorities

Whether it’s to prepare for the next Pharmacy Quality 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
 Child health
 Consultation skills: face-to-face and remote
 Culturally competent person-centred care
 Digital healthcare
 Education
 Environmental sustainability
 Genomics
 Health and Justice pharmacy (prisons and secure environments)
 Leadership
 Learning disabilities
 Management
 Medication review
 Medicines reconciliation
 Older people
 Patient safety
 Pharmacy technicians
 Prescribing
 Primary care: general practice and care homes
 Repeat dispensing
 Research
 Return to practice
 Revalidation
 Safeguarding
 Sepsis
 Summary Care Records
 Transfer of care
 Urgent care

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.

 Acute coronary syndromes
 Anticoagulation
 Atrial fibrillation and arrhythmias
 Biochemistry
 Cancer
 Coronary heart disease: Stable angina
 Dementia
 Dermatology
 Diabetes (type 1)
 Diabetes (type 2)
 Epilepsy
 Gastrointestinal
 Glaucoma
 Gout
 Heart failure
 Hypercholesterolaemia
 Hypertension
 Liver
 Mental health
 Minor ailments
 Musculoskeletal
 Neurology
 Nutrition, medicines and myths: evolution of pharmacy practice
 Osteoporosis
 Pain
 Palliative care
 Parkinson's disease
 Renal
 Respiratory
 Stroke and transient ischaemic attack
 Urinary incontinence and retention
 Venous thromboembolism and embolism

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
 Menopause
 Men's Health
 Oral health
 Sexual health
 Smoking
 Substance misuse
 Weight management
 Women's Health

Learning programmes and assessments

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distance learning

Consultation skills for pharmacy support staff


  • Released: 01/2016
  • Reviewed: 09/2025
  • Study time: 5h:0m
    •
Related assessments Login to access

This downloadable training supports pharmacy teams to improve their communication and consultation skills. It can be used by individuals or as a tool to facilitate a training session.

Learning outcomes

On completion of all aspects of this learning programme you should be able to:

  • describe what person-centred care means
  • be more confident when communicating with the people who come into your pharmacy
  • recognise good communication and consultation skills, compared with those that need improvement
  • explain how facial expressions and body language can improve communication and help to build a rapport
  • apply good listening skills
  • know how to close a consultation effectively and safely
  • discuss some of the challenges and barriers to good communication in community pharmacy.

How to use this programme

On your computer: You can open this programme as a PDF in your web browser. We recommend that you download and save it to your computer and view it through Adobe Reader.

On your tablet device: If you would like to view this programme on your tablet device you can download the PDF and open it within a free PDF reader app. We have tested this type of programme in a few apps and found that it works in the Adobe Reader app on Android and Apple devices and the PDF Reader app on Apple devices.

Learning intended for

  • Pharmacists
  • Pharmacy technicians
  • Trainee pharmacists
  • CPPE registrants