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.

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.

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.

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e-course

Fundamentals of public health for pharmacy practice


  • Released: 08/2022
  • Reviewed: 08/2024
  • Study time: 8h:0m
  • Start date: Anytime

The course covers public health principles and practice in the UK, and then focuses on public health practice in pharmacy with scenarios, examples and techniques from hospital, primary care and community pharmacy. Learners will be able to integrate public health principles into their own practice to benefit person-centred care.

To facilitate your learning, we have structured the course into four units. All units are of a similar size, and we estimate that you will need to commit an average of two hours of learning for each unit.

  • Unit 1 - What is public health?
  • Unit 2 - Why is public health so important to pharmacy practice?
  • Unit 3 - The role of pharmacy in public health
  • Unit 4 - Being equipped to delivery equality and innovation
  • Learning outcomes

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

    • list the three domains of public health
    • describe the role of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) and the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) in supporting the provision of public health
    • recognise the role of Integrated Care Systems (ICS), including local government, the NHS and other organisations in delivering public health
    • identify how pharmacy professionals in all sectors can support the delivery of public health across England
    • outline the main health inequalities in your local area
    • recognise national priorities in public health
    • review and evaluate the roles that pharmacy professionals in all sectors can play in supporting national and local priorities and public health services
    • critique the evidence for public health practice in pharmacy practice and plan actions to support your patients and the public to protect and improve their health.

    How to use this programme

    We run our e-courses online in Canvas. After booking, if you have not used Canvas before you will be registered by CPPE and informed of your login details. This e-course is self-directed. This means that you can work through the course at a time and pace that suits you. In Canvas there will be a menu on the left for navigating through each area, so that you can access each unit and its content separately.

    Learning intended for

    • Pharmacists
    • Pharmacy technicians
    • Trainee pharmacists