Community pharmacy is well established in the provision of locally commissioned contraception and sexual health services.
Chapter 2 of the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) highlights the importance of NHS services complementing the action taken by local government to support the commissioning of sexual health services. The LTP also facilitates exploration of the future commissioning arrangements to widen access and create capacity where needed in sexual health services. Public Health England’s 2019 Resource for commissioners and providers highlighted the role community pharmacy can play in supporting ongoing contraception. In response to this, and in line with the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF): 2019 to 2024 commitment to ‘test a range of prevention services’, a tiered pharmacy contraception service has been designed.
The tiered approach will be as follows:
The aim of the Pharmacy Contraception Service (PCS) is to offer greater choice for people in terms of where they can access contraception services and create additional capacity in primary care and sexual health clinics (or equivalent) to support meeting the demand for more complex assessments.
This service will support the important role community pharmacy teams can play in helping address health inequalities. The service will help to provide wider healthcare access in local communities and signpost service users to local sexual health services in line with NICE guideline NG102.
Tier 1 of the PCS allows pharmacy contractors to establish the first step of a fully integrated care model. This will provide people with greater choice and access to ongoing OC supplies, previously initiated in primary care or a sexual health clinic (or equivalent).
Objectives:
On this page, you will find a collection of resources to support you in your preparation for delivering this service. We recommend that you start by familiarising yourself with the service specification, which can be found under the first tab below, before working through the competency requirements and accessible training modules. If you feel that you would benefit from further reading, we recommend that you access the further learning resources.
The first step in becoming ready to deliver this service is accessing and working through the Service Specification
Oral Contraception Management service specification
There is also a Toolkit (coming soon) associated with this service which will help with implementation, click on the link below to access this when available.
Before commencement of the service, the pharmacy contractor must ensure that pharmacists and pharmacy staff providing the service are competent to do so in line with the specific skills and knowledge in paragraph 5.4 of the service specification and the relevant PGDs. This may involve completion of training.
The pharmacy contractor will keep documentary evidence that all pharmacists and pharmacy staff involved in the provision of the service are competent with regards to the specific skills and knowledge below.
Pharmacists providing the service will be personally responsible for remaining up to date with the skills and competencies identified in paragraph 5.4 of the service specification.
To deliver this service, the pharmacist should have evidence of competence in the clinical skills and knowledge covered in the following training modules, as highlighted below.
The CPPE Consultation skills for pharmacy practice e-assessment is linked with the practice standards for consultations skills and the CPPE consultation skills learning programmes. Completing this assessment will help you to check your progress and your ability to meet the competencies set out in the practice standards for consultation skills, enabling you to deliver person-centred care. Passing the assessment will provide assurance to you, your colleagues and other healthcare professionals and patients that you are able to recognise good practice, as well as practice that needs development.
The assessment has a 45-minute time limit. Depending on your previous experience and learning, you may need to look at the range of CPPE consultations skills resources accessible via the Consultation skills (foundation) learning gateway to supplement your learning in this area.
The CPPE Emergency contraception e-learning and associated assessment will help you to identify who may need advice and support, show how you can give that support and help you find the best course of action. It includes information on emergency hormonal contraception, and the intrauterine device.
This learning takes an estimated 3 hours to complete.
In relation to contraception, there are two options to show competence in this area. You can either complete the CPPE Contraception e-learning and assessment or the specified Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health modules.
The CPPE Contraception e-learning and associated assessment will equip you with the up-to-date skills and knowledge that you need to confidently support and advise patients who use or might use contraception.
This learning takes an estimated 6 hours to complete.
Complete the following four sub-sections of FSRH Sexual and Reproductive Health (e-SRH) Contraceptive choices, and associated unit assessments:
You can access these modules via the e-LFH link on the CPPE website.
Depending on prior experience, it is estimated that this will take you approximately 3 hours to complete.
In relation to sexual health, there are two options to show competence in this area. You can either complete the CPPE Sexual health in pharmacies e-learning and assessment or the specified Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health modules.
The CPPE Sexual health in pharmacies e-learning and associated assessment aims to support the community pharmacy team in developing and providing a sexual health service. This programme focuses on sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
This learning takes an estimated 6 hours to complete.
Complete the following four sub-sections and linked assessments of FSRH Sexual and Reproductive Health (e-SRH) STI unit:
You can access these modules via the e-LFH link on the CPPE website.
Depending on prior experience, it is estimated that this will take you approximately 3 hours to complete.
This Contraceptive Counselling online course is available from the FSRH website and is aimed to support you to deliver effective contraceptive care. It features a range of case studies, video content and additional reading resources to support your learning.
This course will take you 2 hours to complete.
If you have identified further learning needs or would like to learn more about this topic to support your service delivery, then you may benefit from accessing the following learning resources.
The Patient group directions e-learning programme provided by Health Education England’s elearning for healthcare hub is provided by clicking on the link above.
Most pharmacies will have their own standard operating procedure for the measurement of blood pressure. There are several resources that you can use to develop your competence to measure blood pressure.
CPPE blood pressure monitoring video
This is a CPPE video to support you to measure blood pressure using an automated device.
British and Irish Hypertension Society resources
The British and Irish Hypertension Society (BIHS) offers a variety of different poster and video resources, including:
How to measure blood pressure and Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring
Please note that the BIHS are unable to answer contractor questions about stock availability and other questions relating to equipment, such as price.
Any queries about this service should be directed to england.pharmacyintegration@nhs.net
