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.

Hospital pharmacy

Our CPPE Optimise programmes offer hospital teams (pharmacy and multiprofessional) short, clinically focused reading and activities. They are specifically aimed at advancing your knowledge and skills, and we have worked with experts in the pharmacy profession to develop each programme. Optimise programmes include optional background learning, 20 minutes of preparation for a 40-minute small group learning session, and next steps to help you put your learning into practice. Our Optimise leaflet offers you an introduction to the format of these learning programmes or you can visit the Optimise section of our website to find out more and download materials.

We have a variety of learning programmes available to support hospital pharmacy teams. To access a range of clinical topics (for example, online or distance learning programmes), use our search facility at the top of the page or our A-Z tab to filter your options.

Increasing the number of pharmacist independent prescribers was a key recommendation of the Carter review, and we have a number of programmes to support prescribers. These include the Preparing to train as an independent prescriber course developed for pharmacists who are planning to start their independent prescriber training with a Higher Education institute, and the Return to prescribing course for pharmacists who have qualified as prescribers but who haven't been able to prescribe in practice for some time.

These include the Return to prescribing course for pharmacists who have qualified as prescribers but who haven't been able to prescribe in practice for some time, and the Preparing to train as an independent prescriber programme for those who are planning to enrol on an independent prescribing course with a higher education institute (HEI).