Paul Stuart/ The Pharmaceutical Journal
A nationally-commissioned community pharmacy prescribing service will be “difficult” to implement without more specific allocated funding, Janet Morrison, chief executive of Community Pharmacy England (CPE), has said.
During a speech at The Pharmacy Show, held in Birmingham on 12 and 13 October 2025, Morrison told delegates that it was “very clear that [the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)] don’t have a mandate yet” as to how much money it could allocate to community pharmacy, and that it was “clear that there are many big decisions being made in order to allocate the funding that they have got”.
However, she said CPE — as well as other primary care negotiating bodies — were “all getting a very gloomy outlook about what resources are going to be available”.
Almost 200 pharmacies are currently piloting ‘Independent prescribing in community pharmacy pathfinder programme’ services across England, which cover several clinical areas. In September 2025, NHS England reported that it had carried out more than 30,000 patient consultations.
In 2022, NHS England said the pilots were part of the programme to develop a national prescribing service, with the “overarching aim” of establishing a commissioning framework for the service by March 2024.
In her speech at The Pharmacy Show, Morrison added that while the negotiator had been clear with the government that it “can’t keep commissioning services” without new funding available, CPE was conscious that the sector wants a prescribing service to be commissioned through community pharmacy.
“That’s a difficult choice,” she added.
Morrison also told the audience that she had expected negotiations for the ‘Community pharmacy contractual framework’ for 2026/2027 to begin in September 2025; however, they were now not expected to begin until at least November 2025.
In a briefing of its September 2025 committee meeting, published on 10 October 2025, CPE revealed that a “clear majority” of pharmacy owners polled in advance of the contract negotiations said that their biggest challenge was core funding being insufficient to cover current business costs, with workforce costs and unpredictable revenue streams currently being seen as causing the most pressure.
Yet pharmacy owners have expressed confidence in being able to deliver on almost all pharmacy services set out in the government’s ten-year health plan for the NHS in England.
The DHSC were approached for comment.
