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The number of pharmacists working in community pharmacy has fallen despite growth in the number of registered pharmacy professionals, a report has found.
The finding comes in ‘Delivering the 10-year plan: a review of the community pharmacy workforce in 2026’, a report from the Community Pharmacy Workforce Development Group, which is supported by the Company Chemists’ Association, the National Pharmacy Association and the Independent Pharmacies Association.
The report says that in England, the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) pharmacists has decreased by 14% since 2021, and the number of FTE pharmacy technicians has decreased by 11%. This is despite the General Pharmaceutical Council’s pharmacist register showing a growth of 2% since 2020, and a growth in registered pharmacy technicians of 3%.
The report records that in 2025 there were 17,415 FTE pharmacists working in community pharmacy in England, compared with 18,927 FTE pharmacists in 2024. The figure in 2021 was 20,489 FTE pharmacists.
The drop in community pharmacy numbers, the report says, is: “Partly due to increased recruitment within other sectors of the NHS. This has been supported by the government and NHS through funding mechanisms which have not been made available to community pharmacies.”
Primary care has seen growth, it says, through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, and “substantial workforce growth” has also been seen in hospital pharmacy.
In 2022, Community Pharmacy England’s chief executive Janet Morrison said she had told the government that it must stop the recruitment of clinical pharmacists into primary care roles.
The report sets these findings against a backdrop of increased workload in community pharmacy, citing a 20% increase in prescriptions and 600% increase in clinical services in the past 10 years.
It also says there is a “growing number of pharmacy students and foundation trainees who are unlikely to ever practice in NHS settings”, including those who go into private healthcare and international students.
“More people are studying pharmacy, entering foundation training and joining the register than ever before. Change is needed to ensure these professionals choose community pharmacy, remain in community pharmacy, and crucially, can be employed sustainably within community pharmacy settings,” the report says.
Warning that delivering the ambitions of the 10-year plan will need a sustainable community pharmacy workforce, the report calls upon government and the NHS to clearly project and monitor future workforce demand and capacity, provide greater financial investment in the workforce, and support people to remain in community pharmacy.
The latter, it says, could be achieved by “strengthening early career support, creating more structured career pathways, expanding independent prescribing opportunities and ensuring community pharmacy offers competitive professional development opportunities”.
Marc Donovan, healthcare development director at Boots and chair of the Community Pharmacy Workforce Development Group, said: “The headline workforce figures paint a positive picture. More people are studying pharmacy, undertaking training and joining the professional register.
“But those numbers mask what is happening on the ground. Community pharmacy’s capacity is shrinking, with fewer full-time equivalent pharmacists available to deliver patient care than four years ago.
“If the NHS wants community pharmacy to do more, it must plan for the workforce needed to do it. Otherwise, we risk building plans for expanded patient care on capacity that simply isn’t there.”
Results from the ‘2025 NHS England ‘Community pharmacy workforce survey’ reported that there were 25,822 pharmacists working in community pharmacies in England in 2025, compared with 28,763 pharmacists in 2024, equivalent to a drop of 10%.
The Department of Health and Social Care was approached for comment.
