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The Pharmacy Schools Council (PhSC) has called for a joint ministerial taskforce to expand student recruitment and increase clinical placement capacity ahead of the publication of the NHS ten-year workforce plan.
In a joint letter sent to health secretary Wes Streeting and health minister Karin Smyth on 13 November 2025, the PhSC and other bodies, including the Medical Schools Council and the Dental Schools Council, offered strong support for the NHS ten-year plan’s shifts from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.
However, it warned: “These shifts will only succeed if education and training evolve in parallel.”
In September 2025, the government issued a call for evidence on its workforce plan to support the NHS ten-year plan, which closed earlier in November 2025.
However, the letter said that the call for evidence “did not lend itself to responses addressing the education, training and research contributions to the future health workforce”.
In the letter, the bodies said that they want to see higher education embedded within the workforce plan to “secure a reliable flow of well-trained, highly skilled professionals to meet future demand“.
They also expressed concern about a “worrying decline” in the numbers of clinical academics. These academics provide a link between research, education and clinical practice, which helps to improve patient outcomes, the letter said.
The PhSC has previously warned in 2024 that pharmacy schools are competing with the NHS when it comes to filling teacher–practitioner roles, and using secondments to recruit senior pharmacists to academic posts should be explored as an option.
Katie Petty-Saphon, chief executive of the PhSC, commented: “To meet the nation’s healthcare needs, workforce planning must recognise the central roles of education, training and research within the NHS strategy.
“As the professionals responsible for delivering this education and training, we are committed to working with government to support the health service with the skilled staff it desperately needs.
“Importantly, clinical academics must also be included in this discussion to ensure they have the support needed to keep the NHS competitive, forward-thinking and at the cutting edge of innovation.”
The Department of Health and Social Care was contacted for comment.
