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Newly qualified pharmacist prescribers working in “single” community pharmacies will be prioritised for an education and training pathway, David Webb, chief pharmaceutical officer for England, has announced.
During a keynote speech delivered at the Clinical Pharmacy Congress 2026, held at Excel London on 8–9 May 2026, Webb highlighted that up to 1,200 new registrants are set to receive funded supervision, which will provide support for professional development and an e‑portfolio aligned with the Royal College of Pharmacy.
According to a slide presented during the speech: “Newly qualified ‘single’ community pharmacist practitioners (e.g. independent pharmacies) will be prioritised for the programme in 2026/2027.”
This will come in the form of clinical supervision provided by the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education for 300 pharmacists who cannot access it through their workplace — for example, those working as locums or in independent pharmacies where there are no other prescribers.
However, David Gibson, pharmacy dean for the North East and Yorkshire at NHS England, confirmed at a later Clinical Pharmacy Congress session that the wider pathway offer will be open to pharmacists in all sectors of practice.
“We want to move [early career pharmacists] from competence to being a highly proficient practitioner,” he added.
Gibson noted that the education and training pathway will also help prescribers progress against clinical domains one and two of the Royal College of Pharmacy’s enhanced curriculum, which is currently at a consultation stage.
He said that newly qualified pharmacists had described challenges around confidence, working within a wider team and making decisions that impact patient care, adding that “we need to make sure we build on the success of the foundation training year and make sure those pharmacists continue to grow and develop their proficiency”.
The pathway is based on a NHS England stakeholder survey carried out between October 2024 and January 2025, which included questions on current training pathways, funding models, barriers and enablers to current and future training.
It supersedes NHS England’s newly qualified pharmacist pathway, and similar offers will be available in Wales and Scotland.
Gibson continued that the pathway that will be rolled out in 2026/2027 will be a pilot version that “needs to be shaped by stakeholders across the system to make sure it’s working for employers and most importantly the learners”.
“We have to get this right, we have to evolve and develop it to meet the needs across the system… we’re not going to get all of this right straight off the bat, and this is why we want to get people involved with the pilot,” he added.
The pilot will be evaluated by the University of Manchester.
Gibson also told the delegates: “What is really challenging is making sure people have time to engage with this.”
The offer will not cover any funding to backfill protected learning time for participants, Gibson said. He added that instead, a “whole systems approach” was needed, including support from employers.
In addition, Gibson reassured pharmacists who are not qualified as prescribers that “we are thinking about you”.
He noted that NHS England first wanted to support existing pharmacists to become qualified as prescribers and then have access to the pathway or similar after that.
Slides shared by David Webb also confirmed that NHS England was currently developing two assurance documents: one to support integrated care boards with commissioning prescribing services, and one to support pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
All newly registered pharmacists in the UK will qualify as independent prescribers from the summer of 2026.
