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The Royal College of Pharmacy (RCPharm) in England — together with the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (BPSA) and the Pharmacy Schools Council (PhSC) — has called on the government to give pharmacy students the same financial support offered to students of other healthcare professions.
In a letter sent to health minister Karin Smyth on 6 May 2026, seen by The Pharmaceutical Journal, the three bodies asked for pharmacy students to have full access to the NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF)
The LSF allows healthcare students on preregistration undergraduate or postgraduate courses in England to claim a training grant of up to £5,000 per year, plus expenses for excess travel and temporary accommodation costs, while on practice placements.
At the moment, pharmacy students are eligible for reimbursement towards placement-related expenses through the travel and dual accommodation expenses (TDAE) provision of the LSF. However, unlike many other student healthcare professionals, including nurses and physiotherapists, they cannot claim the £5,000 grant or parental support of £2,000 per year for eligible students with children.
In September 2022, the three bodies wrote to then health minister Will Quince asking for equal access to the fund, with financial support for travel and accommodation for clinical placements as a “positive first step”.
In May 2025, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced that pharmacy students would be eligible for financial support for travel and accommodation during their placements.
However, the latest joint letter to Smyth said that while the authors welcomed progress so far, “we would now look for the government to build on this and enable pharmacy student access to other aspects of the LSF, which includes a training grant, parental support and an exceptional support fund”.
“Alongside removing unjust barriers to choosing pharmacy, this would give students the flexibility to engage with wider professional development opportunities to further enhance their clinical skills,” the letter added.
“As pharmacists play a growing clinical role in the health service, they must be given comparable access to the training and development support provided to other healthcare professions.”
Mahendra Patel, chair of the RCPharm’s English Pharmacy Advisory Council, commented: “The ‘NHS long-term workforce plan’ highlights the need to boost training places to meet growing demand for pharmacy services. As we ask pharmacists to do more, this must be backed by enhanced and equitable support for education and professional development.
“With continued pressures on the NHS, pharmacy students should not face unjust financial barriers at the very start of their career, if we are to make the most of all the health professions to support patient care.”
Martina Aikon, president of the BPSA, said: “As the clinical and prescribing responsibilities of pharmacists continue to grow, it is only fair that pharmacy students have access to the additional support they deserve.”
At the time of going to press, a petition calling on the government to fully include pharmacy students in the fund stood at over 6,000 signatures. The petition, created by pharmacy student Zeenat Akmal, closes in June 2026.
In January 2026, the RCPharm — then Royal Pharmaceutical Society — said it was “fundamentally inequitable” that pharmacy students in Wales are not currently eligible for the NHS Wales bursary scheme, which provides financial support to healthcare students studying eligible courses at Welsh universities.
