Thursday 17th July 2025   

Welcome to your weekly injection of local and national pharmacy news. As always, if you have any feedback or comments, please contact us by email at admin@cpdevon.org.uk.

Hurry and book your place for the Community Pharmacy Devon Conference, places are filling fast!

Gain valuable insights into the evolving landscape of the NHS and what these changes mean for community pharmacy. Enjoy engaging presentations from NHS teams who will share tips and guidance on how to maximise service delivery to drive business success, and celebrate excellence at our awards ceremony. It’s a perfect opportunity to expand your knowledge and empower your pharmacy for the future.

There will be a few breakout sessions throughout the day giving you the option to choose which ones to attend. These sessions will be categorised under three separate headings: Change Management, Clinical and Resilience. If you choose to attend a Clinical session we have guest speakers from NHS Devon and UHP Derriford giving talks on managing clinical uncertainty and cardiovascular disease. More about the other session next week.

You can book your place here.

Please see flyer promoting undergraduate pharmacy student placement opportunities for the 2025/26 academic year at Bath University here

The Community Pharmacy Workforce Survey (CPWS) provides valuable insights to support future workforce planning and investment, ensuring continued access to vital pharmacy services.

Key findings from the 2024 survey, now available on the CPWS webpage, show:

• Five per cent increase in pharmacists 
• 22 per cent rise in pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians
• Four per cent overall reduction in workforce, mainly due to fewer trainee dispensing assistants, medicines counter assistants, and delivery drivers
• Nine per cent of community pharmacists are now independent prescribers

Explore the full findings on the CWPS webpage or via the NHS Dashboard.

We have received some feedback from practices querying the procurement process and registration for Central Digital Platform.

Local Authorities are classed as 'contracting authorities' and are therefore bound by the Procurement Act 2023 which obligates any supplier bidding for contracting authorities services must register on the Central Digital Platform - its intention is to make it easier to find and bid for contracts, and for buyers to meet their transparency commitments under the Act. This came into force in February 2025 and is a legal requirement of the local authority to ensure providers complete this step for any service we are procuring.

Some additional advice has been provided to support their completion of the registration confirming that practices (and by virtue pharmacies) do not need to either:

1.   be registered with companies house,

2.   provide financial accounts as part of the registration process.

These sections are not mandatory; they can simply state 'not applicable' and continue with the registration process.

A reminder to please be proactive in terms of signing up in case this step has created any additional unforeseen queries or delays whilst the CDP registration take place. 

If you have a positive news story to share with us please send it to admin@cpdevon.org.uk and it will be featured in an upcoming edition of the review. If featured, you will also win a surprise gift for you and your team up to the value of £25!

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