Community Pharmacy Devon Weekly Dose 💊

Thursday 16th October 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.

Community Pharmacy Devon Annual General Meeting

The AGM will take place virtually on Tuesday 21st October at 7pm-7.30pm. You can view more details and the joining link here.

National Health Campaigns in Community Pharmacy

Exciting Opportunity! We’re pleased to offer funded places on the Level 2 Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) Award in Understanding Health Improvement: Health Champion Course. A fantastic chance to upskill and empower your team to support healthier communities. Places are limited so don’t miss out!

Who is it suitable for?

This course is suitable for everyone there are no restrictions. The Healthy Living Pharmacy requirements apply to all pharmacies. At least one full time equivalent (can be two-part timers) member of the patient-facing pharmacy team needs to have completed the training and assessment of the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) Level 2 Award in ‘Understanding Health Improvement’ and is therefore a Health Champion.

Course Overview

This course will enable you to get a better understanding of your community’s health and wellbeing, and what health inequalities exist. It will give you the tools to help start conversations with people within your pharmacy about their health, allowing you and your team to promote a healthier lifestyle to everyone.

Course Content

The course follows the 4 modules in the RSPH syllabus and covers the following.

Understanding how inequalities in health develop and what the current policies are for addressing them
How effective communication can support health messages
Learn how to promote improvements in health and wellbeing in individuals
Understanding the impact of change improving an individual’s health and wellbeing

Places on the course are funded, offering a valuable opportunity for participants (maximum of two per pharmacy). In the event that a candidate is unable to complete the course within twelve months, the business may be asked to contribute towards the cost.

Complete the EOI Form by 31st October 2025

Pharmacy Technician Development Programme: Preparing for the Future

Open to all pharmacy technicians, the Pharmacy Technician Development Programme is delivered between October 2025 and March 2026, and aims to enhance clinical, leadership, and decision-making skills.

The focus will be on adapting to the evolving scope of practice, including recent changes to supervision legislation, the expansion of the Pharmacy First service, and the use of Patient Group Directions. Learners will work with their education supervisor to identify their individual development needs, and through structured learning, will progress at a pace that suits them.

Colleagues can apply and start at any time. To apply for an NHS England funded place on this programme, visit the CPPE Website.

NHS Flu & COVID Seasonal Vaccination Campaigns

There has been a rocky start to the winter vaccination campaign with significant changes being made to the patient eligibility for the COVID vaccine. During the first few days of the campaign, many of you reported lots of issues relating to patients booking COVID vaccinations via the National Booking System (NBS) who were not eligible for the vaccine. This has caused significantly increased workload for pharmacy teams, wasted appointments, loss of income, unacceptable treatment of pharmacy staff and damaged relationships.

There has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes and Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has worked with NHSE to get more NHS communications issued to help patients understand whether they are eligible for the vaccine, agreed changes in messaging on the NBS and provided a number of resources. For further information and updates on agreed actions by NHSE, see here.

CPE has produced three posters that might be helpful for pharmacy teams to use to explain vaccine eligibility to patients.

• Who should have the COVID-19 vaccine this winter (Poster)

• Information on immunosuppression and C-19 vaccination (Poster)

• The NHS has changed who can get a COVID-19 vaccine this winter (Poster)

NHSE has also produced a factsheet (see here) that pharmacy teams can use in discussions with patients.

CPE has since made a formal request to NHSE for financial compensation on behalf of pharmacy owners who have been affected.

Community Pharmacy Assurance Framework (CPAF) - Full Survey

The full CPAF survey monitoring pharmacy contractors’ compliance in 2024/25 is available to complete until midnight on 31st October 2025. Contractors will have been contacted directly by the NHS Business Services Authority if their pharmacy has been selected.

Completion is a mandatory requirement for all selected contractors, and the results will form the basis for which pharmacies will be considered for a visit. Users of the NHSBSA’s Manage Your Service (MYS) portal will be able to complete the survey via their MYS login.

The Pharmacy Resilience Mentoring and Coaching Programme

The Pharmacy Resilience Mentoring and Coaching programme is being funded by NHS Devon and is designed to support pharmacy owners to improve the resilience of their pharmacy business, and maximise the opportunities offered through the community pharmacy contractual framework and locally commissioned services. If you feel you would find this of interest and beneficial to yourself and your pharmacy team, please apply for the programme by completing the attached form and return to suet@cpdevon.org.uk.

**Please note that due to very limited spaces the form needs to be returned as soon as possible but by the 24th October 2025.

An overview of the programme may be viewed on this video here.

Please read the letter here inviting you to take part in the programme and also providing more information.