Consultation Response: Development Pathways for Pharmacy Technicians and Pharmacy Support Staff

Published: 12/12/2024

The National Pharmacy Technician Group Scotland (NPTGS) are seeking responses from pharmacy teams, working in all sectors across Scotland, on their proposed development pathways for pharmacy technicians and pharmacy support staff.

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These pathways were commissioned by the Directors of Pharmacy and have been developed as a first step towards standardisation and optimisation within the workforce. They use the National Career Framework for Health to describe different levels of practice/autonomy that pharmacy technicians and support staff may be delivering at in the future. This framework has been selected as it is used across almost all other health professions in Scotland. Each level is then tied to the corresponding education and training level (using the Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework, SCQF) that would be required of someone working at this level of practice.  For clarity, although NHS Boards in Scotland may choose to adopt these frameworks, set roles using them as guidance and commission training courses according to the suggested levelling, NPTGS do not have a statutory role and the framework would not set any legal requirements for roles in any sector of practice.

This piece of work is intended to provide a solid base from which to build the future education and training products that will be required for roles set at the described career levels. It will also provide the pharmacy technician profession with a clearer view of how they might develop themselves post-registration. A well-designed framework will support employers with developing their people, levelling roles appropriately, recruitment and ultimately a degree of assurance that a pharmacy technician in a given role has the knowledge, skills and understanding required to deliver their work.

The full consultation available to access here.  Our response is included below.

• Question 1. Would you say the format of the proposed Pharmacy Technician/Pharmacy Support Staff Development Pathways are easy to understand.

  Yes 

  Question 2. If you said yes, what do you like about the format of the Development Pathways?

  Formatting ie size of text, font used

  • The layout 

  • Case studies

• Question 3. Do you think the proposed Pharmacy Technician and Pharmacy Support Staff Development Pathways describe the appropriate level of accredited underpinning knowledge to support the delivery of effective patient care.

  No

  Question 4.  If you said no, what statement(s) below best describes your view(s)?

  • More information needed on content of proposed qualifications.

  • Pharmacy Technician/Pharmacy Support staff already have the required accredited level of knowledge for their roles.

  • Other

    • The described level of knowledge for pharmacy technicians seems appropriate to meet the demands of future roles. However, although some pharmacy support workers in community pharmacy will likely require a higher level of education and training to deliver the evolving community pharmacy contract, it is very likely that roles at CFH level 2 for which SCQF level 5 qualifications are sufficient will still exist across the network. We would suggest that the pharmacy support worker framework is amended at CFH level 2 to reflect this.

• Question 5. Do you think the proposed Development Pathways will help deliver on Public Health Scotland’s ambition to improve the population health of Scotland by equipping our workforce with the underpinning knowledge and education to develop appropriate skill and experience?

  Yes

• Question 6. If you said yes, what do you think needs to be added?

  Agree broadly that the content of the development pathways will support this ambition. However, we would suggest that more detail could be added on how these will be achieved in practice – for example, what might be materially different between today’s courses and the courses of the future other than the level. For those who are not familiar with SCQF levelling in the context of pharmacy education, the frameworks as they are written say more about the roles than the education and it may be challenging to assess whether the SCQF level proposed lines up with the role described.

• Question 7. What do you think of the proposed Pharmacy Technician and Pharmacy Support Staff Development Pathways?

  This is a positive development for pharmacy support staff and pharmacy technicians, as well as the wider health service.  More structured education and training options for these members of the pharmacy team will not only empower them to undertake additional roles which require specialist skills, but these skills will be recognised and provide reassurance across wider healthcare teams.

• Question 8. Is there anything you would change or would like added to the proposed development pathways?

  More detail on how this will be implemented would be appreciated.

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