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Strategic Plan  

Since 2017 we have been working to deliver the aims set out in our three-year strategic plan. This plan describes our ambition to support and improve the delivery of safe, effective care in pharmacy, and also describes our strategic approach and operating principles for achieving that ambition.

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During the last twelve months – the second year of the strategic plan – we have made significant progress under our three key goals, which are to make sure:

  • the pharmacy team have the necessary knowledge, attitudes and behaviours

  • registered pharmacies deliver safe, effective care and services, and

  • pharmacy regulation is efficient and effective

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Here are some of our achievements under our key goals:

  • We successfully introduced revalidation for pharmacy professionals, including the creation of a new online portal enabling them to manage their records efficiently and effectively alongside their annual registration renewal applications.

  • We implemented new standards for the initial education and training of pharmacy technicians, and new criteria for registration as a pharmacy technician.

  • We consulted on developing our approach to regulating registered pharmacies, including publishing inspection reports for the first time, and are using what we heard to help develop and refine our approach.

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We are continuing to make good progress in achieving the aims set out in our strategic plan.  But as we prepare to enter the final year of this strategic plan, and look ahead to the future, we are conscious of significant challenges facing society in general which will impact on pharmacy and on pharmacy regulation too. Just a few of these challenges are highlighted below.

Economic uncertainty and the continuing squeeze on public finances – seen in the wider NHS – are also affecting pharmacy services. The decision to exit from the European Union continues to cause uncertainty and the extent of its impact on pharmacy and pharmacy regulation is not yet clear.  We need to be ready to respond effectively to any future developments.

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There may also be fundamental changes coming to the way our economy operates, because of the effects of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. These may bring benefits which were not previously considered possible. However, change of this kind will also bring risks and challenges. We will also need to consider how these changes will affect people using pharmacy services, and what – if any – risks there may be and our role in mitigating them.

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We have known for some time that financial pressures, population changes and public health challenges mean our health services will have to adapt. Governments across Great Britain believe pharmacy is part of the solution and will need to operate differently in the future. In the next 20 years we expect the percentage of the UK’s population aged over 65 to rise from 18% to 24%. This will put more pressure on our health and care system, to an extent we have never seen before. We also face ongoing public-health challenges, which pharmacy is well placed to play a major part in dealing with.

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Decisions about how the sector should change are primarily for governments, commissioners and the sector itself to make. But it is clear that the way pharmacy services are delivered will change significantly, with pharmacy professionals more likely to work in multidisciplinary teams, and pharmacy services looking to make use of new technology, for example. As a regulator, we know we will also have an important role to play – working with governments, patients and others.

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The pace of change in pharmacy is increasing, and it has prompted us to begin to work on a longer-term plan. We are currently developing on a 10-year vision and strategy, which will enable us to make sure that we are fit to deliver efficient, responsive regulation which is relevant to the changing healthcare environment. We will  focus more of our efforts on proactively anticipating and responding to  issues, and tailoring our regulatory responses to achieve the desired results in the best and quickest way.

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This means that the coming third year of this strategic plan will be a transitional period as we continue to set our longer-term goals and develop our plan to achieve these. We will need to keep our strategy under close review to make sure we are adapting quickly to the challenges described and are not standing in the way of innovation that is focused on delivering improved outcomes for patients.

We also know that we are uniquely placed to use our privileged position to capture and share data, research and information. We can use this to:

  • provide assurance to patients and the public

  • help us better understand risk in pharmacy, and

  • enable and encourage improvement in the sector

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We aim to use data more effectively to evaluate the impact of our regulatory work.

These ambitions are very much in line with the direction of public policy on professional regulation. Our strategy is designed to be able to adapt and respond to the challenges we face and to make good use of the opportunities that arise, and we will be developing our longer-term plan to do the same.

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