Community Pharmacy England (CPE) - News updates

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has today (30/05/2025) confirmed the following final list of price concessions for May 2025.  Drug Pack size Price concession Acetazolamide 250mg tablets 112 £47.22 Cefradine 500mg capsules 20 £13.44 Conjugated oestrogens 1.25mg tablets 84 £52.56 Conjugated oestrogens 300microgram tablets 84 £24.02 Conjugated oestrogens 625microgram tablets 84 £26.87 Duloxetine [...] The post May 2025 Price Concessions Final Update appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

Community Pharmacy England has published new guidance to help community pharmacy owners complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit 2025. The Toolkit is used to make a pharmacy’s information governance (IG) declaration and must be completed by 30th June 2025. Community Pharmacy England has collaborated with the NHS DSPTK team to keep the workload associated with [...] The post Reminder: 1 month to go to complete the Data Security & Protection Toolkit 2025 appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has published a news story, on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care, highlighting that from 1st June 2025 pharmacy owners who have not yet claimed for Pharmacy First consultations carried out in March, April and May 2025 must claim these by 11.59pm on 30th June 2025 [...] The post Pharmacy First: Changes to the claim period appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

NHS England has announced that the community pharmacy technician apprenticeship programme has launched for 2025. The programme supports Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technicians (PTPTs) to complete a 24-month apprenticeship in community pharmacy. Funding offer and application support Successful applicants will receive a training contribution of £15,053 per trainee, per year for two years to support their [...] The post Funding for community pharmacy technician apprenticeship programme 2025 appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

NHS England has opened the procurement process for pharmacies that wish to provide the COVID-19 vaccination service from their healthcare premises from 1st October 2025. This process only applies to: Pharmacies not already contracted to provide the service and wishing to apply to provide it from 1st October 2025; and Pharmacies already contracted to provide [...] The post Provision of C-19 vacs from October 2025 appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

Pharmacy owners should be aware that the Pharmacy First Clinical Pathways band assignments and monthly caps for June 2025 are published on the NHSBSA website. Information for all future months will be published here. The list published by NHSBSA indicates the band assignment and monthly cap for each pharmacy by ODS code. If a pharmacy [...] The post Pharmacy First Clinical Pathways caps for June 2025 appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

As we move into the warmer months, pharmacy teams may start to see people presenting with tick bites and potentially symptoms of Lyme disease. While tick bites/Lyme disease is not treatable under the Pharmacy First clinical pathway for infected insect bites, with patients needing to be signposted onwards, patients may present with a tick bite [...] The post Pharmacy First: Recognition of tick bites and the symptoms of Lyme disease appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

NHS England has announced, that it has opened applications for pharmacists for funded independent prescribing courses. Courses are available up to March 2026, with several universities offering multiple dates for cohort intakes. Start dates will depend on the university provider. Community pharmacists (including locum pharmacists) considering an application, will need to demonstrate (as a minimum): [...] The post NHS England funded independent prescribing courses 2025/26 appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

Ahead of negotiations on the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) for 2026/27 and beyond, Community Pharmacy England is keen to discuss pressing issues and the future of the sector with pharmacy owners and LPCs. All pharmacy owners and their representatives are therefore invited to attend our regional ‘Future of Pharmacy’ workshops to discuss what next [...] The post 2025 Community Pharmacy England Workshops appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

Community Pharmacy England would like to remind pharmacy owners of the requirement to submit their FP34C declaration using the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal and to dispatch any prescription bundles to the relevant pricing division at the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) no later than the 5th day of the month following that in which [...] The post Reminder: Submit your FP34C declaration and prescription bundles on time appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.