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NHS England has not delivered on an offer it made last year to consider including pharmacy workforce representatives in its sector discussions, the Pharmacists' Defence Association has claimed.

Speaking in a panel session at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham yesterday (October 12), PDA director of pharmacy Jay Badenhorst said that there are "strategic gaps" in how the sector's future is decided, with "one of the most pressing concerns" being what he described as the "exclusion of workforce representatives" from "key negotiating conversations". 

Mr Badenhorst said that during a talk at the 2024 Pharmacy Show, NHS England pharmacy director Ali Sparke told PDA chair Mark Koziol the health service would consider involving workforce representatives 

But Mr Badenhorst said that subsequent efforts to follow up with NHSE have been met with silence, adding that pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock has also ignored letters from the PDA. 

"We're still waiting," he told P3pharmacy. Asked why he thinks the PDA has been sidelined, he said: "I think it's maybe a misunderstanding about what the purpose is of why we want to be there.

"We don't necessarily want to shape the number of money because - we know that's predetermined.

"What we want to bring is the voice of the actual person who's doing services day in and day out in the pharmacy."

Commenting that owners have "different interests" to employees, he said that with some service launches there has been "massive fallout" due to issues like pharmacists not being given protected learning time to train up. 

"If we were involved in those conversations at the start, we're at least halfway to saying, here is a service, here is a need, here is a financial that's been agreed. How do we make sure that that money enables the work?

"I think it's about time that the workforce are really represented here."

'Significant risks' with role expansion

In the panel session, which focused on the workforce implications of Labour's 10-year health plan, Mr Badenhorst said professional development is something "we need to approach carefully" because "there are significant risks involved in expanding scope of practice so quickly.... and community pharmacy has the highest risk among all pharmacists". 

He said the sector has seen "insufficient workforce planning" from Government and NHS around how the 10-year plan will be implemented. 

Mr Badenhorst listed the PDA's priorities: "Realistic implementation phase, not too fast, protected training time for pharmacists, adequate staffing, robust IT infrastructure, and of course interprofessional collaboration and public awareness.

"We feel with any of those six pillars missing, it will be at risk of falling over."

Also on the panel was Community Pharmacy North East London chief executive Shilpa Shah, who said getting the "right workforce" will be crucial. 

"We need to use everybody to the top of their licence," she said, adding that this requires sufficient funding to incentivise people to stay within the community pharmacy sector.

But she said she doesn't agree with those who call for measures like ending the recruitment of community pharmacists to primary care roles funded by the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS): "I don't believe we should stop any of these opportunities because community pharmacy might be having workforce issues.

"I wouldn't want to go and do a degree and pay £,9000 a year for four years to then be told, however you can only work in [one sector]... I think we should be open to change."

And Minesh Parbat, chief pharmacist for Shropshire,Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board told the audience that workforce planning "needs to be absolutely at the front and centre" of service planning as newly qualified pharmacists and pharmacy technicians join the sector at a time of significant change. 

"We need to ask how do we support them, but also noting that our current workforce also needs supporting and developing to make sure that they are able to deliver on future long term conditions management."..