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This month's news from the National Pharmacy Association...

2026: a make-or-break year

A message from NPA chief executive Henry Gregg...

2026 is a crucial year for community pharmacy. From NHS funding to pharmacist prescribing, supervision legislation and numerous other potentially seismic developments, our sector’s business and practice is rapidly changing.

The period ahead will be challenging. But the NPA will be with you, every step ofthe way. Of course, a lot depends on contract negotiations delivering an above inflation funding settlement for2026/2027. With the increase in living wage, business rates and growth in the number of items dispensed, we need to see a real terms increase in funding for dispensing.

We also want to see more clinical services brought forward for pharmacists to deliver and funded from outside the budget for medicines supply.

Finally, we need reform of the broken and unfair contract to provide certainty about funding for NHS medicines and services and end the pain of the unfair system ofclawbacks. NPA polling with YouGov shows that the public’s appetite for expanding our clinical role is strong, including minor ailments, vaccinations, health checks and weight loss clinics.

So let’s keep up the pressure for investment and reform. And let us move forward together – confident in the skills of the workforce and confident also that patients trust pharmacy teams todeliver.

Don’t get caught buying insurance you don’t need

Last year the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) launched an insurance product that adds insurance and the associated premium to the membership fee. As NPA members, you and all of your employees are already covered by NPA Insurance’s indemnity product.

NPA Insurance (NPAI) provides comprehensive and class leading professional indemnity cover for you and your sta in your pharmacy operations. So be sure to check your RPS renewal and take action to opt out if you don’t want or need the RPS cover. It will save you the cost of buying a policy that is set up not to respond because you already have coverwith us.

NPAI also offers class-leading indemnitycover for locum pharmacists, backed by our in-house teams with unrivalled experience supporting pharmacists with all their professional indemnity needs.

Three new insurance services rolled in at no extra charge

We are delighted to remind you that from January 2026, NPA Insurance no longer charges for providing cover for phlebotomy, ear irrigation and cryotherapy.

This enhancement refl ects NPAI’s continued commitment to supporting the growth and development of community pharmacy as it moves into a more clinical sphere and offers more private and NHS services to patients. In addition, our professional indemnity policy covers members for Pharmacy First, all vaccinations and Patient Group Directions, including weight loss.

NPA pharmacist prescribing project

The NPA is joining forces with Q, Thiscovery, NHS Confederation and the Health Foundation to take stock of progress with pharmacist prescribing and highlight the opportunities over the coming years, plus enablers, to help move the agenda forward.

It will engage other key stakeholders such as GPs, commissioners and the wider NHS system to build momentum.

The NHS 10-year plan sets out a decisive shift toward neighbourhood-based care and expanded clinical roles in pharmacy. Independent prescribing (IP) is a critical enabler, and current policy momentum creates a time-limited opportunity to secure consistent commissioning arrangements and national support for community pharmacy.

The NPA aims to expand the role of community pharmacy in primary care by building a nationally consistent IP framework, with the aim of securing the funding and policy support needed to scale from pathfi nders to permanent NHS services.

Working with the NPA, Thiscovery and Q will capture the insights needed to expand IP in community pharmacy. Whether through a focused survey of pharmacists to evidence practice realities, or by involving commissioners and patients to build a powerful, multi-stakeholder case for investment and national rollout.

Supervision

Common questions answered...

New supervision legislation came into e ect on 7 January 2026, enabling a pharmacist to authorise a competent member of the pharmacy team to hand out prescriptions that have been clinically checked and bagged when the pharmacist is absent or treated as absent.

Here are some frequently asked questions about the change. Our full set of resources can be found at portal.npa.co.uk/npaportal/s/article/Supervision-Resources

How is this change in legislation di erent from current practice?

Currently, prescriptions that are ready for collection by the patient or their representatives can only be handed out in the presence of the pharmacist. The change in legislation now allows the pharmacist to authorise the handout of checked and bagged prescriptions in theirabsence.

What does ‘absence’ or ‘treated as absent’ mean in thiscontext?

A pharmacist being temporarily absent from the premises, for example on a rest break, or when present but not available to intervene or not in a position to intervene. For instance, if they’re in a consultation room and cannot be interrupted, they’re treated as absent for the purposes of handing out medicines.

How does this change impact the Responsible Pharmacist (RP)regulations?

The RP regulations have not changed. An RP is still required to be signed in at each pharmacy. The permitted absence from the pharmacy premises under the RP regulations remains at a maximum of two hours during the pharmacy’s businesshours.

What is meant by ‘checked and bagged’ prescriptions?

These include prescriptions for a prescription-only medicine (POM) or pharmacy (P) medicine, that have been clinically checked by the pharmacist, dispensed and accuracy checked by, or under the supervision of, a pharmacist and and are ready for sale or supply.

What if the pharmacist does not want to authorise pharmacy team members to handout checked and bagged prescriptions in their absence?

The legislative change is enabling; therefore, it is not mandatory for the pharmacist to authorise others to perform this task.

Who can give the authorisation if thereare two pharmacists working in the pharmacy?

Either one of the pharmacists can make the authorisation, this does not have to be the RP. Only the pharmacist that has given the authorisation can amend or withdraw it. Another pharmacist can, however, interrupt or intervene if they deem that the supply is not safe or appropriate.

Can the Superintendent Pharmacistor the owner make the authorisation on behalf of thepharmacist?

No, only the pharmacist working at the pharmacy can make the authorisation.

How is authorisation given?

Authorisation can be given in writing or orally. However, professional standards recommend written authorisation whenever possible to ensure auditability and accountability. Oral authorisation should be documented promptly in the records. SOPs should cover record keeping requirements for authorisation given by the pharmacist.

LPC Connect

If you are an NPA member who sits on a local pharmaceutical committee (LPC), why not sign up to receive monthly updates from the NPA via LPC Connect? The idea is to bring together the voices of independent community pharmacy at national and local levels.

Please subscribe and share with your LPC executive, o cers, independent committee members and other colleagues. Email our integration lead, Michael Lennox, at m.lennox@npa.co.uk

NPA support for your finances

NPA surveys consistently show the severe fi nancial pressures facing the community pharmacy sector. More than 70 per cent of pharmacy owners had to remortgage their homes or use personal savings last year just to keep their doors open.

To help our members handle fi nancial pressures, we have brought together a range of financial wellbeing resources available to you, including:

• Local Market Insights portal.npa.co.uk/npaportal/s/article/NPA-Local-Market-Insight

• Royal Mail drop-off service for your end-of-month prescription bundle. portal.npa.co.uk/npaportal/s/article/ Royal-Mail-Drop-Off-service

• Employment and Health and Safety advice and support. Visit the Worknest cost of living hub: worknest.com/cost-of-living-hub/

• Pharmacy essentialsfrom EMT Healthcare. portal.npa.co.uk/npaportal/s/article/EMT-Healthcare

• Our funding impact calculator tool (England) helps you to estimate how the fi nancial changes for the 2025/2026tax year may a ect your business profitability portal.npa.co.uk/npaportal/s/article/NPA-Pharmacy- Funding-Impact-Calculator

• The NPA Future Pharmacy Network is rich with resources to help your business grow. portal.npa.co.uk/ npaportal/s/article/Future-Pharmacy-Network-Introduction

As an NPA member, you also have access to a wide range of Trusted Partners covering Accountancy, Financial Planning and PaymentSolutions.

Start 2026 with a smarter website!

Limited-time offer – free website build worth £1,500

Have you thought about what your website can be doing for your business? The NPA has partnered with Charac to help you create a website or turn your existing website into a revenue generating tool, and better support your patients and potential customers. This is an NPA member exclusive, limited-time offer, with no upfront costs

• Free website build (worth £1,500)

• No platform or hosting costs for the first three months

• Designed specifically for pharmacies

• Helps drive repeat prescriptions, bookingsand deliveries

Search www.npa.co.uk/campaigns/exclusive-website-offer-with-charac/

NPA media coverage

The NPA team has ramped up our communications work around the financial challenges facing pharmacy, building on a very strong start to the year, with appearances on BBC Breakfast, all the major BBC radio bulletins and GoodMorningBritain.

Our advocacy around business rates successfully inserted pharmacy into the national conversation around tax breaks for pubs – reaching a huge audience via shows like Nicky Campbell (5Live) and Jeremy Vine(BBC Radio 2). NPA achieved a total of 11,500 media mentions last year, including 1,405 in national media.

Government signals bigger role for pharmacies in vaccination programmes

The Department of Health and Social Care has released the results of a consultation on proposals to amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, which could open the door to a signifi cant expansion of community pharmacy vaccination services.

We’re delighted that the government has listened to our strong representations and taken this enabling step to open up the scope of the sector’s public health offering.

This could be a gear change for vaccination services once the relevant legislation is enacted – depending on the level of investment by the NHS. Currently, national protocols can only be used for Covid-19 and flu vaccination services.

It is now expected that new legislation will be enacted to remove the current national protocols as a legal mechanism and will instead introduce a new type of legal mechanism called a ‘Vaccine Group Direction (VGD)’ that will provide more flexibility for a wider range of vaccination programmes.

With this enabling change, it may soon be possible for community pharmacies to provide vaccination services for any vaccine against an infectious disease caused by a virus or bacteria. This welcome development follows formal representations by the NPA and NPA-commissioned polling that shows clear public support for an expansion of pharmacy vaccination services for adults and children.

PQS declaration window opens

The PQS declaration window opened on 2 February 2026 and closes at 11:59pm on 27February. Pharmacies takingpart in PQS can use our staff training tracker to make sure the required staff members have completed and passed, whereappropriate, the CPPE learnings for the three quality criteria, relating to sepsis, mental health and emergency contraception. Search ‘PQS’ on the NPA members hub.

An invitation to the HouseofLords

We are hosting our annual Winter Reception in the House of Lords...

The event on February 10 is an opportunity to meet and strengthen relationships with MPs, peers and key decision makers, and network with other community pharmacists and the pharmacy sector in the Palace ofWestminster. Places are limited so please register now at npa.co.uk/events