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When I told people I had no knowledge of the 2025-26 funding deal as National Pharmacy Association chair before it was announced, they were shocked. That’s not the best way to deliver co-ordinated lobbying, says Nick Kaye…

So, now we know what our new funding settlement looks like in England.

As the dust settles and we all grapple with what the financial uplift and the various changes to funding regulations mean for our businesses, it makes sense to reflect on how we got here and the structures used get the new contract.

It’s been popular for some to put a lot of pressure and scrutiny at the door of Community Pharmacy England (CPE).

There are many on its committee, contractors like you and me, who I know personally and greatly respect.

They, alongside CPE staff, have an intensely difficult task trying to manage varying interests, different business models and years of pent-up frustration at real terms funding cuts that have made people’s lives very hard.

Pharmacy is uniquely fragmented but other sectors are the same

Whatever the frustration, there’s no place for personal criticism of those in this process. We might not all agree on everything all the time, but everyone is trying to work in good faith and in our interests.

That said, is it not time to have a grown-up conversation about a system which over many years has included CPE, National Pharmacy Association, Company Chemists’ Association, Independent Pharmacies’ Association, and now, the Independent Pharmacy Contractors Network (IPCN)?

Would we set up our system of representation like this if we were starting from scratch? We are where we are, so can we make this all work better in the future?

As many of you know, for the last two years, I’ve been part of this process myself as NPA chair. So, what have I learned from this process?

We tend to think pharmacy is uniquely fragmented but most other sectors are the same. Universities, for example, have multiple special interest groups, unions and multiple regulators and stakeholders.

It’s important for all of us not to be bound by the current contract 

The key is having relationships of trust, having robust debates but not criticising each other, and co-ordinating what we do. As you would expect, I’m exceptionally proud of the campaign work we did at the NPA, but other bodies have also been involved in impactful engagement and it’s only right to say that as well.

That said, our diversity is our superpower. There’s the opportunity to think radically about our service and what we offer our communities. It’s important for all of us not to be bound by the current contract or the current ways of consulting on it.

We need everyone in our sector to pitch ideas and think differently about how things could be, rather than be locked into one formal set of annual consultations. Let’s think optimistically and openly about the future that could be possible.

We also need to be honest with ourselves about what ‘negotiation’ with the government currently means. We should recognise CPE and the wider sector have historically had relatively little leverage over the total funding offered by the Government.

Therefore, we need to understand the crucial ‘negotiation’ in all this is not necessarily with CPE but within government. CPE has done well laying the groundwork, as has the NPA, CCA and IPA, and it has a vital role to influence the mechanisms by which funding is structured, allocated and distributed.

Let’s look at real-time information and market technology

That can make a positive difference on the ground. But we need to focus our big picture lobbying on the paymasters, not on ourselves. Whatever you think about the NPA’s campaigning, it shifted the needle positively on funding.

It was focused entirely on influencing the total available funding within Government, increasing the size of the cake available to the CPE negotiating team.

We need independent advice. The NHS-commissioned economic analysis of the sector is a very important contributor to our understanding of the pressures on pharmacy business, but also on medicines management as a system.

These are big issues for Government, vital for patients and, of course, vital for our livelihoods. It makes sense to have an independent review of pharmacy funding so a pay review body can make sure the service is sustainable. It gives an independent validity to our calls for fair funding increases.

We need to think about technology. Some of the mechanisms that govern the NHS drug tariff were created in a pre-internet age. Fair enough, but let’s look at how real-time information and market technology might improve our processes and offer a fairer, more efficient deal for taxpayers, patients and pharmacies.

Real-time payment is achievable if the will is there. We need to be more open about the process. Every negotiation process must go ‘into the tunnel of privacy’ at some point and no-one thinks we should share every delicate discussion on WhatsApp.

We need to be much more open about the sums on the table

But we need to be much more open about the sums on the table, share ideas and work in unison. I’m not sure anyone really believed me when I said this, but it’s true to say that even as chair of the NPA, I had no concrete information aside from rumours about the size of this year’s settlement.

I was told on a Team’s call on the same day the press were briefed on that Sunday. I personally had to deal with a lot of pressure and criticism in the week before the announcement about the NPA media activity.

But when I explained I had no knowledge of the deal, people were shocked. In my view, that’s not the best way to deliver co-ordinated and successful lobbying.

During my time leading the NPA, we talked a lot about our broken contract and the need for reform. That work continues, so let’s not allow ourselves to be held back by the past.

Let’s not let differences get in the way of us promoting shared goals together. And let’s imagine a better future. We all need it.

Nick Kaye is a pharmacist based in Newquay and board member of the National Pharmacy Association. These are his personal views.