PSNC Vision and work plan
PSNC Vision and work plan
This page is currently under review
PSNC’s vision is to work collaboratively to ensure a robust and sustainable community pharmacy network, meeting the needs of patients, contractors and government.
August 2020 Update
PSNC has published an update on its ongoing negotiations related to funding and services, setting out the work it is doing to seek funding increases for community pharmacy contractors.
In particular, PSNC has made a case to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prevention, Public Health and Primary Care, Jo Churchill MP, for an urgent uplift to the agreed Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) funding.
The following briefing provides an update for community pharmacy contractors, LPCs and others about PSNC’s negotiations progress and current priorities. It sets out some of the key topics under live negotiation and describes some of the bigger picture objectives that PSNC is working towards.
PSNC Briefing 025/20: PSNC Priorities and Negotiations Action List
Community pharmacy development
Following negotiations between PSNC, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I), HM Government agreed to make a five-year investment in community pharmacies between 2019/20 and 2023/24. The deal secures pharmacy funding and sets out a clear vision for the expansion of clinical service delivery over the next five years, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan.
You can read more about the CPCF agreement here.
Future of pharmacy animation
PSNC has developed an animation explaining how community pharmacy are likely to fit into the NHS of the future. As well as showcasing the work that pharmacies already do, the video describes the transformation that community pharmacies will need to undertake over the coming months and years.
The video is based on the ambitions for community pharmacy that have been set out by NHS England and the Government. PSNC is continuing to work closely with AIM, CCA, NPA and the RPS as well as the LPCs to influence these plans and to find ways to make them work for the sector.
Find out more about the action points in PSNC’s animation
2019/20 work plan
PSNC’s Strategic Plan for 2019/20 was agreed at the Committee’s February 2019 meeting.
The plan pulls together all of the work streams being undertaken by PSNC’s six subcommittees – Service Development; Legislation and Regulatory Affairs; Funding and Contract; LPC and Contractor Support; Communications and Public Affairs; and Resource, Development and Finance.
Read PSNC’s Strategic Plan for 2019/20
Ongoing work
Further information about PSNC’s ongoing discussions and actions can be found within our committee and subcommittee agendas and minutes, which are available from the PSNC meetings section of our website.
PSNC Service Development Options
PSNC’s latest set of service proposals give an indication of the breadth of what pharmacy has to offer, highlighting some of the ways in which developing pharmacy services could:
- Reduce demand on GPs and urgent care;
- Reduce future healthcare demand (by focusing on prevention);
- Building primary care capacity; and
- Optimise use of medicines, ensuring that the NHS gets best value from its spend on medicines.
Read PSNC’s Options for development of the NHS Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework
Learn more about our service development proposals
These proposals were developed following discussions with NHS England officials in which PSNC identified the need to update its service development proposals to include options for nationally commissioned urgent care and public health services. These include commissioning of national Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC) and stop smoking services from community pharmacies and NHS Health Checks, blood pressure measurement and Atrial Fibrillation (AF) identification.
How to achieve this
In order to deliver all of this, we recognise that pharmacies will need to undergo a programme of change that enables them do more to help people to stay healthy, manage long-term conditions and avoid visits to GPs and hospitals. Close integration with developing local healthcare networks and with GPs will be essential, as will campaigns that promote the use of pharmacy. Other healthcare providers in integrated networks should also be able to direct patients to pharmacy services, as well.
To achieve this change programme, we would like to agree a multi-year settlement, setting out what pharmacies need to deliver in each year in return for the funding they will receive. At the heart of this must be a Government vision setting out what it wants from pharmacies – this would enable the sector to plan. PSNC will look to work with Government and NHS England on setting out this vision.
Community pharmacy and the NHS Long Term Plan
The NHS Long Term Plan states that the NHS wants to make better use of community pharmacists’ skills and we believe there are a number of ways in which we could do this to help ease pressure on GP practices and other urgent care providers such as A&E.
Community Pharmacy: The Long Term Future of the NHS
This briefing, which was published ahead of the Long Term Plan, broadly outlines where PSNC would like to see community pharmacy help, including through the wider commissioning of a community pharmacy minor ailments service and doing more to help people prevent ill health. Both of these would help to reduce pressure on GPs and other services.
The Community Pharmacy Forward View
As part of PSNC’s work to develop community pharmacy, we worked with Pharmacy Voice, with the support of the RPS English Pharmacy Board, to create a joint vision document.
The Community Pharmacy Forward View sets out the sector’s ambitions to radically enhance and expand the personalised care, support and wellbeing services that community pharmacies provide. Although it was published in 2016, much of the ambition in the Forward View remains relevant. In the scenarios outlined in the document, pharmacy teams would be fully integrated with other local health and care services in order to improve quality and access for patients, increase NHS efficiency and produce better health outcomes for all.
The Community Pharmacy Forward View sets out the organisations’ shared ambition for the sector, focused on three key roles for the community pharmacy of the future:
- As the facilitator of personalised care for people with long-term conditions
- As the trusted, convenient first port of call for episodic healthcare advice and treatment
- As the neighbourhood health and wellbeing hub
Find out more about the Forward View and download relevant resources.
Further details of PSNC’s previous work to enhance the community pharmacy service can be found on the following pages:
The Community Pharmacy Care Proposals (2018)
Service development proposals (2016)
Pharmacy 5 Point Forward Plan (2015/16)
PSNC’s work in 2014: a video introduction
PSNC seminar 2013: implementing the Vision
PSNC’s vision and its development (2012)
