RPS Annual Review 2022
A message from RPS President Professor Claire Anderson and CEO Paul Bennett
Welcome to our look back at 2022 with the RPS, and a timely reminder of all the hard work undertaken by everyone at the RPS throughout the year.
2022 hasn’t always been an easy year for many of us, and I’d like to extend my personal thanks to all of our members across the profession, across Great Britain, and around the world, for all of your incredible work and commitment throughout. We promise that, more than ever, the RPS will be there for you throughout 2023.
I was lucky enough to visit many areas of the UK during 2022, and see first-hand many of the remarkable contributions our members are making to healthcare. With luck, I’ll see more of you in 2023!
Some of you in London may have spotted me in October, cycling ten miles for Ride for your Lives around the Royal Colleges and Societies for the UK Alliance on Health and Climate Change. And 2022 was, of course, the year we launched our Declaration of Climate and Ecological Emergency, to play our part in combatting climate change.
One highlight of 2022 was being invited to the reception that then-Prince Charles held for community pharmacy at St James Palace. After being introduced, we discussed how pharmacist prescribing will transform pharmacy, and the role of the RPS in this change. With the sad passing of our patron, HM The Queen, I hope our relationship with the new King will be just as constructive.
Thank you again for supporting RPS and our profession in 2022.
Professor Claire Anderson
RPS President

Thank you for taking the time to read this year's Annual Review. It's an opportunity for us to report on all that the RPS has been doing on your behalf as our members in the advancement of the profession and pursuit of our Vision: to become the world leader in the safe and effective use of medicines, and our Mission: to put pharmacy at the forefront of healthcare.
We strive every day to do what is right for our members, for the profession, and for the public wherever medicines are concerned, and could not achieve this without your engagement and support. I would like to pay tribute to all of those who work with us on our expert advisory groups, our governance members and individuals who share their expertise in our advocacy work and the production of our professional guidance and support materials. All of these ensure we remain relevant to you, to the profession, and stay focussed on what you tell us is important to you.
In 2022, our self-commissioned independent review on member engagement and communications showed that we don’t always get everything right first time, but we are committed to improvement. We have never shied away from doing what we believe is right for the profession, even if that doesn’t always meet with universal approval, but if we misstep, we’ll admit it, and work to put things right.
A Commission into future pharmacy professional leadership was instigated by the four UK Chief Pharmaceutical Officers during 2022. We took that opportunity to share our vision for the future with a comprehensive response to a call for evidence. That helped to illustrate the strength of current leadership through collaborative member and staff efforts, while recognising that more can be achieved.
Despite such challenges, this Annual Review of 2022 illustrates how we focused on what was important throughout the year. We developed compelling visions for professional practice across all three nations, collaborating with a variety of professional bodies. We continued to advance our role in education and professional development, working closely with NHS education commissioners across Great Britain, celebrating our scientific routes, and supporting member participation in research by building awareness and capability.
Across the regions, our recent Ambassador appointments will help strengthen connections with members. Our events were reinvigorated, too, with many new webinars, and our Annual Conference in November, which sold out and was extremely busy.
Of course, while there was so much to celebrate in 2022 it was sadly also the year that we lost our patron, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who only one year earlier had written to congratulate all RPS members on the occasion of our 180th anniversary. She is much missed by us all.
Paul Bennett
RPS Chief Executive