Review of RPS Fellowship process

RPS Fellowship is an honour and mark of achievement recognising a significant contribution to pharmacy. Through our inclusion and diversity strategy we are examining our processes to ensure they are fair and equitable.

As part of this, we are reviewing the RPS Fellowship nomination and appointment process, to ensure that any barriers to eligibility are removed. To check there is consistency in assessing how members have made an exceptional contribution to pharmacy we are taking the following action:

• We’ve invited Fellows to submit their equality, diversity and inclusion data through our survey and will review how we collect it in the future
• Remove the naming of the nominee and those nominating them from each application at the next Fellows Panel meeting
• Produce a more structured nomination form and consider its accessibility
• Provide all existing and new Fellow Panel members with unconscious bias training
• Develop a Fellows Panel which is increasingly representative of the diversity of our members
• Have clear guidance on what achievements should be considered.

RPS Chief Executive Paul Bennett said: “We are fully committed to embedding inclusion and diversity across RPS and reviewing our processes is part of this. I know what an honour it is to receive this accolade and we want to ensure the exceptional talents of all pharmacists are recognised in a consistent way.”

Chair of the RPS Fellows Panel Dr Gill Hawksworth said: “I welcome this review. We want to ensure fairness and equality are at the heart of our assessment process so that excellence can be celebrated regardless of individual backgrounds.”

Nominate a colleague for Fellowship