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We welcome opportunity to submit evidence to Independent Commission into Pharmacy Professional Leadership

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) welcomes the scrutiny of pharmacy professional leadership and the opportunity presented by the Independent Commission following a very positive and productive first meeting. We will respond to the call for evidence issued by the Commission today and will engage across the organisation with our Boards and Assembly to shape our submission.

RPS agrees that professional leadership needs to evolve in step with developments in patient needs and service provision. Future professional leadership needs to be independent, proactive, challenging, forward-looking and always with patient benefit as the first consideration.

We already play an essential role in delivering professional leadership for pharmacy through our advocacy, policy, standards and education work. Further examples include our creation of ten-year visions for pharmacy practice in the three nations, our ongoing update of the professional standards for hospital pharmacy, and our project with charity Marie Curie to create new professional standards in end-of-life care for community pharmacy.

We recognise we need to strengthen our engagement with members and improve the transparency and accountability of our decision-making and we commissioned an independent review into this in April, which will report in October. We are committed to making changes based on its recommendations.

We are open to change and evolution. The Assembly recently confirmed it will review RPS governance, following the conclusion of the Independent Commission, to ensure it remains fit for purpose to meet the future vision of professional leadership. The Assembly is also open to reviewing our Royal Charter for the benefit of pharmacy professional leadership and we will involve members in this from the outset.

We also want to work closely with APTUK and other professional membership bodies across the pharmacy sectors to strengthen pharmacy professional leadership. 

Professional education leadership is essential as pharmacy education undergoes a revolution at all levels. We are already leading the profession through our post-registration curricula, advanced practice work and consultant pharmacist credentialling.

To truly deliver a future vision, pharmacy needs a post-registration model akin to medicine, whereby RPS is awarded delegated authority by the regulator to formally define and assure post-registration standards. This needs to be complemented with the implementation of RPS curricula by employers into career development pathways. The Commission is ideally placed to realise this.

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