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The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is putting together a workforce forum to look at the workforce challenges and bringing together stakeholders from pharmacy education and pharmacy service provision to set a strategic workforce plan for the profession.

The Scottish Government will also continue to work with our key partners to ensure that the balance is maintained across the whole pharmacy workforce in the hospital, community, and GP practice sectors.

The Scottish Government workforce integrated plans commits to increasing the pharmacy pre-registration training places by 120 over the next 4 years and we are currently increasing training places available for pharmacy technician training, which will bring more staff in to the profession.

The Scottish Government would expect all employers to ensure that all staff have the necessary rest breaks and support; and this was re-emphasised by the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer in her joint letter with the leaders from the pharmacy sector, including the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, to the service on 8 December outlining the importance of wellbeing to all pharmacy staff and detailing support available.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown to us all the value which the pharmacy profession bring to the NHS in Scotland be that hospital, community pharmacy or general practice settings. In particular the pharmacy network has been pivotal in the NHS response to the current pandemic in ensuring people across the country have continued access to their medicines and professional healthcare advice. We take the wellbeing of pharmacy teams very seriously and that is why we have made £12m available to support the wellbeing of the pharmacist workforce. That includes £8m from the NHS Recovery Plan to provide ongoing wellbeing support for the workforce – alongside an extra £4m to provide further support to address winter pressures.

The funding supports the 24/7 National Wellbeing Helpline, our National Wellbeing Hub, Coaching for Wellbeing and the Workforce Specialist Service, alongside tailored psychological interventions for staff, providing individualised wellbeing support focusing on people’s physical and emotional needs.

Wider workforce issues and challenges will be discussed at the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s Workforce Forum, which will bring together stakeholders from pharmacy education and pharmacy service provision to set a strategic workforce plan for the profession.

Regulation of the pharmacy profession is applied on a UK basis. However, people arriving in Scotland with pharmacy qualifications from other countries are able to contact NES Pharmacy to explore additional training needs to enable them to practice in Scotland. NES would be able to assist with training gaps, or help to put forward a case to the GPhC.

The Schools of Pharmacy in Scotland have no plans to reintroduce the OSPAP scheme for overseas students.

There are approximately 240 students each year who graduate from the two Schools of Pharmacy in Scotland. There has been an increase in the overall numbers of students studying pharmacy with more Scottish domiciled students undertaking the course. The two Schools of Pharmacy in Scotland are encouraging applicants from parts of Scotland where there are gaps in the pharmacy workforce and working with schools to promote pharmacy as a career.

Since 2018, the number of NHS pre-registration pharmacists places funded nationally has increased from 170 in 2018 up to 231 in 2020-21. In 2021-22, funding of £6,096,489 was provided to NHS Education in Scotland (NES) for the Pre-registration Pharmacy Scheme, for 231 places. By 2024-25 this will have increased by a further 89 places to bring the total to an additional 120 pharmacist trainees over 5 years staying in Scotland to complete their pre-registration training.

In order to meet future workforce demands, a five year integrated initial education programme for pharmacists in Scotland has been developed. The first students to graduate from the new programme will qualify in 2027 with co-terminus graduation and registration. This will better prepare newly qualified pharmacists for practice, strengthen the clinical workforce, particularly in primary care, and manage trainee numbers to meet workforce requirements.

The Scottish Government is committed to having a pharmacist independent prescriber in every community pharmacy. As of December 2020 there were a total of 1585 pharmacists qualified prescribers or currently undertaking an independent prescribing qualification. As demand for pharmacy technicians grow and a skill mix is increasingly required in different pharmacy settings, increasing the pipeline of pharmacy technicians has become a priority. We are currently working with key stakeholders to develop a national pharmacy technician apprenticeship scheme.

As part of the overall 2021-22 community pharmacy financial package, a total of £2.751m provides each community pharmacy contractor with a monthly contribution of £180 towards staff training beyond pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in developing a joint programme to encourage more students, and not just school leavers, to consider careers in pharmacy, including ensuring the output reaches deprived and remote and rural communities.

In addition, both Schools of Pharmacy work towards the widening access targets set by the Commission on Widening Access for universities to drive forward the delivery of equal access in Scotland.

There are also wider initiatives such as The Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP). The partnership develops access programmes for adults returning to education, and targets adults who reside in the most disadvantaged areas of Scotland and particularly those who have no, few or out of date qualifications. This can help support people with few suitable qualifications to progress to degree level Pharmacy studies.

We welcomed the launch of the Circuit, which aims to improve access to defibrillators across the UK. We would urge all defibrillator guardians to register their defibrillator so that the Scottish Ambulance Service call handlers can direct people to them in incidents of cardiac arrest. Registration of defibrillators in Scotland will build the evidence to support people and organisations in making informed decisions about where to place their life saving device.

Since 2015 the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) partnership has equipped over 640,000 people in Scotland with the skills to perform CPR. The refreshed strategy seeks to increase this to 1 million people by 2026. This will be achieved through continued partnership working to raise awareness, and the delivery of CPR training across Scotland.

The refreshed Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Strategy 2021 to 2026, published in March recognises the importance of defibrillation registration. We are key partners within the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership (SALFS).

We would urge all defibrillator guardians to register their defibrillator so that the Scottish Ambulance Service call handlers can direct people to them in incidents of cardiac arrest. Registration of defibrillators in Scotland will build the evidence to support people and organisations in making informed decisions about where to place their life saving device.

All patient conveying vehicles including paramedic response units carry defibrillators and staff are trained to use them. Community First responder vehicles also carry defibrillators, and the Scottish Ambulance Service has access to a system which is used to direct members of public to the closest registered defibrillator.

An aim of the refreshed Out-of-Hospital Strategy 2021 to 2026 is to ensure that 20% of all OHCAs will have a defibrillator applied before the arrival of ambulance service. We want to improve bystander confidence in the use of these devices and the Strategy includes an aim for the Save a Life for Scotland partnership to increase familiarisation with defibrillator usage across Scotland, through embedding defibrillator usage in awareness raising campaigns and CPR training.