CPCF services and Terms of Service – Important dates

Announcement that Community Pharmacy England had reached agreement with Government and the NHS on the launch of a new national Pharmacy First service as well as other changes to pharmacy funding and services.

Action: Read the joint letter and associated Community Pharmacy England resources to understand what changes are being made.

Hypertension Case-Finding Service: Updated service specification was published; changes to the service came into force on 1st December 2023.

Action: If providing the service or if you want to participate in this service, read the updated service specification and updated Community Pharmacy England resources to understand what changes are being made and what actions you need to take.

PCS: Updated service specification and Patient Group Directions (PGDs) were published; changes to the service came into force on 1st December 2023.

Action: If providing the service or if you want to participate in this service, read the updated service specification, PGDs and updated Community Pharmacy England resources to understand what changes are being made and what actions you need to take.

Pharmacy First: Service specification and clinical pathways were published.

Action: Read the service specification, clinical pathways and information on our Pharmacy First webpage to help you decide if you want to participate in this service.

LFD service: Pharmacy owners who have signed-up to provide the LFD service, were reminded of the need to update NHS Profile Manager to indicate that they are providing the service.

Action: If offering the service, and not already done so, add the LFD service to your pharmacy profile on the NHS website using NHS Profile Manager.

Pharmacy First: A recorded version of the Community Pharmacy England Pharmacy First and the Recovery Plan agreement webinar was published.

Action: If you missed the live webinar, watch the recorded version of the webinar to hear a summary of the agreement, including how the deal was reached and its importance for the future of the sector.

PCS: Deadline to sign-up for the Tier 1 (ongoing supply and management of oral contraception) service.

Pharmacy owners who did not sign up to provide the service by this date, will need to provide the full, expanded service (i.e. initiation and repeat supplies) from the time they decide to register for the service.

Hypertension Case-Finding Service: Suitably trained and competent pharmacy staff (pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and other non-registered members of the pharmacy team) can now provide the service. Previously it could only be provided by a pharmacist or pharmacy technician.

Action: When time allows, pharmacy owners who are currently providing the service or any planning to provide the service, will need to consider the role of different staff within the provision of the service, including how the pharmacist will be involved and how they will provide clinical supervision of the service.

NMS: NHS approved IT systems for recording NMS consultations and sharing data with NHSBSA are now live.

Action: No action is currently required; pharmacy owners can choose to use one of these systems or continue with their current system.

PCS: ‘Opt-in’ or ‘opt-out’ declaration window opened on the NHSBSA Manage Your Service (MYS) portal.

All pharmacy owners registered to provide PCS before 1st December 2023

Action: Between 1st December 2023 and 11:59pm on 29th February 2024, pharmacy owners who:

• Are ready to provide initiation as part of the expanded PCS need to ‘opt-in’ by completing their MYS declaration to declare that they agree to the terms and scope of the expanded service;
• Require more time to get ready for the expanded service can continue to solely provide ongoing oral contraception up until 29th February 2024; or
• No longer want to provide PCS or do not want to provide the expanded PCS need to ‘opt-out’ by completing their MYS declaration to confirm they want to de-register from the service.

Pharmacy owners ‘opting out’ of the service must provide 30 days’ notice and continue to provide the service for that period or up to 29th February 2024 if less than 30 days’ notice is given.

Pharmacy First: Draft PGDs and protocol were published.

Action: Read the PGDs and protocol and information on our Pharmacy First webpage to help you decide if you want to participate in this service.

Pharmacy First: MYS portal opened to allow pharmacy owners to declare that they agree to the terms and scope of the three elements of the Pharmacy First service and therefore claim the initial fixed payment of £2,000.

Action: Pharmacy owners who have decided that they want to offer the service should declare that they agree to the terms and scope of the three elements of the Pharmacy First service (NHS Referrals for Minor Illness, Urgent Medicine Supply and the Clinical Pathway Consultations) on the NHSBSA MYS portal.

The deadline for making this declaration is 11.59pm on 30th January 2024; however pharmacy owners who register by 11.59pm on 31st December 2023 will receive the payment on 1st February 2024 (those who register after this date but by 11.59pm on 30th January 2024, will receive the payment on 1st March 2024 instead).

PCS: Community Pharmacy England webinar was held which aimed to help pharmacy teams who are already providing the service to expand their offering to include initiating contraception.

Action: If you are providing the PCS watch the recorded webinar if you did not join the live webinar.

PCS: A new service finder, on the NHS website, was made available which lets members of the public and healthcare professionals search for a pharmacy that offers the contraceptive pill without a prescription as part of the PCS.

Action: If you are providing PCS, and have not already done so, add the PCS to your pharmacy profile on the NHS website using NHS Profile Manager.

Pharmacy First: A pharmacy owner checklist and a pharmacist checklist, as well as an initial briefing for pharmacy teams were published on the Community Pharmacy England website to assist pharmacy owners and their teams to start to prepare for the service.

Action: If you are intending to provide the service, view the new resources and share these with members of your team so you can all start to prepare for the service.

LFD service: Announcement that the NHSBSA Provider Assurance Team will soon start to undertake provider assurance work with pharmacy owners providing the LFD service.

Action: If you are providing the LFD service, read the news story so you are aware of the process that the NHSBSA will follow.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England webinar which intends to provide the initial launch information for the Pharmacy First service, outlining the core details and how the service will work.

Action: If you are planning on providing the Pharmacy First service watch the recorded webinar if you did not join the live webinar.

COVID-19 vacs: Last day for national booking service (NBS) booked appointments for COVID-19 and NHS flu vaccinations.

Action: Pharmacy owners should not post NBS clinics after this date as it will be closed to bookings on 15th December 2023. The system will remain open for cancellations only on this day.

ToS: Deadline to complete the full CPAF questionnaire if requested to do so (pharmacies may have been selected for the full CPAF questionnaire if, for example, they did not complete the screening questions or if there were concerns about the pharmacy relating to patient safety).

Action: If you have been requested to complete the full CPAF questionnaire and have not done so, do this by the end of the day.

ToS: Deadline to complete the 2023 Workforce survey.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Action: If you have not completed the 2023 Workforce survey, complete this by the end of the day.

Pharmacy First: Reminder published about the NHS England funded clinical examination training plus otoscope training webinar for community pharmacists.

Action: Read about the clinical examination training to see if this is suitable for you or any of your team and book to attend the otoscope webinar.

Pharmacy First: Final PGDs and protocol were published.

Action: Read the PGDs and protocol and information on our Pharmacy First webpage to help you decide if you want to participate in this service.

ToS: Deadline for verifying and, where necessary, updating the information contained in a pharmacy’s NHS website profile and their DoS profile for the 1st October to 31st December 2023 quarter of the financial year.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Action: If you have not updated your NHS website profile and your DoS profile using NHS Profile Manager, complete this by the end of the day.

Pharmacy First: Deadline for pharmacy owners to declare that they agree to the terms and scope of the three elements of the Pharmacy First service and therefore claim the £2,000 initial fixed payment, if they want to receive the payment on 1st February 2024.

Action: If you are intending to provide the service, and want to receive the payment on 1st February 2024, complete the declaration by the end of the day.

ToS: Pharmacy owners are required to verify and, where necessary, update the information contained in their NHS website profile and their DoS profile at least once each quarter of the financial year. The new quarter starts on 1st January and ends on 31st March 2024.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Actions:

• Register for NHS Profile Manager with your personal NHSmail address if you haven’t already; and
• Once registered, update your NHS Profile Manager pharmacy profile; for each profile check that the pharmacy’s opening times, contact information and services information are up to date or verify this information if it is correct (even if no changes have been made during the financial quarter, pharmacy owners must still verify this information using NHS Profile Manager as this creates a record which will act as evidence to NHS England that these actions have been undertaken).

Hypertension Case-Finding Service: Community Pharmacy England webinar aimed at helping pharmacy teams who are already providing the service to review the way they provide it, including making greater use of the whole pharmacy team within its provision.

Action: If you are providing the service watch the recorded webinar if you did not join the live webinar.

PCS: Community Pharmacy England webinar aimed at helping pharmacy teams who have not yet started to provide the service to get ready to offer it to their patients.

Action: If you are not currently providing this service but are interested in doing so, watch the recorded webinar if you did not join the live webinar.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England webinar which will focus on how to get ready to launch the service, building on the content of the December webinar and providing further practical information.

Bookings are now full

Action: If you are intending to provide the service watch the recorded webinar if you did not join the live webinar.

Pharmacy First: NHS England funded webinar by Cliniskills on otoscope training.

Action: If you are intending to provide the Pharmacy First service, and require training on using an otoscope, book to attend the webinar.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England resources are published to promote the service.

Action: Review the resources and decide if you will use these to promote the service when it goes live on 31st January 2023.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England drop-in sessions announced and additional resources published.

Action: Consider joining an online drop-in session if you have a query on the service and review the additional resources published to see if you want to use these to support you to deliver the service.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England online drop-in session to assist pharmacy owners and their teams with any queries they may have on the service.

Action: If you have a query on the Pharmacy First service, consider joining the session. Alternatively, if you are not able to join the drop-in session, queries can also be emailed to the Services Team: services.team@cpe.org.uk.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England online drop-in session to assist pharmacy owners and their teams with any queries they may have on the service.

Action: If you have a query on the Pharmacy First service, consider joining the session. Alternatively, if you are not able to join the drop-in session, queries can also be emailed to the Services Team: services.team@cpe.org.uk.

Pharmacy First: Deadline for pharmacy owners to declare that they agree to the terms and scope of the three elements of the Pharmacy First service and therefore claim the £2,000 initial fixed payment; this will be paid on 1st March 2024.

Pharmacy owners can still declare that they agree to the terms and scope of the three elements of the Pharmacy First Service after this date, but they will not be entitled to the £2,000 initial fixed payment.

Action: If you are intending to provide the service, and have not yet completed the declaration, complete this by the end of the day.

Pharmacy First: Pharmacy owners who declared that they agree to the terms and scope of the three elements of the Pharmacy First service by 11.59pm on 31st December 2023 will be paid their £2,000 initial fixed payment.

Action: If you met the above deadline, check your Schedule of Payments to ensure you have received this payment.

COVID-19: NHS England contacted pharmacies currently providing the autumn/winter 2023/24 COVID-19 vaccination service to ask whether they would be willing to extend the duration of their current contract to provide the service until 31st August 2024.

Action: If you are currently providing the autumn/winter 2023/24 COVID-19 vaccination service, review the updated service specification to decide if you are willing to extend the duration of your current contract. Let your local commissioner know by 22nd February 2024, if you are able to continue to provide the service from 31st March 2024 to 31st August 2024.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England online drop-in session to assist pharmacy owners and their teams with any queries they may have on the service.

Action: If you have a query on the Pharmacy First service, consider joining the session. Alternatively, if you are not able to join the drop-in session, queries can also be emailed to the Services Team: services.team@cpe.org.uk.

COVID-19: The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) published advice on a spring 2024 COVID-19 vaccination programme which the Government accepted.

Action: If you are currently providing the autumn/winter 2023/24 COVID-19 vaccination service and have contacted your local commissioner about extending your contract (as detailed above), read the JCVI advice so you are aware which patient groups will be eligible for the spring 2024 COVID-19 vaccination programme.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England published new FAQs and a resource on the service.

Action: Review the FAQs and new resource.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England online drop-in session to assist pharmacy owners and their teams with any queries they may have on the service.

Action: If you have a query on the Pharmacy First service, consider joining the session. Alternatively, if you are not able to join the drop-in session, queries can also be emailed to the Services Team: services.team@cpe.org.uk.

ToS: Community Pharmacy England published new guidance to help pharmacy owners complete the latest Data Security and Protection Toolkit.

Action: Review the new guidance and plan when you are going to complete the toolkit and make the pharmacy’s information governance declaration (this must be completed by 30th June 2024).

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England published an update on Pharmacy First and new FAQs.

Action: Read the update and FAQs.

Pharmacy First: Following the launch of NHS England’s ‘Think Pharmacy first’ campaign, NHS England campaign materials were published for pharmacy teams to use.

Action: Review the campaign materials to see if you want to use them in your pharmacy.

ToS: A news story was published to remind pharmacy owners of the need to update NHS Profile Manager to ensure that their pharmacy’s NHS website and Directory of Services (DoS) profile information is up to date. The news story also reminded pharmacy owners that is they are providing new services then they should update NHS Profile Manager to show that they are providing the service, as well as a reminder about Easter approaching and needing to ensure their opening hours are displayed correctly for this time period.

Action: Review NHS Profile Manager to ensure your pharmacy information is correct and update/validate your information.

COVID-19: Deadline for pharmacy owners currently providing the COVID-19 vaccination service to let their local commissioner know if they are able to continue to provide the service from 31st March 2024 to 31st August 2024 and are content for their contracts to be extended.

Action: If you are currently providing the COVID-19 vaccination service and have not let your local commissioner know that you are able to continue to provide the service from 31st March 2024 to 31st August 2024 and are content for your contract to be extended, do so by the end of the day.

Hypertension Case-Finding Service: Pharmacy teams can now order a Hypertension Case-Finding Service campaign pack to promote and support the DHSC campaign on encouraging those aged 40 years and over, to get a free blood pressure check at their nearest participating pharmacy.

Action: If you provide the Hypertension Case-Finding Service consider ordering a campaign pack; these will be available while stocks last.

Pharmacy First: News story published to highlight the claiming process for Pharmacy First; the requirements and deadline around the £2,000 initial fixed payment and the increase in the number of Clinical pathway consultations that pass the Gateway point that are required to be delivered in March 2024 to qualify for the £1,000 monthly payment.

Action: Read the news story to ensure you understand the claiming process, requirements around the £2,000 initial fixed payment and the number of Clinical pathway consultations that pass the Gateway point that are required to be delivered in March 2024.

PCS: Deadline for pharmacies providing the Tier 1 (ongoing management of oral contraception) to declare that they agree to the terms and scope of the expanded service via the NHSBSA MYS portal.

Any pharmacies providing the Tier 1 service who do not opt-in by 11.59pm on this date will be automatically deregistered from the service (and they will be informed of this by the NHSBSA) on 1st March 2024.

Action: If you are planning to continue to offer PCS and agree to the terms and scope of the expanded service, complete your declaration by the end of the day.

1st March 2024

COVID-19: NHS England announced that they had opened a limited expression of interest (EOI) process for pharmacy owners that want to take part in this Spring’s COVID-19 vaccination service and are able to assist with provision of additional capacity in specific postcode areas.

Action: If you are located in one of the specific postcode areas and want to take part in this Spring’s COVID-19 vaccination service, submit your EOI by 11.59pm on .

Pharmacy First: Pharmacy owners who declared that they agree to the terms and scope of the three elements of the Pharmacy First service by 11.59pm on 30th January 2024 will be paid their £2,000 initial fixed payment.

Action: If you met the above deadline, check your Schedule of Payments to ensure you have received this payment.

Pharmacy First: The activity threshold of clinical pathway consultations increases to a minimum of 5 clinical pathways per month. This means pharmacy owners have to provide a minimum of 5 consultations that pass the gateway point (as detailed in the clinical pathways) in March 2024 to be eligible for the £1,000 monthly payment. This target also applies to April 2024.

Action: Ensure pharmacy team members are aware of the increase in activity threshold and discuss actions that can support the team to reach the increased target.

ToS: Community Pharmacy England webinar announced to help community pharmacy owners complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit for 2023/24. The webinar will be held at 7pm on Wednesday 20th March 2024.

Action: Register for the webinar.

COVID-19: Deadline for pharmacy owners that wish to take part in this Spring’s COVID-19 vaccination service and are able to assist with provision of additional capacity in specific postcode areas to submit their expression of interest.

Action: If you have not submitted your expression of interest but are located in one of the specific postcode areas and want to take part in this Spring’s COVID-19 vaccination service, submit this by the end of the day.

Flu: Annual flu letter published.

Action:  Read the letter and consider the changes to the timing of the service and the reinforced advice regarding the use of second line vaccines as part of forward planning and vaccine procurement.

LFD service: Announcement that additional patient groups will be eligible to access the service from 1st April 2024.

Action: If you are providing the service, read the updated service specification, update your standard operating procedure, if applicable and brief the pharmacy team on the changes.

Pharmacy First: NHSBSA emailed pharmacy owners to say that the Pharmacy First IT system suppliers had resolved issues with the data they supplied to the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal for the February 2024 NHS Pharmacy First activity.

NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care also further extended the submission deadline for February 2024 Pharmacy First claims; pharmacy owners have until 11.59pm on Monday 25th March 2024 to submit their declaration.

Action: Read the news story so you are aware of the appropriate action to take.

Flu: 2024/25 flu service specification published.

Action: Read the service specification.

ToS: Community Pharmacy England webinar to help pharmacy owners complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit for 2023/24.

Action: Watch the recorded webinar if you did not join the live webinar.

Pharmacy First: Deadline to submit February claims.

Action: Read the news story so you are aware of the appropriate action to take.

Flu: 2023/24 Flu Vaccination Service ends.

Action: At the end of the day remove any promotional materials for the Flu Vaccination Service (including any on your website) and ensure all staff are aware that the service has now finished for 2023/24.

• Actively working in collaboration with other organisations to deliver pharmacy outreach and any locally commissioned services; and
• Taking prevention and health promotion services beyond the pharmacy premises. Pharmacy outreach may be face to face and take services to people where they live or spend time or may be virtual events.

ToS: Deadline for verifying and, where necessary, updating the information contained in a pharmacy’s NHS website profile and their DoS profile for the 1st January to 31st March 2024 quarter of the financial year.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Action: If you have not updated your NHS website profile and your DoS profile using NHS Profile Manager, complete this by the end of the day.

Pharmacy First: Deadline for pharmacy owners to have delivered a minimum of five Pharmacy First – clinical pathway consultations that cross the Gateway point.

If pharmacy owners have not delivered a minimum of five of these consultations by this date, they will have their £2,000 initial fixed payment recovered.

LFD service: Additional patient groups are eligible to access the service from today.

Action: If you are providing the service and not already done so, read the updated service specification, update your standard operating procedure, if applicable and brief the pharmacy team on the changes.

ToS: Pharmacy owners are required to verify and, where necessary, update the information contained in their NHS website profile and their DoS profile at least once each quarter of the financial year. The new quarter starts on 1st April and ends on 30th June 2024.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Actions:

• Register for NHS Profile Manager with your personal NHSmail address if you haven’t already.
• Once registered, update your NHS Profile Manager pharmacy profile; for each profile check that the pharmacy’s opening times, contact information and services information are up to date or verify this information if it is correct (even if no changes have been made during the financial quarter, pharmacy owners must still verify this information using NHS Profile Manager as this creates a record which will act as evidence to NHS England that these actions have been undertaken).

ToS: Pharmacy owners must send a copy of their annual complaints report to the local NHS contract management team as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of the year to which the report relates.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners. 

Action: Send the annual complaints report to the local NHS contract management team.

COVID-19: Pharmacies that have extended their contracts to provide the COVID-19 Spring 2024 booster campaign until 31st August 2024 should get access to the National Booking System today.

Action: Pharmacy teams must load appointments so that invitations can start, allowing patients to book appointments from Monday 15th April 2024.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England resources published explaining how GP practices can refer into the Pharmacy First service. The resources include a video animation and infographic.

Action: Watch the video animation and share this, and the infographic, with your local GP practices, LMCs, PCNs and ICSs to improve understanding and engagement with the GP referral pathways into the Pharmacy First service in your area.

Hypertension Case Finding Service, PCS and Pharmacy First: News story published to provide an update on GP Connect: Update Record, a new feature that CPCF IT system suppliers are adding to their systems.

Action: Read the news story on GP Connect: Update Record to ensure you understand what functionality this will provide to your CPCF IT system.

Hypertension Case-Finding Service: Maximising the use of my team reminder news story published.

Action: Read the news story and consider if any additional staff working at the pharmacy could be trained up to provide the service; a pharmacy staff training checklist is now available to support with this.

Pharmacy First: News story published on recognising tick bites and the symptoms of Lyme disease, as well as highlighting Lyme disease UK’s Wake Up To Lyme annual campaign which will run during the month of May 2024.

Action: Read the news story and consider if you want to support the campaign or undertake the e-learning highlighted in the news story.

Pharmacy First: The activity threshold of clinical pathway consultations increases to a minimum of 10 clinical pathways per month. This means pharmacy owners have to provide a minimum of 10 consultations that pass the gateway point (as detailed in the clinical pathways) in May 2024 to be eligible for the £1,000 monthly payment. This target also applies to June 2024 and July 2024.

Action: Ensure pharmacy team members are aware of the increase in activity threshold and discuss actions that can support the team to reach the increased target.

Pharmacy First: New resource published to help pharmacy owners and their teams know when they can make claim for payment for the service.

Action: Read the resource to ensure you are aware of all the scenarios when you can claim a consultation fee for the Pharmacy First service.

Pharmacy First: New resource published which incorporates all the Community Pharmacy England and NHS England resources to support pharmacy owners and their teams to promote the Pharmacy First service.

Action: Work through the checklist to see if there are any additional activities that you or your team could participate in to promote the service to the public.

Hypertension Case-Finding Service: New resource published to support pharmacy owners and their teams to promote the Hypertension Case-Finding Service.

Action: Work through the checklist to see if there are any additional activities that you or your team could participate in to promote the service to the public.

Pharmacy First: New resources published to support pharmacy owners, their teams and LPCs to keep engaging with local general practice colleagues on the Pharmacy First service.

Action: Work through the checklist to see if there are any additional activities that you or your team could participate in to promote the service to your GP practices.

Hypertension Case-Finding Service: News story published on how to engage with general practice teams on the Hypertension Case-Finding Service.

Action: Read through the news story to see if there are any additional activities that you or your team could participate in to engage with your general practice teams on the service.

Pharmacy First: News story published highlighting the claiming and payment schedule for Pharmacy First.

Action: Read the news story so you aware of the claiming deadlines and when you will receive payment.

If not already done so, claim for your February 2024 (including 31st January 2024) consultations by 5th June 2024 as this is the final deadline to claim for these consultations.

COVID-19: NHS England announced a new expression of interest (EOI) process for pharmacy owners that wish to take part in future COVID-19 vaccination service campaigns between September 2024 and March 2026.

Action: Read the news story and associated documents to decide whether you want to submit an EOI for the COVID-19 vaccination service.

Hypertension Case-Finding Service, Pharmacy First and PCS: Reminder news story published about Update Record rollout.

Action: Read the news story so you understand what will happen when Update Record is added to the CPCF IT system that you use.

Hypertension Case-Finding Service: News story published which focusses on ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM).

Action: Read through the news story to ensure you are aware why it is important to have an ABPM device.

LFD service: News story published highlighting that the service specification has had some minor amendments made to it following discussions between Community Pharmacy England and NHS England.

Action: Review the service specification to ensure you understand the eligibility criteria for the service.

LFD service: News story published highlighting that a new service finder has been launched on the NHS website that lets members of the public and healthcare professionals search for a pharmacy that offers the LFD service.

Action: If you are providing the service, ensure you have included the service in your NHS Profile Manager.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England animation published targeted at patients and the general public. The animation provides clear and concise information about the Pharmacy First service, highlighting the seven conditions and the eligible age ranges within the clinical pathways consultations and explaining how patients can access these.

Action: Watch the video animation and  view the social media content. Consider posting about the animation on social media (if your pharmacy is on social media) or it can also be played on digital screens in the pharmacy if these are available. Similarly, GP practices could be encouraged to use the animation on digital screens in their practice waiting areas.

Flu: News story published highlighting that the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency have issued a statement of amendment to the Annual Flu letter.

This has been issued, following the news from Sanofi that recombinant quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIVr) will not be available for this year’s flu vaccination programme.

Action: Read the statement of amendment and consider whether you need to amend your flu vaccine order for the 2024/25 season.

Flu: News story published highlighting that NHS England has announced the start date of the Flu Vaccination Service as 3rd October 2024 (pregnant women can be vaccinated from 1st September 2024).

Action: Consider displaying the Community Pharmacy England poster which highlights the later start to the programme and the reason for this.

COVID-19: Reminder news story published about the interim response deadline for expressions of interest (EOI) for the Autumn/Winter 2024 COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

Action: If you want to submit an EOI for the Autumn/Winter 2024 COVID-19 vaccination campaign, do so by 11.59pm on 27th June 2024.

Pharmacy First: News story published listing key learnings when pharmacy teams have inappropriately rejected Pharmacy First referrals from GP practices.

Action: Read the key learnings to ensure you understand the key learnings and ensure you are not rejecting referrals which could be accepted and claimed for.

Pharmacy First: News story published highlighting that CPPE has launched a Common clinical conditions e-learning programme.

Action: Read the news story so you can consider if completion of the course would be beneficial to support with provision of the Pharmacy First service.

Pharmacy First: NHS England announced that clinical IT system suppliers will commence the roll out of a new feature enabling Pharmacy First referrals from general practices using EMIS Web Local Services or PharmRefer to flow into the workflows in pharmacy clinical systems. Referrals will be received into the same IT system workflow as Pharmacy First referrals from NHS 111 telephony and 111 online.

Action: Pharmacy owners are encouraged to read the news story so they understand what this means but they do not need to take any action to enable this functionality, as it will be switched on by clinical system suppliers. Suppliers should advise their roll-out dates directly to their customers.

ToS: Reminder news story published about the approaching deadline for completion of the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPTK).

Action: If not already done so, complete the toolkit by 11.59pm on 30th June 2024.

ToS: Reminder news story published about the approaching deadline for pharmacy owners to have verified and, where necessary, have updated the information contained in their NHS website profile and their DoS profile for the 1st April to 30th June 2024 quarter of the financial year.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Action: If you have not updated your NHS website profile and your DoS profile using NHS Profile Manager, complete this by 11.59pm on 30th June 2024.

ToS: Reminder news story published about the approaching deadline for expressions of interest (EOI) for the Autumn/Winter 2024 COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

Action: If you want to submit an EOI for the Autumn/Winter 2024 COVID-19 vaccination campaign, do so by 11.59pm on 27th June 2024.

COVID-19: Interim response deadline for expressions of interest (EOI) for the Autumn/Winter 2024 COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

Action: If you want to submit an EOI for the Autumn/Winter 2024 COVID-19 vaccination campaign, do so by 11.59pm.

Hypertension Case-Finding Service and PCS: News story published highlighting that EMIS Pinnacle has started rolling out the GP Connect Update Record feature to all community pharmacy teams using PharmOutcomes.

Action: Read the news story to learn more about GP Connect Update record and if using PharmOutcomes, read the communications issued by EMIS PharmOutcomes on this matter.

ToS: Deadline to complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPTK).

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Action: If not completed, do so by the end of the day.

ToS: Deadline for meeting the requirement to ensure pharmacy owners have verified and, where necessary, updated the information contained in their NHS website profile and their DoS profile for the 1st April to 30th June 2024 quarter of the financial year.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Action: If you have not updated your NHS website profile and your DoS profile using NHS Profile Manager, complete this by the end of the day.

ToS: Pharmacy owners are required to complete the 2024/25 CPAF screening questionnaire.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Action:  Pharmacy owners who use the NHSBSA Manage Your Service (MYS) portal should complete the questionnaire on the portal during the required time period. Those who are not yet signed up to MYS will be able to complete the questionnaire online.

ToS: Pharmacy owners are required to verify and, where necessary, update the information contained in their NHS website profile and their DoS profile for the 1st July to 30th September 2024 quarter of the financial year.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Actions:

• Register for NHS Profile Manager with your personal NHSmail address if you haven’t already.
• Once registered, update your NHS Profile Manager pharmacy profile; for each profile check that the pharmacy’s opening times, contact information and services information are up to date or verify this information if it is correct (even if no changes have been made during the financial quarter, pharmacy owners must still verify this information using NHS Profile Manager as this creates a record which will act as evidence to NHS England that these actions have been undertaken).

COVID-19: News story published announcing a new expression of interest process for pharmacy owners that wish to take part in the COVID-19 Vaccination Service from a location away from their pharmacy and are able to assist with the provision of further fixed sites services and/or outreach vaccination services.

Action: If you are interested in taking part in the COVID-19 Vaccination Service from a location away from your pharmacy and are able to assist with the provision of further fixed sites services and/or outreach vaccination services, read the news story to understand how you can express an interest in this.

Services: News story published about making patient clinical records.

Action: Read the news story to see what training is available to assist with making patient clinical records.

ToS: NHS England published the updated Incident Reporting Approved Particulars, which broadly confirms existing expectations and practice for incident reporting.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Action: Read the updated Incident Reporting Approved Particulars to ensure your pharmacy meets the requirements and if not, take the required action to meet the Approved Particulars.

ToS: Deadline for pharmacy owners to complete the 2024/25 CPAF screening questionnaire.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Action: If you have not yet completed the CPAF , do so by the end of the day. Owners who use the NHSBSA Manage Your Service (MYS) portal should complete the questionnaire on the portal during the required time period. Those who are not yet signed up to MYS will be able to complete the questionnaire online.

Pharmacy First: The activity threshold of clinical pathway consultations increases to a minimum of 15 clinical pathways per month (an announcement was made on 30th July 2024 about this). This means pharmacy owners have to provide a minimum of 15 consultations that pass the gateway point (as detailed in the clinical pathways) in August 2024 to be eligible for the £1,000 monthly payment. 

Action: Ensure pharmacy team members are aware of the increase in activity threshold and discuss actions that can support the team to reach the increased target.

LFD service: News story published highlighting that pharmacy owners may want to consider approaching their local care homes to see if they would like to access free LFD test kits, ahead of the start of autumn, for those people eligible for the service. A template email/letter was also published to support pharmacy owners with this.

Action: Read the news story and consider contacting your local care homes.

LFD service: News story published about promoting the service to patients aged 85 years and over. Small flyers that pharmacy owners could attach to prescription bags for patients who are 85 years and over to act as a prompt to highlight the service to patients and check whether they have any LFD test kits at home were also published.

Action: Read the news story and consider using the flyers to promote the service to patients aged 95 years and over.

Pharmacy First: The first of a series of articles was published to tackle some of the misconceptions around Pharmacy First.

Action: Read the article to increase your understanding of the service.

Pharmacy First: The second of a series of articles was published to tackle some of the misconceptions around Pharmacy First.

Action: Read the article to increase your understanding of the service.

COVID-19: NHS England wrote to pharmacy owners to confirm the eligible cohorts for COVID-19 vaccinations and the timings for the autumn/winter programme.

Action: Read the news story to ensure you are aware of eligibility and the timing of the service.

Pharmacy First: The third of a series of articles was published to tackle some of the misconceptions around Pharmacy First.

Action: Read the article to increase your understanding of the service.

Flu: NHS England announced that they are offering use of the National Booking System (NBS) to all pharmacies that provide the Flu vaccination Advanced service.

Action: If you want to use NBS to book flu vaccinations (this is a voluntary option), complete the NBS flu form by 1st September 2024.

Pharmacy First: The fourth of a series of articles was published to tackle some of the misconceptions around Pharmacy First.

Action: Read the article to increase your understanding of the service.

Pharmacy First: Update published highlighting that as things stand the Pharmacy First threshold will be increasing to 20 clinical pathway consultations for the month of September.

Action: Read the news story to understand what Community Pharmacy England has done and is continuing to do about the increasing Pharmacy First thresholds.

Pharmacy First: The activity threshold of clinical pathway consultations increases to a minimum of 20 clinical pathways per month  This means pharmacy owners have to provide a minimum of 20 consultations that pass the gateway point (as detailed in the clinical pathways) in September 2024 to be eligible for the £1,000 monthly payment. 

Action: Ensure pharmacy team members are aware of the increase in activity threshold and discuss actions that can support the team to reach the increased target.

Flu: Reminder news story published about the start dates of the Flu Vaccination Service.

Action: Read the news story to ensure you are clear about the start dates for the service.

ToS: NHS England announced that notifications of unplanned suspensions of services (closures) can now be made via the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal.

The Terms of Service require NHS community pharmacy owners to have a business continuity plan for temporary suspensions due to illness or other reason beyond their control and to action the plan when necessary. One action of any plan is to notify the Integrated Care Board (ICB) of an unplanned temporary suspension, or a likely temporary suspension. The MYS portal provides a digital route for notifications.

Action: Read the news story and decide if you want to use this route for temporary suspension notifications (the MYS portal notification route is optional).

COVID-19 and Flu: The National Booking Service (NBS) opens for all participating sites to post COVID-19 and flu appointments.

Action: If you are using NBS, add your appointment slots to the system.

ToS: Deadline for meeting the requirement to ensure pharmacy owners have verified and, where necessary, updated the information contained in their NHS website profile and their DoS profile for the 1st July to 30th September 2024 quarter of the financial year.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Action: If you have not updated your NHS website profile and your DoS profile using NHS Profile Manager, complete this by the end of the day.

ToS: For pharmacy owners who have been contacted directly by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) that their pharmacy must complete the full Community Pharmacy Assurance Framework (CPAF):

The full CPAF survey is now available; users of the NHSBSA’s Manage Your Service (MYS) portal will be able to complete the survey via their MYS login. This will be available until 11.59pm on 31st October 2024

This is a mandatory requirement for selected pharmacy owners and the results will form the basis for pharmacies will be considered for a CPAF visit.

Action: If you have been contacted by the NHSBSA that the pharmacy must completed the full CPAF, complete this by 11.59pm on 31st October 2024.

COVID-19: Vaccination of all eligible groups can start under the autumn/winter 2024/25 COVID-19 Vaccination Service.

Action: If not already done so, consider what promotional materials you can use or display to promote uptake of the service; links to promotional resources are available on our COVID-19 Vaccination Service page.

Flu: Vaccination of all eligible groups can start under the 2024/25 Flu Vaccination Service (pregnant women could be vaccinated from 1st September 2024).

Action: If not already done so, consider what promotional materials you can use or display to promote uptake of the service; links to promotional resources are available on our Flu Vaccination Service page.

COVID-19: News story published reminding pharmacy owners to encourage their pharmacy staff to book an appointment for their COVID-19 booster vaccinations.

Action: If not already done so, encourage your pharmacy staff to book an appointment for their COVID-19 booster vaccinations.

Pharmacy First: An Announcement was made that Ministers have decided to amend the minimum monthly thresholds for the clinical pathway strand of Pharmacy First for the rest of the financial year, in light of the concerns that Community Pharmacy England raised.

Action: Ensure pharmacy team members are aware of the changes in activity threshold and discuss actions that can support the team to reach the increased target.

ToS: News story published announcing that the 2024 mandatory workforce survey is now open for pharmacy owners to complete.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Action: Read our news story on how to complete the survey and ensure this is done by midnight on 11th December 2024.

ToS: Pharmacy owners are required to verify and, where necessary, update the information contained in their NHS website profile and their DoS profile at least once each quarter of the financial year. The new quarter starts on 1st October and ends on 31st December 2024.

This is a mandatory requirement for all pharmacy owners.

Actions:

• Register for NHS Profile Manager with your personal NHSmail address if you haven’t already; and
• Once registered, update your NHS Profile Manager pharmacy profile; for each profile check that the pharmacy’s opening times, contact information and services information are up to date or verify this information if it is correct (even if no changes have been made during the financial quarter, pharmacy owners must still verify this information using NHS Profile Manager as this creates a record which will act as evidence to NHS England that these actions have been undertaken).

• Pharmacies not already contracted to provide the service and wishing to apply to provide it from April 2025; and
• Pharmacies already contracted to provide the service but whose contract only runs up until the end of March 2025.

Most pharmacies already providing the service are contracted until 31st March 2026; those pharmacies do not need to re-apply in order to continue to provide the service from April 2025, as their contract already covers provision until 31st March 2026.

Action: If you wish to apply to provide the COVID-19 vaccination service, read the news story and follow the process to express your interest in becoming a COVID-19 vaccination site.

ToS: For pharmacy owners who have been contacted directly by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) that their pharmacy must complete the full Community Pharmacy Assurance Framework (CPAF):

Deadline for completing the full CPAF survey; users of the NHSBSA’s Manage Your Service (MYS) portal will be able to complete the survey via their MYS login. This will be available until 11.59pm on 31st October 2024

This is a mandatory requirement for selected pharmacy owners and the results will form the basis for pharmacies will be considered for a CPAF visit.

Action: If you have been contacted by the NHSBSA that the pharmacy must completed the full CPAF, and have not done so yet, complete this by 11.59pm.

• Pharmacies not already contracted to provide the service and wishing to apply to provide it from April 2025; and
• Pharmacies already contracted to provide the service but whose contract only runs up until the end of March 2025.

Most pharmacies already providing the service are contracted until 31st March 2026; those pharmacies do not need to re-apply in order to continue to provide the service from April 2025, as their contract already covers provision until 31st March 2026.

Action: If you wish to apply to provide the COVID-19 vaccination service, read the news story and follow the process to express your interest in becoming a COVID-19 vaccination site.

Pharmacy First: News story published highlighting that Specialist Pharmacy Service has launched a podcast series to discuss some of the issues surrounding the Pharmacy First service and to debunk certain clinical myths around the Clinical pathway strand of the service.

Action: Read the news story and consider listening to the podcast series.

Pharmacy First: New story published highlighting that NHS England will be relaunching their Pharmacy First public-facing campaign on Monday 11th October 2024.

Action: Read the news story and review the campaign materials to see if you would like to use these in your pharmacy to promote the Pharmacy First service.

Flu: News story published highlighting the NHS England questionnaire on central procurement of flu vaccinations.

Action: Read the news story and consider whether you wish to complete the questionnaire.

Pharmacy First: Community Pharmacy England and Healthwatch England launched an online Pharmacy First patient survey that pharmacy owners can direct patients to after receiving the service.

Action: Read the news story and consider whether you will ask patients to complete the patient survey following a consultation for the Minor illness (referrals) or Clinical pathways (referrals and walk-in) strands of the service.

Flu: News story published highlighting that NHS England has published a reminder, via their Primary Care Bulletin, highlighting that the High-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIV-HD), a first line vaccine for the 65 years and over cohort, as advised in the amendment to the annual flu letter, is available to order from Sanofi.

Action: Read the news story so you are aware of  the situation and are aware of how to order stock of the QIV-HD vaccine, if required.