CPCF Settlement 2026/27: Frequently Asked Questions

Following the recent announcement of the CPCF 2026/27 funding settlement, we know many of you have questions about what it means in practice for your pharmacy and your patients. To help provide clarity, we have answered some Frequently Asked Questions we’re hearing from pharmacy owners.

Q. What is the expected change in income for an average pharmacy?
In practice, income will vary significantly depending on factors such as pharmacy size, dispensing volume, services provided and local activity levels.

Because of this variation, an Indicative Income Calculator has been developed. This tool is available on our website and allows pharmacy owners to input their own activity levels and circumstances to generate a bespoke estimate of expected monthly income for 2026/27.

Q. What are the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) criteria for this year?
The criteria are set out on our PQS hub webpage. They include a Gateway criterion on Palliative and End of Life Care medicines, and three criteria covering training for pharmacists on the updated asthma management guidelines, a requirement to update SOPs on urgent supply of medicines and a clinical audit followed by a peer discussion on clinical consultations.

Q. What will be the PQS funding available for each pharmacy?
As is always the case with the PQS, the final value of each point will be determined at the time that all participating pharmacies make their declaration in early 2027. The £20m total funding for the scheme is then divided by the total number of points claimed by all participating pharmacies to calculate the value of each point.

Excluding very low prescription volume pharmacies, those pharmacies undertaking all elements of the PQS will be able to earn a minimum of £1,900.

Q. How is the EPS IT necessary for the introduction of Independent Prescribing (IP) into the CPCF to be funded?
DHSC and NHS England expect the cost of the EPS system to be covered by the one-off setup payment of £500 and the monthly infrastructure payment of £525.

Q. Will consultations within the new Pharmacy First prescribing-only pathways count towards the monthly clinical pathways minimum activity requirement (for the £500/£1000 payment)?
Yes.

Q. When will IP be implemented into services?
Subject to the necessary preparatory work being completed by NHS England and DHSC, IP will start in the autumn (likely in October).

Find out more about IP on our Prescribing within the CPCF webpage.

Q. How can I find out more and feed back my comments on this settlement to Community Pharmacy England?
There are several opportunities over the coming weeks to find out more and share your views on the settlement with us:

• A sector-wide webinar open to pharmacy owners, team members and LPC staff took place on Monday 1st June. This was an early opportunity to hear more and contribute initial feedback. Whether you were unable to attend or just want to revisit the session, you can now watch the recorded presentation.
• A series of regional events is running across all 10 regions in England through June and July. These include:

– Afternoon sessions with LPCs in the region
– Evening sessions for pharmacy owners and teams
These events are designed to enable discussion on the settlement and to feed directly into conversations on wider reforms. Workshop exercises will also provide an opportunity to help shape thinking on the future reform programme.
Sign up for a Regional Roadshow near you

• Opinion polling throughout June (via the Regional Roadshows and an online survey) will gather views from pharmacy owners on the settlement, including its likely impact. This will provide a direct route to provide feedback to both CPE and Government and will be considered by our Committee at its June meeting.
• You can contact us via your regional representative or by emailing chiefexec@cpe.org.uk
• You can also provide input via your LPC, which will play a key role in gathering and representing local views and ensuring they are reflected in national discussions.

The answers are being collated on our new 2026/27 CPCF FAQs webpage. We’ll continue to update this resource with new FAQs over the coming weeks, and pharmacy owners will also have plenty of opportunities to ask questions at our Regional Roadshows.