About us
Published on: 31st December 2013 | Updated on: 18th July 2023
We are Community Pharmacy England, the representative body for all community pharmacy owners in England.
Who we are
We are the voice of community pharmacy in England.
We champion community pharmacies across the country – representing our members and giving them the support they need, negotiating the best deal with the Government and NHS, and influencing positive change.
We represent community pharmacy businesses of all sizes in England and are responsible for negotiating the NHS Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) under which all community pharmacies operate.
We work closely with everyone in the community pharmacy sector, including the Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs), to meet our goals and to promote the value of community pharmacy.
Because everyone in society needs community pharmacy to thrive.
Our vision and purpose
We have a clear purpose to champion community pharmacies, negotiating the best deal for them, uniting the sector and offering support to our members. We also work hard to protect and develop the pharmacy services that so many people rely on.
Everyone relies on community pharmacies, and they have a vital role to play in society. We are an innovative sector, with the ability to have an even greater impact on health outcomes, improving the wellbeing of the entire population.
Community Pharmacy England works to promote the value of community pharmacies and to ensure that pharmacies get the right support, for the benefit of everyone.
We are dedicated to doing the best we can for the community pharmacy sector. We work to harness the potential of community pharmacy and ensure the sector is sustainably funded, supported and empowered to operate at their maximum potential. Find out more about our new vision and strategy.
Community Pharmacy England is currently undergoing a full governance review, but we all share the following set of core beliefs:
- Community pharmacies must be sustainably funded, supported and empowered to operate at their maximum potential.
- Community pharmacies enhance people’s lives. They are vital to their local communities and to the health service.
- Community pharmacy has so much more to offer: we are an innovative sector that could have a huge positive impact on health outcomes, improving the health and wellbeing of the entire population.
- Community pharmacy is at the heart of primary care and needs to be a priority for the NHS and Government.
- Community pharmacies are battling intolerable challenges and cannot survive without the right support.
What we do
We are recognised by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care as the body that represents NHS pharmacy owners (or contractors). We work closely with Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) to support their role as the local NHS representative organisations.
Our goal is to develop the NHS community pharmacy service, to enable community pharmacies to offer an increased range of high quality and fully funded services that meet the needs of their local communities and provide value and good health outcomes for the NHS and the public.
We work with NHS England and other NHS bodies, and with the Department of Health and Social Care, to promote opportunities for the development of community pharmacy services and negotiate the contractual terms for the provision of NHS community pharmacy services.
We also perform a range of other monitoring and advisory functions, including responding to relevant NHS and Government consultations, monitoring local service commissioning, and checking a percentage of all prescriptions sent to NHS Prescription Services to identify any errors in pricing.
For more information on this topic please email comms.team@cpe.org.uk
