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In celebration of World Pharmacy Technician Day today, we have gathered some significant achievements from this year that highlight the growing recognition of pharmacy technicians as integral members of the pharmacy team. During the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) Conference in September, NHS England's Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, David Webb, announced 530 apprenticeships for community pharmacy pre-registration pharmacy technicians (PTPs) for the 2024/25 period. "This announcement shows a real investment in pharmacy technicians. It will impact all areas of practice, not just within community pharmacies," said Nicola Stockmann, APTUK President, in an exclusive interview with Pharmacy Business. In August, the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) was allocated funding to offer 80 NHS England-funded places in its Accuracy Checking Pharmacy Technician (ACPT) programme. This 3-12 month course is designed to help pharmacy technicians develop a range of competencies, ensuring they can deliver safe and effective patient care. Up to 10 NHSE-funded spots will be available each month on a first-come, first-served basis for pharmacy technicians working in community pharmacies, NHS hospitals, and health and justice settings. The funding will remain available until all 80 places are filled or until March 2025.

The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) has urged the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) to collate the data on actively enrolled on an approved course or qualification for Pharmacy Technicians of commencement of training. In a letter from Nicola Stockmann, Vice President APTUK to the GPhC to encourage the collection of data for Pre-Registration Training Pharmacy Technicians, Stockmann said: "We value the GPHC data for Pharmacy Technician registrants to track the growth and diversity of the Pharmacy Technician profession. With ongoing inclusive pharmacy practice priorities, APTUK has an organisational pledge to continue this work of all themes through actions. The demographics of the Pharmacy Technician workforce continue to have a majority of white British registrants and identifying as female; the high-level data collated which is currently available on the GPHC website does not capture those who are actively enrolled on an approved course or qualification for Pharmacy Technicians."

The NHS England has introduced a training programme for 1000 staff to broaden their community pharmacy roles, thereby improving patient access to services. Among them, 500 pharmacy staff will be trained to supervise pharmacists during prescription training, while the remaining 500 will provide support for various training, including pre and post-registration programmes for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. According to the NHSE, pharmacist and pharmacy technician roles are rapidly evolving due to healthcare changes and increased demand for clinical services in community pharmacy. "There are 3,000 independent prescribing training spots available for 2023/24. Educational supervision is a crucial part of this to enable the ongoing transformation and skills development of the growing pharmacy workforce." The NHSE-funded training, scheduled to begin next month, will ensure that those involved in educational supervision, including Designated Supervisors (DSs), Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician education supervisors and Designated Prescribing Practitioners (DPPs), can effectively support learners.