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The Welsh government has reached an agreement with the NHS and Community Pharmacy Wales (CPW)-the statutory representative body for all community pharmacies-on a six per cent funding increase as part of the 2024/25 Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF). The £9.9 million increase will bring the total CPCF funding to £175 million per year, representing a 24 per cent rise in funding since 2017. In a statement published on 20 December 2024, Jeremy Miles, cabinet secretary for health and social care, said that the additional investment will be used to address "both immediate pressures facing community pharmacies and to maintain momentum on our longer-term ambitions for reform." Miles also said that the government would continue to invest in integrating pharmacies in primary care clusters, developing the skills and scope of practice of the wider community pharmacy workforce including pharmacy technicians, and the Choose Pharmacy IT system. In contrast, community pharmacies in England are still awaiting progress on CPCF negotiations for 2024/25. Last month, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) warned of the sector's worsening financial situation, urging ministers to provide immediate funding relief.

RPS Wales will once again spearhead the development of new three-year goals to help pharmacy in Wales advance toward its 2030 vision as outlined in Pharmacy: Delivering a Healthier Wales (PDaHW). Elen Jones, Director of RPS Wales, and Jonathan Simms, Chair of the Welsh Pharmaceutical Committee, announced during the recent RPS Wales Conference. Jones said: "I'd like to thank the Welsh Government and the Welsh Pharmaceutical Committee for once again entrusting RPS to take this work forward." This iteration of PDaHW builds on the original 10-year plan, published in 2019, and the two series of stepping stone goals established from 2019-2022 and 2022-2025. Work on the new three-year goals will begin in early 2025.

Wales has begun the rolled-out of a community pharmacy prescribing service as part of reforms agreed by the Welsh health minister last December. Eluned Morgan approved wide-ranging changes following re-negotiation of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework with Community Pharmacy Wales, the representative body for community pharmacies in Wales. The roll out will allow appropriately trained community pharmacists to treat an extended range of conditions that currently require people to visit their GP. Initially pharmacist prescribers will be able to prescribe medicines, including antibiotics for acute illnesses like urinary tract and upper respiratory tract infections, and also prescribe routine contraception. The first of its kind in the UK, the service is being rolled out progressively across Wales, building on local schemes which are already in place.