The General Pharmaceutical Council has today started a 10-week consultation on the changes it wants to make to its quality assurance process which pharmacy education and training providers have to fulfil to meet the regulator’s standards.

Four proposals have been put forward, including building on its fixed cycle of provider reapproval by introducing more comprehensive annual monitoring using more data from providers, such as students’ performance in registration assessments, updates and information about new developments or action plans providers have and any information they think is relevant to their provision of education and training. 

“By looking into these issues more regularly – every year – we, and providers, will be able to think about the education and training provided, and spot and deal with concerns together more quickly,” the GPhC said.

It also set out the criteria for good decision-making and appropriate ways of dealing with concerns. That would involve asking the provider for more evidence and information such as action plans and helping the provider with a “quality management activity,” for example, setting assessment standards. The next step would be to have a meeting with the provider to discuss a concern and carry out “a focused activity” with the provider, such as visiting them or observing their teaching.

The third proposal is to adopt a more flexible approval and intervention process by not only introducing yearly monitoring so the GPhC can intervene quickly but keeping its three-yearly cycle as its “usual approach” which can be changed “depending on the provider’s performance.”

“We want to achieve a balance between regular visits, with the ability to be more flexible in our approach, and a greater focus on providers where our yearly monitoring shows there are issues to deal with,” the GPhC said.

The final proposal is to apply its quality assurance processes across all pharmacy education and training, including those delivered by national awarding organisations, pharmacist independent prescribing providers and other private providers.

The GPhC said “this will result not only in greater scrutiny but in a consistent quality assurance approach overall.”

The consultation closes on June 13. The GPhC said it plans to “develop these arrangements in stages,” with data monitoring rolled out between 2024-25 and 2025-26.

The GPhC’s chief strategy officer and deputy registrar Mark Voce said the proposals will help it “identify issues more effectively, act more quickly if necessary and be fairer to all providers.”

“Pharmacy education and training sets a foundation for the knowledge, skills, understanding and professional behaviours a pharmacy student must demonstrate in order to become fully qualified and join the professional register,” he said.

“As such it is vital that we check that training providers are meeting our standards through a quality assurance process. By doing this we are ensuring trainees are getting the right level of education to become competent practitioners of the future.”