Legislative amendments that will permit pharmacy technicians to supply and administer medicines including POMs under patient group directions will come into effect on June 26.

This follows the announcement made by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) earlier this year although Community Pharmacy England pointed out that there will be no immediate change in the provision of community pharmacy services.

“Any updates to services first need to be considered in negotiations and, where agreed, the relevant service directions and specifications would then be amended,” the negotiator said.

Gordon Hockey, CPE legal director, added: “As the clinical skills of community pharmacists are put to greater use through services such as Pharmacy First, it is important to ensure that pharmacies can make best use of skill mix across the whole team.”

Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the CCA, called the move “a great first step” in changing the workforce to reflect future needs while offering a route to increasing vital clinical capacity.

“We now need NHS England to commission services ambitiously, with additional funding, so that [the sector] can benefit from this change,” he said.

In March, Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK president Nicola Stockmann said the new legislation was a “landmark moment” for the pharmacy technician profession.

However, in a letter sent to former pharmacy minister Andrea Leadsom in March, the Pharmacists’ Defence Association said there was a “very significant difference between the training and formation” of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, which made the latter unsuitable to carry out certain clinical tasks such as using patient group directions.

The General Pharmaceutical Council has said it will consult on new initial education and training standards for pharmacy technicians later this year.