Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock has revealed that the government will invest in training for independent prescribers and well as mentoring schemes for new prescribers.
All newly qualified pharmacists will automatically become independent prescribers upon registration from September 2026. This will lead to an estimated 2,600 pharmacists joining the NHS as independent prescribers.
Kinnock was asked by Sadik Al-Hassan Labour MP for North Somerset and a pharmacist on the steps he is taking to ensure a sufficient number of Designated Prescribing Practitioners (DDPs) to mentor all new non-medical prescribers.
A DPP is a healthcare professional with legal independent prescribing rights who mentors and supervises the pharmacist during the period of learning in practice.
NHS England has funded 3,000 training places for existing pharmacists to become independent prescribers and is training 1,000 DPP and educational supervisors to support the training of pharmacist independent prescribers.
“NHS England is investing in training for independent prescribers, as well as initiatives to support the development and safe practice of designated prescribing practitioners (DPPs) and educational supervisors,” said Kinnock
“This will ensure the National Health Service is ready to support and mentor foundation trainee pharmacists from the 2025/26 academic year, alongside training existing pharmacists that are learning to be independent prescribers.”
Kinnock added that reforms to pharmacist education and training will allow for the development of prescriber pharmacists from the point of registration from 2026.
“This will enable a career-long focus on prescriber services and an associated expansion of the DPP workforce, to support multi-professional teams and the expansion of cross-sector prescribing services,” he said.
