Key Summary
- The Company Chemists Association has been warning about the DPPs bottleneck for some time.
- The association is concerned that the ongoing shortage of DPPs will disrupt students' plans, for no fault of their own.
- It has called for the formation of a nationally commissioned independent prescribing service to solve the shortage of DPPs.
Over 400 pharmacy graduates undergoing foundation training this year face an uncertain future as they lack an assigned Designated Prescribing Practitioner (DPP).
In a written query in Parliament, Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan wanted to know how many pharmacists who began their training in 2025 had been assigned a DPP, a healthcare professional with independent prescribing rights, to supervise and assess prescribing activities during their foundation year.
In his reply, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock said, "Of the 2,894 graduates in England who began foundation pharmacist training in 2025/26, 2,417 were trained against the 2021 standards and therefore require a DPP. As of February 2026, 2,013 of these trainees, approximately 83 percent, had submitted details of an assigned DPP to NHS England."
Under the Foundation Trainee Pharmacists National Recruitment Scheme, training providers are required to ensure that trainees have access to a DPP.
The Company Chemists Association (CCA) has been warning of the bottleneck in DPPs for some time, but the NHS England had assured that there are sufficient DPPs within the system.
The CCA is concerned that the ongoing shortage of DPPs will disrupt students' plans, for no fault of their own.
In December 2024, NHSE decided to postpone the requirement to mandate pharmacy employers to offer multi-sector rotations in the foundation pharmacist training programme from 2026/27 by one year.
However, with the shortage of DPPs available within community pharmacy, the change means there is little to no incentive for DPPs in other settings to offer their supervision services to community pharmacy trainees.
The CCA has called for the formation of a nationally commissioned independent prescribing service to solve the shortage of DPPs.
CCA chief executive Malcolm Harrison said, “Over 400 pharmacy graduates may not be able to complete their foundation training, through no fault of theirs.
"NHS England must urgently engage with placement providers to ensure that there are sufficient DPPs for all Foundation Pharmacists.
"The CCA has been warning NHS England of the shortage of DPPs for some time.
"The sector continues to experience a shortage of community pharmacists. The current requirements are simply not up to speed and will mean fewer pharmacists join the register”.
