Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure that the Community Pharmacy Independent Prescribing Pathfinder Programme and independent prescribing generally will continue to be supported to maximise direct prescribing capability in England.

The NHS England Pathfinder programme is running across England with the aim of developing a commissioning framework for community pharmacy clinical services with independent prescribing (IP) for National Health Service patients. We are working with integrated care boards and pathfinder sites, community pharmacies, to understand the key enablers for IP to be incorporated into community pharmacy. The programme learning will be across five key domains: clinical; digital; governance and safety; people; and funding and contracts. We hope to complete our evaluation by Autumn 2025, and to use this to inform planning for the incorporation of prescribing into community pharmacy clinical services. Further information on the NHS England Pathfinder programme is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/primary-care/pharmacy/pharmacy-integration-fund/independent-prescribing/