Pharmacy GPhC Initial Education and Training reforms for 2025-26 - Communications page
These pages have been developed to provide up to date information about the changes to the NES Foundation Training Year.
Here you will find guidance on a number of topics including assessment in the FTY, roles and responsibilities within the programme and what training and support is available for supervisors.
Page Development
Please note that this page is currently under development and there is going to be series of updates to reflect the new changes that are happening within the programme.
About the reforms
In 2021, the GPhC published new standards for the Initial Education and Training of Pharmacists (IETP). These standards introduced some important changes to the MPharm and the Foundation Training Year, transforming the first five years of initial education and training. The reforms will help to ensure that future pharmacists are equipped with knowledge and attributes required to play a key role in delivering health and social care as pharmacist independent prescribers.
Whilst planning and implementation of these reforms has been ongoing since 2021, those who support the Foundation Training Year will see significant changes from the 2025-26 training year. From July 2026, most newly qualified pharmacists will join the GPhC pharmacist register as independent prescribers. They will not be required to undertake an Independent Prescribing qualification at a Scottish School of Pharmacy. With these new standards, the underpinning knowledge elements required by prescribers are now delivered within Years 1-4 of the MPharm degree. From 2025-26, the ‘Period of Learning in Practice’ (PLP), where this knowledge is applied and assessed in practice, will occur during the Foundation Training Year.
The standalone independent prescribing qualification will continue to be provided by the two Scottish Schools of Pharmacy for qualified pharmacists.
The animation below provides a brief overview of the developments that led to the reforms and sets the scene for the changes to the NES Foundation Training Year in 2025/26.
There will be two pathways in the Foundation Training Year from 2025-26 – GPhC Interim Learning Outcomes to non-prescriber on registration pathway and GPhC Full Learning Outcomes to prescriber on registration pathway. The pathway followed by a trainee pharmacist will depend on whether they graduate with an MPharm aligned to the 2021 GPhC IETP standards, and whether they studied as an undergraduate in the UK. NES will provide information to employers to ensure each trainee pharmacist has a training plan aligned to the correct pathway.
All trainee pharmacists, regardless of their pathway, will follow the NES FTY core curriculum during the training year. This has been redesigned in line with the IETP standards, to support achievement of learning outcomes and to ensure prescriber readiness beyond FTY.
The NES FTY curriculum, along with the workplace training plan provides opportunities to meet the GPhC IETP learning outcomes. These learning outcomes are relevant to the skills and attributes required of pharmacists in both prescribing and non-prescribing roles. All trainee pharmacists are required to demonstrate competence across 54 of the 55 learning outcomes described in the GPhC IETP standards. Trainee pharmacists following the full learning outcomes to prescriber pathway will be required to demonstrate competence for one additional learning outcome (outcome 37 Prescribe effectively within the relevant systems and frameworks for medicines use).
These reforms support development of pharmacists who will be equipped to have a greater role in clinical care, with enhanced recognition as experts in medicines and increased roles in public health and wellbeing.
Key Topics
Select the relevant image below to open a page relating to the area you need further information on.
If the information you are looking for is not available on these pages and you still have questions, please complete our NES FTY 2025/26 questions form.
We are using the questions collected to develop a Frequently Asked Questions document which is available on our Communications subsection.
