Shutterstock.com
A tailored leadership programme for community pharmacists has been launched.
Fully funded by the Pharmacy Integration Fund, the NHS Leadership Academy (part of NHS England) and Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) are offering places on the Mary Seacole leadership development programme.
Although the six-month programme has been developed for the wider NHS healthcare team, this programme will be for community pharmacists only.
Open to community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in community pharmacy for at least 40% of their working week, the scheme runs largely online but includes a series of one-to-one workshops with tutors. Core management skills and leadership fundamentals covered include why leadership matters, your role as a leader, tools for service improvement and skills around leading recruitment and selection, appraisals and annual reviews.
A CPPE spokesperson said: “The profession of pharmacy is going through change, with a vision for community pharmacy to become more integrated into the wider healthcare team with a key role in medicines optimisation. The programme will actively encourage participants to consider what that change means for you.”
Though it is a national programme, training will be delivered all over England and can also be delivered through individual organisations. There are 600 places on the programme available, with up to 40 people at a time taking part in 15 training ‘cohorts’ set to take place between October 2017 and March 2018.
Applications for the London and Leeds cohorts close on 24 October 2017, for Nottingham on 31 October 2017 and Manchester on 2 November 2017. The other nine programme cohorts in other English areas, including the West Midlands, Devon and Newcastle, will be announced over the next few months. Although the CPPE has suggested participants should register onto a programme in their local area, it is possible to register in another area.
