The enhanced curriculum and credential supports newly qualified pharmacist prescribers to develop their prescribing practice, build professional capability and progress with confidence.
Supporting safe and confident pharmacist practice
Pharmacists are increasingly providing direct clinical care. Most newly qualified pharmacists are now joining the register as prescribers and taking on more clinical responsibilities early in their careers.
Our Enhanced Curriculum and Credentialing Pathway, launched in September 2026, provides a clear, structured route to help pharmacists build the confidence, capability and professional judgement they need as they move from initial registration into increasingly autonomous practice.
It sets UK-standards for enhanced pharmacist practice and supports pharmacists to develop through real-life professional experience, structured support and reflection, before demonstrating their capability through Royal College credentialing.
Access is through national pathways (see below) with pharmacists building a portfolio of evidence from their everyday practice using a new e-portfolio platform developed specifically by the royal college for this purpose.
Qualifying as an independent prescriber is an important milestone, but professional confidence and capability continue to develop through experience in practice.
Newly qualified pharmacist prescribers need opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills, develop their clinical judgement, work within and develop a clearly-defined scope of practice and build confidence in making decisions more autonomously.
The Enhanced Curriculum and Credentialing Pathway provides the structure to support this transition.
It helps pharmacists to:
Build on the knowledge and skills developed before registration as a prescriber.
Develop through supervised, real-world professional experience.
Grow confidence and professional judgement as prescribers.
Demonstrate their development against UK-recognised standards.
Prepare for future progression towards advanced practice.
In Scotland, the national pathway will provide eligible pharmacists with structured development and e-portfolio access, with the Enhanced credential positioned as a clear endpoint.
In Wales, eligible pharmacists will be supported through the Health Education and Improvement Wales Model of Support, including access to structured development, the e-portfolio and the Enhanced credential as a clear endpoint.
(Courtesy of Matt Barclay)
‘‘As pharmacists take on an increasingly clinical role, it is essential that they have access to a recognised pathway for development and credentialing. This new programme provides a valuable framework to support pharmacists in Scotland (and across the UK) to advance their practice, improve patient care and contribute to the future of NHS services.’’
Matt Barclay FRCPharm, Chief Executive Officer, Community Pharmacy Scotland
Confidence through credentialing
The pathway is designed to support safe, confident and effective practice.
The curriculum defines what enhanced pharmacist practice looks like, while structured workplace development enables pharmacists to build and demonstrate their capability in the context of their own role and scope of practice.
Royal college credentialing provides independent professional recognition and assurance that a pharmacist has demonstrated their practice against the standards set out in the curriculum.
Together, these provide pharmacists with a clear development pathway and give employers, healthcare partners, patients and the public greater assurance in the development of the profession.
The Enhanced Curriculum and Credentialing Pathway reflects the collective expertise and ambitions of the pharmacy profession.
It has been developed collaboratively with pharmacists, employers, educators, patient representatives and partners from different sectors, practice settings and all four UK nations.
This collaborative approach means the pathway is grounded in the realities of contemporary pharmacy practice while providing shared standards that can be applied across different roles and settings.
It is a pathway developed with the profession, for the profession.
‘’The Royal College of Pharmacy has incorporated the patient voice into the enhanced curriculum by ensuring a patient perspective was at the virtual table at every step, from the idea stage to launch. This has ensured the patient stays at the centre of decisions, as pharmacists ultimately work alongside them in everyday prescribing. Co-productive working has ensured that all voices of those who will benefit from and be affected by the changes have been heard.’’
Katie-Rose Stone, BA (Hons) Health and Social Care, Advocate using Lived Experience with Health and Social Care, Clifton-Upon-Teme Beaver Scout Leader
A pathway for professional development
The Enhanced Curriculum and Credentialing Pathway provides a bridge between initial registration and more advanced stages of professional practice.
It is designed to support pharmacists as they consolidate their practice after registration, develop as prescribers and build the breadth, confidence and professional judgement associated with enhanced practice.
Understand what enhanced practice looks like, and find out further information on support pathways and programmes across the UK supporting you to work towards Royal college credentialing.
Start here: your pathway at a glance
5 curriculum domains
24 curriculum outcomes
3 credentialing options
1–3 indicative pieces of evidence for a low-stakes outcomes
3–5 indicative pieces of evidence for a medium-stakes outcome
5–7 indicative pieces of evidence for a high-stakes outcome
You should apply to join the formal commissioned pathway in your country of practice. See details on these programmes/pathways below.
Prescribing requirement
You do not need to be a registered prescriber to begin engaging with the curriculum or building evidence. At the point of enhanced credentialing, you must be a registered prescriber and provide evidence of active prescribing as part of your clinical evidence.
Your first five actions
Determine whether you are working towards the full credential, the clinical modular credential or the non-clinical modular credential.
Confirm your named educational supervisor, day-to-day practice supervision and likely collaborators.
Use the curriculum to complete a learning needs analysis and create SMART actions, including developing your prescribing scope.
Map authentic opportunities in your role across the outcomes and identify early where experience, observation or feedback may be harder to access in your setting.
Discuss review arrangements and information-governance requirements before evidence gaps become urgent.
Step
1: Choose your route
• Register with a training provider to access the e-Portfolio. • Decide if you are working towards the full credential, clinical module (domains 1 and 2) or non-clinical module (domains 3-5). • Look at the outcomes framework section of the curriculum. • Read each outcome carefully. Each word is there for a reason. • Read the indicators for each outcome to understand the level of performance required to meet each outcome.
2: Plan development
• Complete a Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) using the LNA tool in your e-Portfolio to help you self-assess your current ability and confidence against each outcome. • Meet with your educational supervisor (ES) to discuss the results of your LNA, come up with an action plan and identify development opportunities. • Consider what your identified development needs are and which areas you want to focus on first.
3: Learn in practice
• Practice supervisors and collaborators support observation and provide actionable feedback to learners using supervised learning events (SLEs). • Post-graduate academic study outputs can also be used as evidence when learning is applied in practice and reflected upon. • APCL may be available for some academic courses.
4: Build and review e-Portfolio
• Gather a variety of evidence, reflect and review progress with ES. • The suggested number of good quality pieces of evidence for each low, medium, or high-stakes outcome is provided in the enhanced curriculum document. • The mandatory evidence requirements for the credentialing assessment are outlined in detail within the assessment blueprint. • Details regarding what counts as piece of evidence are provided in the enhanced curriculum document.
5: Submit for credentialing
• Portfolio is assessed by a trained Royal College assessor.
If you are already on a national support programme or pathway – find out more about the curriculum and how to be successful at building your portfolio for credentialing.
Explore the curriculum, understand the standards for enhanced practice and find resources to support alignment, implementation and apply for Accreditation of Prior Learning (APCL).
Enhanced practice is one stage of a pharmacist’s professional journey.
The Royal College supports pharmacists throughout their careers: from the transition into prescribing practice, through enhanced practice and onwards towards advanced and consultant-level practice.
Alongside our curricula and credentialing pathways, members can access learning and professional development, mentoring and coaching, career support, clinical guidance, events and opportunities to contribute to and influence the future of the profession.
RCPharm President Tase Oputu reflects on a significant moment for pharmacy and the College’s focus on education, professional development and credentialing.
We provide a standardised credentialing framework for pharmacists’ post-registration education and training, enabling them to be recognised for their advancing professional…
