Enhanced credentialing: getting it right for patients
Published: 18 September 2026
This month, the Royal College of Pharmacy launched its enhanced credential and development pathway for newly qualified prescribing pharmacists (NQPPs). During what is a pivotal moment for the profession, as pharmacists begin to enter the workplace as independent prescribers from day one, the pathway establishes a clear structured route to help pharmacists build the confidence, capability and professional judgement they need, whilst providing assurance to patients, the public and other healthcare professionals.
Let me explain why it’s needed.
The change to pharmacists’ status is a truly big shift – there will be many more pharmacist prescribers working in the system in the coming years. The change reflects, and responds to, the increasing demand on health services, and the continued evolution of people’s needs and expectations of the health system.
But the existence of pharmacist prescribers is not new. As a senior doctor, I’ve been working with pharmacists for my entire career. In my clinical work as a Consultant Physician, complex outpatient prescribing decisions are made jointly by myself, the community pharmacist who is going to be responsible for ongoing prescribing, the patient and the GP. Already these decisions are taken by a much wider group than just the doctor. That’s been the case for a while, and patients and service users draw their own reassurance from this.
From the point of view of the health system, this is a big moment because it is taking a profession that is already a key player in the prescribing space and evolving a broader and more efficient use of the knowledge and skills that it has.
It is therefore essential that we get the transition right. It’s vital to the system, and it has to be safe for patients and for practitioners. That’s why I’m so proud of the process the College has led to get us to where we are today.
Managing complexity
The development of the enhanced credential has been careful and painstaking. It has included milestones and wayfinder exercises such as consultations, a credentialing summit, and a valuable session at the College’s annual conference. My role has been to chair the steering group that helped shape this work. Working with the College’s assessment and credentialing team, the steering group brought together people from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and from across community, general practice, academic and hospital pharmacy. We also had important representation from other professions so that we could learn from nursing and Allied Health Professionals about their journeys in this area. And we worked with patient representatives to ensure their voice was at the heart of our discussions. We’ve been deliberately iterative as we’ve tested the model with stakeholders including pharmacists, other professionals and patients.
This cautious approach reflects the complexity of the task. Unlike many health fields where colleagues may be working in quite a focused area, pharmacy is highly multifaceted. As well as differences between national systems, we also have a wide range of settings – community, general practice, hospital. Each has a long tradition of excellent safe care, but this variety means pharmacists are dealing with distinct sets of other responsibilities besides prescribing. That is relatively unique to pharmacy.
In developing this credential, we have sought throughout to make the space to understand the challenges and opportunities of those different environments. We’ve taken time to give voice to them, which has led to more listening and more assurance before moving forward,
End-to-end system
We have drawn a lot of inspiration and learning from how other professions develop their prescribers. For doctors (like me!), there is a great deal of supervision and guidance around this area of practice, and it continues throughout our careers. With this new credential, the system the College has put in place provides a parallel to this. Now for the first time, there is an end-to-end pathway that you can navigate throughout your career, through a series of credentials.
The challenge in other professional systems in that credentials may not automatically ‘speak to each other’, leading to duplication and frustration for professionals and employers. For pharmacy on the other hand, learning from other professional models means there is commonality between all the different stages, with consistent pillars running through the curricula, supporting people to progress through their career.
Pharmacy credentials also offer a style of development that is rooted in everyday work. Rather than setting an exam, pharmacy credentials require pharmacists to take everyday workplace learning and translate it into a set of assurance statements and evidence. Credentialing becomes embedded – an extension of what professionals are already doing. It’s also a journey you can start, pause and continue at different points. There isn’t just an expectation that everyone moves up to consultant level – it allows people to build advancement into their career and their life.
Most importantly, while the credentialing system supports better careers, its purpose is to achieve better patient care.
The work starts now
Last time I wrote a blog for this website was after the credentialing summit, where we heard inspiring stories of how credentialing was supporting early career pharmacists, and learned how local systems and training institutions were embedding it into their work. I highlighted the importance of building support for credentialing across the profession, and those working with pharmacists, to support its uptake. I’m greatly encouraged that engagement is now taking place at organisational level with training providers and employers in England, Scotland and Wales. The system is recognising the value, expertise and impact that pharmacists bring to patient care.
There is much to celebrate as the enhanced credential and pathway launches. Reaching this point is a significant achievement, reflecting the dedication and collaboration of many across the profession, and outside it. Yet I am reminded of the words of an old advisor which I will paraphrase as: ‘Congratulations, now the hard work really starts!’
It remains essential that people throughout the system – pharmacists, clinical colleagues, employers and training institutions – continue to champion and support the uptake of credentialing. And, as the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, the College must keep listening to and addressing the profession’s support and development needs. In doing so, we can help ensure consistently high standards of care for patients and continued professional growth for pharmacists.
Find out more about our enhanced curriculum and credential.
Explore our support for newly qualified pharmacists.
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