Enhanced pharmacist curriculum

Patsy Edwards, Assessment & Credentialing Lead
Rachel Lewis, Curriculum Development Manager
Joseph Oakley, Associate Director: Assessment & Credentialing

We would like to acknowledge the support of members of the enhanced curriculum steering and task and finish groups in helping to develop and review the enhanced curriculum. We would also like to thank members of the wider pharmacy community who took part in the consultation process.

Steering group members

Task and finish group members

Active prescriber
An active pharmacist prescriber consults with patients and makes prescribing decisions based on clinical assessment with sufficient frequency to maintain competence. They also reflect and audit prescribing practice to identify developmental needs.

Appropriate
An action that is evidence-based, safe, cost-effective and in keeping with the pharmacist’s clinical judgement, as well as the person’s situation and preferences.

Assessment
All activity aimed at judging a pharmacist’s demonstration of the curriculum learning outcomes, whether for summative (determining satisfactory progression for credentialing), or formative (developmental) purposes.

Blueprint
A matrix used to define the content of an assessment. This ensures the assessment covers all the outcomes defined by the curriculum.

Capabilities
High-level, complex professional capabilities are flexible and adaptive in a wide range of contexts and synthesise the knowledge, skills, behaviours and experience pharmacists need to manage real-life scenarios.

Collaborator
Any individual supporting pharmacists undertaking a credentialing pathway through giving feedback and a judgment on their performance e.g. a member of the team who contributes to multi-source feedback, a person who completes a patient survey or a more experienced healthcare professional who undertakes a supervised learning event.

Curriculum outcomes
Describe what is to be achieved by pharmacists undertaking the credentialing pathway; these describe the knowledge, skills, behaviours and experience of those who successfully complete the credential.

Curriculum outcomes framework
A matrix of the capabilities, outcomes and indicators of expected level of performance determined as necessary to deliver the curriculum purpose.

Credentialing committee
The educational governance committee responsible for the overarching quality assurance of all Royal College of Pharmacy credentialing assessments and activity.

Credential
An award recognising successful completion of the credentialing assessment at the relevant level of practice.

Curriculum
A statement of the intended aims and objectives, content, experiences, outcomes and processes of a credentialing pathway, including a description of the structure and expected methods of learning, teaching, assessment, feedback and supervision.

Domain
A collection of commonly-themed capabilities and outcomes.

Enhanced credentialing assessor
A trained individual responsible for assessment of a submitted e-Portfolio against the assessment criteria and in line with the credentialing strategy for the relevant level of practice.

Enhanced Pharmacist
A pharmacist who is actively prescribing and has successfully credentialed against all five domains of the RCPharm enhanced curriculum.

Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA)
A systematic and evidence-based tool, which enables us to consider the likely impact of work on different groups of people.

Experience (breadth of)
When a pharmacist has had enough experience to be able to practise at the expected level of performance. This is not linked to a quantitative measure rather when the pharmacist has demonstrated and evidenced the curriculum outcomes for the relevant level of practice.

Final decisions
The final credentialing decision based on numerous data points reviewed holistically by an enhanced credentialing assessor. The outcome of this decision will inform whether an individual has satisfactorily met the curriculum outcomes and can be credentialed.

GPhC standards for the initial training and education of pharmacists (2021)
The standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists, including during foundation year training.

Indicator of expected level of performance
A clarifying statement or example of the expected level and breadth of performance required to demonstrate the curriculum outcomes.

Intersectionality
The interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

Patient-focussed roles
Roles that have a direct impact on individual patients and/or patient populations although this may not involve regular direct patient-facing contact.

Patient
Person receiving care, including the seeking of advice.

Person
The curriculum includes the term person-centred and refers to person / people throughout. This means ‘the person receiving care’. The term may also apply to the person’s carers, family or representatives depending on the situation.

Prescribing
The initiation, amendment and stopping (deprescribing) of medicines within the prescriber’s scope of practice.

Programme of assessment
The set of assessments planned to assess the curriculum outcomes leading to credentialing. The synthesis of these individual assessments into a programme allows for integrated judgments of a pharmacist’s performance.

Quality assurance
The standards, systems and processes in place to maintain and enhance assessment quality to assure patients and the public that pharmacists meet the required standards.

Quality control
The Royal College of Pharmacy has a role in quality control in terms of ensuring national curricula and assessments are consistently developed and delivered in line with the Royal College of Pharmacy curriculum quality standards.

Scope of practice
The range of roles, responsibilities, and activities that a healthcare professional is educated, trained, competent, and authorised to perform, within the limits of their knowledge, skills, experience, and professional accountability.

Supervised Learning Event (SLE)
An observed activity undertaken in a real or simulated practice setting, supported by structured feedback. SLEs are primarily formative and are designed to support learning, reflection, and evidence generation.

From 2026, most newly qualified pharmacists in the UK will register as prescribers, marking a significant shift towards pharmacy becoming a prescribing profession. This change, alongside rising numbers of existing pharmacist prescribers, is reshaping pharmacists’ roles across all healthcare settings.

The Royal College of Pharmacy (RCPharm) enhanced curriculum has been developed to ensure early post-registration development pathways remain fit for purpose. Aligned to the RCPharm advanced and consultant curricula and the four-pillar multiprofessional workforce framework, it supports pharmacists in patient-focussed roles to develop towards enhanced level practice, providing a structured transition to practising with greater autonomy and confidence as prescribing pharmacists.

Acting as a stepping stone to advanced practice, the curriculum supports the structured development of a pharmacist’s scope of practice in their early prescribing career, alongside leadership and management, education, and research and evaluation capabilities. It also provides assurance for employers and the wider healthcare system, alongside enabling public confidence as pharmacists deliver increasingly complex clinical care.

The enhanced pharmacist curriculum is open to all pharmacists practising in patient-focussed roles. Membership of the RCPharm is not a requirement to access the curriculum, engage in a credentialing pathway, or take the end-point credentialing assessment.

Pharmacists working towards enhanced credentialing can monitor their progress towards achieving the curriculum outcomes, ensuring they are gaining the appropriate learning, training, and experience. This will contribute to appraisal, self-assessment, self-directed learning, and formative and summative assessment against the curriculum outcomes.

Educational and practice supervisors can support pharmacists undertaking the pathway in their development of the appropriate skills, knowledge and behaviours, and to access the appropriate experiences to gain these. They can use the curriculum to verify that they are providing learning, support, and guidance in the appropriate areas of practice.

Training providers will be able to design structured learning programmes to meet the curriculum outcomes and ensure education provision maps to the curriculum.

Employers will be able to use the curriculum to support professional and personal development plans for employees’ development as well as to understand the level of practice for enhanced pharmacists. They can also use achievement of the credential as objective assurance of the capability of individuals and employees to practise at an enhanced level.

Service planners and commissioners can refer to the curriculum to understand the capabilities of the enhanced pharmacist workforce when developing and commissioning services.

Patients and the public will be able to see the standard required for pharmacists to practise and be credentialed at an enhanced level.

Assessors and collaborators will be able to refer to the curriculum outcomes and descriptors to support and standardise assessment activities and judgments.

The GPhC & PSNI

• Set the regulatory standards for pharmacy professionals in Great Britain and Northern Ireland respectively.

The four UK governments and their related organisations

• Identify and prioritise strategic, system, service or workforce needs including, through their respective educational organisations or functions, the funding, planning, commissioning and quality management of training programmes aligned to the curriculum.

Governmental education bodies/functions

• Commission and/or provide elements of training programmes to meet the curriculum outcomes.
• Quality assure the provision of commissioned training programmes.

The Royal College of Pharmacy

• Collaboratively designs and develops the RCPharm enhanced curriculum, including its credentialing assessment, in line with the standards articulated in the RCPharm curriculum quality framework.
• Maintains, monitors and evaluates the RCPharm enhanced curriculum, including its programme of assessment.
• Administers and quality assures a credentialing assessment against the enhanced curriculum outcomes and awards the enhanced pharmacist credential.

Higher education institutions/ education and training providers

• Provide training programmes to meet relevant elements of the curriculum, which may include support with supervision and the completion of SLEs.

Employers

• Implement work-based learning at a local level.
• Provide educational and/or practice supervision to learners in practice.
• Provide workplace collaborators to undertake SLEs in the workplace.
• Provide protected learning time for candidates and supervisors.
• Provide quality control and participate in quality management of education and training.

The enhanced curriculum was developed in line with the RCPharm quality framework.

The capabilities, outcomes, and indicators of expected level of performance in this curriculum were developed collaboratively with stakeholders from different sectors of pharmacy across the UK. They describe the expected level of practice of entry-level enhanced pharmacists, bridging the gap between the GPhC standards for the initial training and education of pharmacists (2021) for the foundation training year, and the core advanced pharmacist curriculum.

The curriculum steering group agreed the purpose of the enhanced curriculum and oversaw the work of the curriculum task and finish group. Both groups were comprised of a wide range of stakeholders from across the profession to ensure the resulting curriculum was inclusive of and relevant to different sectors of pharmacy and UK geographies.

The steering group was chaired by Professor Rikki Goddard Fuller, an internationally-recognised clinical educationalist. Membership of the steering group included strategic pharmacy representation from across the UK, including academia and a patient representative. The task and finish group consisted of pharmacy educational specialists and pharmacy sector representatives from across the UK, as well as early career and student pharmacist representation.

An equality, diversity and inclusion group was convened to support an EQIA on the curriculum with the curriculum content also undergoing two phases of iterative consultation during the development period.

The curriculum will be governed through the RCPharm educational governance structure, ultimately reporting to the RCPharm Senate.

From 2026, most newly qualified pharmacists in the UK will be prescribers at point of registration, making pharmacists the first non-medical/non dental healthcare professionals entering practice as prescribers with a Level 7/SCQF Level 11 qualification. This change is mirrored by a record number of pharmacists in the current workforce also undertaking independent prescribing qualifications. Together, these developments mark a major step towards pharmacy becoming a prescribing profession.

Healthcare policy across the UK is changing to reflect this shift, with pharmacists expected to deliver more clinical services involving direct clinical patient care across community, primary care, and secondary care settings. As pharmacists take on expanded clinical and prescribing responsibilities, there is a clear need to ensure post-registration development pathways remain relevant, robust, and fit for purpose, to support the profession to meet these new professional expectations with confidence.

To support this, the Post-Registration Foundation curriculum has been revised. The updated curriculum, renamed the Enhanced curriculum, will ultimately replace the legacy Post-Registration Foundation curriculum.

The enhanced curriculum provides a structured framework to support pharmacists working in patient-focussed roles to develop towards enhanced level practice.

This means it is designed for pharmacists:

• Practising at a pre-advanced level.
• Working in roles involving direct clinical care to individual patients and/or patient populations.
• Actively make prescribing decisions as part of their practice.

The curriculum is designed to support new pharmacist prescribers in their transition to practising without the direct support of a Designated Supervisor (DS) and/or Designated Prescribing Practitioner (DPP).

For clarity:

• Pharmacists do not need to be prescribers to begin engaging with the enhanced curriculum or building evidence.
• Pharmacists must be registered prescribers, with evidence of prescribing-related clinical activity, at the point of enhanced credentialing.

Enhanced practice:

• Builds on the competence and level of practice demonstrated on registration as a prescribing pharmacist;
• Acts as a stepping stone towards advanced practice; and
• Aligns with the early stages of proficiency in the Dreyfus model.

This aligns with the multiprofessional definition of enhanced practice as:

“A level of practice evident in the healthcare workforce. It is delivered by experienced, often registered professionals who practice with autonomy and independently. They do complex work and manage day to day risk, including risks on behalf of, or with patients.” ¹

Pharmacists working at an enhanced level:

• grasp more complex situations,
• adapt more readily to changing circumstances,
• rely increasingly on experience-based judgement, rather than solely following rules and protocols,
• work across the four pillars of practice.

In a pharmacy clinical context, this means pharmacists can:

1. Make more autonomous decisions about the safe and effective use of medicines within their individual scope of practice.
2. Manage more complex clinical situations with confidence, using experience to guide their approach.
3. Move from following rules and protocols about the safe and effective use of medicines to appraising situations using a more person-centred, holistic approach.
4. Assess, manage and mitigate clinical risk appropriately.

Pharmacists practising at an enhanced level also demonstrate more developed capabilities across:

• Leadership and management
• Education
• Research and evaluation

¹https://www.hee.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/documents/The%20Principles%20of%20Enhanced%20Level%20Practice.pdf

These capabilities enable pharmacists to lead change, improve services, and influence practice beyond individual clinical encounters.

In summary, an enhanced pharmacist:

• Communicates information effectively and with confidence, tailoring approach to meet people’s needs.
• Takes a holistic, inclusive and person-centred approach to consultations.
• Collaborates with and supports the wider pharmacy and health and social care team to promote safe and effective care.
• Competently and confidently applies clinical knowledge and skills in practice.
• Critically evaluates relevant information to inform decision making, managing uncertainty and risk appropriately.
• Practises professionally within limits of own competence and scope of practice, referring or signposting appropriately.
• Leads the safe and effective use of medicines in their practice setting, proactively driving practice improvements.
• Demonstrates emotional intelligence, resilience, adaptability and professionalism under pressure.
• Develops their practice by identifying learning opportunities and reflecting on feedback.
• Supports the education and development of colleagues.
• Understands best practice in relation to research and evaluation activities and critically evaluates the evidence base to inform practice.
• Leads audit and/or contributes to quality improvement, service evaluation, or research activities and communicates findings effectively.

To support this, the enhanced curriculum mirrors the five-domain structure of the advanced and consultant curricula (Figure 1). This creates a coherent post-registration career pathway and aligns pharmacy with the four-pillar multiprofessional workforce model used across UK healthcare professions (Figure 2).

Figure 1 – RCPharm post-registration curriculum domains

Figure 2 – Patient-focussed pharmacist development pathway

The enhanced curriculum and the enhanced credential are designed to deliver the following value for system stakeholders:

Domain 1: Person-centred care and collaboration

An enhanced pharmacist:

C1: Communicates information effectively and with confidence, tailoring approach to meet people’s needs.

C2: Takes a holistic, inclusive and person-centred approach to consultations.

C3: Collaborates with and supports the wider pharmacy and health and social care team to promote safe and effective care.

To demonstrate entry-level enhanced practice in this domain, pharmacists must provide evidence from real-life practice demonstrating the following six curriculum outcomes:

Domain 2: Professional practice

An enhanced pharmacist:

C4: Competently and confidently applies clinical knowledge and skills in practice.

C5: Critically evaluates relevant information to inform decision making, managing uncertainty and risk appropriately.

C6: Practises professionally within limits of own competence and scope of practice, referring or signposting appropriately.

To demonstrate entry-level enhanced practice in this domain, pharmacists must provide evidence from real-life practice demonstrating the following six curriculum outcomes.

Domain 3: Leadership & management

An enhanced pharmacist:

C7: Leads the safe and effective use of medicines in their practice setting, proactively driving practice improvements.

C8: Demonstrates emotional intelligence, resilience, adaptability and professionalism under pressure.

To demonstrate entry-level enhanced practice in this domain, pharmacists must provide evidence from real-life practice demonstrating the following four curriculum outcomes:

Domain 4: Education

An enhanced pharmacist:

C9: Develops their practice by identifying learning opportunities and reflecting on feedback.

C10: Supports the education and development of colleagues.

To demonstrate entry-level enhanced practice in this domain, pharmacists must provide evidence from real-life practice demonstrating the following four curriculum outcomes:

² Indicators 4.3a, 4.3b, and 4.3c set out the knowledge and understanding that underpin the practical competence demonstrated in indicator 4.3d. The ‘does level’ activity in 4.3d provides evidence that this knowledge can be applied effectively in practice.

³Team-level education delivery is the delivery of an education session to a group of two or more participants at the same time, rather than providing education to an individual on a one-to-one basis.

Domain 5: Research & evaluation

An enhanced pharmacist:

C11: Understands best practice in relation to research and evaluation activities and critically evaluates the evidence base to inform practice.

C12: Leads audit and/or contributes to quality improvement, service evaluation, or research activities and communicates findings effectively.

To demonstrate entry-level enhanced practice in this domain, pharmacists must provide evidence from real-life practice demonstrating the following 4 curriculum outcomes:

We are committed to celebrating the diversity of the pharmacy profession and ensuring our curricula are inclusive and accessible to all. To ensure this, we have undertaken a full Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) of the curriculum and made a summary of the report available. This process ensures we seek feedback from diverse voices across the profession, including where possible:

• Pharmacists from different ethnicities.
• Pharmacists with disabilities.
• Pharmacists from across the spectrum of sexual orientation.
• Pharmacists from across the spectrum of gender.
• Pharmacists who work less than full-time.
• Pharmacists working in rural communities.
• Pharmacists who have taken a break from training e.g. those taking or who have taken family-friendly leave.

To successfully demonstrate the curriculum outcomes, pharmacists must have experience in a patient-focussed role within at least one sector of pharmacy practice. The curriculum outlines the core knowledge, skills, behaviours, and experience required to practise at an enhanced level across all sectors and countries. However, any additional training required for services specific to a particular sector or country sits outside the scope of this curriculum.

The curriculum is designed to be flexible, allowing pharmacists to tailor how they access and evidence their learning. This may include:

• Work-based learning
• Postgraduate academic study
• A hybrid approach

Pharmacists may choose to undertake formal, commissioned programmes aligned to the curriculum or develop an individualised learning pathway based on their practice needs and career goals.

A range of organisations, including employers, statutory education bodies, higher education institutions, and other training providers, play a key role in supporting pharmacist development at an enhanced level. This includes providing appropriate supervision, as well as access to structured educational and workplace-based learning opportunities.

Pharmacists undertaking enhanced credentialing pathways can work towards one of the following options:

• Full enhanced credential (all domains)
• Enhanced clinical modular credential (Domains 1 & 2)
• Enhanced non-clinical modular credential (Domains 3, 4 & 5)

The curriculum also incorporates recognition of Accredited Prior Certified Learning (APCL), particularly for those undertaking formal postgraduate study. This helps to avoid unnecessary duplication of assessment and supports efficient progression through the credentialing process.

The curriculum should be used to guide training and development opportunities, ensuring that pharmacists develop the knowledge, skills, and behaviours required to practise at an enhanced level.

Pharmacists will require exposure to a broad range of learning experiences. This includes working collaboratively with members of the pharmacy team as well as within the wider multidisciplinary team. Such experiences are essential to support the continued development of diagnostic, clinical, and pharmaceutical knowledge and skills, enabling pharmacists to establish and expand their individual scope of practice.

In addition, pharmacists should have opportunities to develop capabilities in leadership, education, and research and evaluation at an early stage in their enhanced practice journey.

The nature of these learning experiences will vary depending on the practice setting and training programme. They may include:

• Directed study
• Self-directed learning
• Peer learning
• Study days (virtual or face-to-face)
• Structured training courses
• Workplace-based learning

Suggested learning experiences to support both clinical and non-clinical capability development are included within the curriculum as indicators of the expected level of performance for each curriculum outcome. Further practical examples and guidance are provided in the curriculum toolkit and resources.

Pharmacists undertaking enhanced credentialing pathways will require access to a range of support mechanisms to enable their development and progression towards enhanced practice. These support structures are designed to facilitate and structure learning, provide guidance, and ensure pharmacists can demonstrate and evidence the required capabilities across the curriculum domains.

Support should be provided through three complementary roles: educational supervisors, practice supervisors, and collaborators. Each plays a distinct role in the pharmacist’s development and learning experience. While the roles of the different supervisors vary, it is possible that in some work settings / smaller organisations that one person may take on multiple roles.

Educational supervision

Educational supervision provides holistic, longitudinal support across the pharmacist’s learning journey on the enhanced credentialing pathway. Pharmacists undertaking enhanced credentialing should have a named pharmacist who is responsible for the overall supervision and management of their educational progress during the pathway.

The educational supervisor supports the pharmacist to:

• Plan and manage their overall progression through the pathway.
• Develop and maintain a portfolio of evidence for credentialing.
• Reflect on learning and professional development.
• Identify learning needs and access appropriate opportunities.

Educational supervisors provide continuity throughout the pathway and support the pharmacist to integrate learning from a range of experiences. This role may be delivered remotely and does not require the individual to be based within the same organisation. Educational supervisors do not need to be members of the Royal College of Pharmacy.

Practice supervision

Practice supervision supports day-to-day learning within the workplace and the application of knowledge and skills in real-world practice.

Practice supervisors:

• Support pharmacists to safely develop their scope of practice in real clinical and professional settings.
• Provide guidance, teaching, and regular feedback.
• Facilitate reflective discussions on practice.
• Help ensure safe and effective patient care through appropriate oversight.

Practice supervision may be delivered by a range of experienced professionals and may involve input from the wider multidisciplinary team. In some settings, elements of practice supervision may be delivered remotely.

Collaborators

Collaborators are individuals who support the generation of evidence from practice through observation, feedback, and professional judgement.

They contribute to learning by:

• Undertaking Supervised Learning Events (SLEs) in practice.
• Observing performance in real or simulated settings.
• Providing structured feedback to support development.
• Contributing to the evidence in the candidate’s e-Portfolio for credentialing.

Collaborators may:

• Work within or outside the pharmacist’s organisation, including remotely.
• Come from a range of professional backgrounds, including healthcare professionals, non-clinical colleagues, or patients.
• Also be the pharmacist’s educational supervisor.
• Also provide practice supervision.
• Undertake this role on a one-off or repeated basis.

Collaborators do not need to be pharmacists or members of the Royal College of Pharmacy and may contribute alongside supervisory roles depending on their experience.

Coordinating support

Pharmacists should engage with all three roles as part of their development and should act as a link between the educational supervisor and anyone else providing supervision or support. Regular, structured interactions, particularly with the educational supervisor, should support the creation of an individualised learning and development plan aligned to the curriculum.

All individuals involved in supporting learning should:

• Promote an inclusive and supportive learning environment.
• Provide constructive, high-quality feedback.
• Support reflective practice and the development of professional autonomy.
• Demonstrate awareness of equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Pharmacists working towards enhanced pharmacist credentialing will need to access support from a range of people to effectively demonstrate their capability against the enhanced pharmacist curriculum.

The programme of assessment leading to credentialing is designed to support pharmacists in demonstrating their capability to practise at an enhanced level, while ensuring consistency across sectors, practice settings and geographies.

Its purpose is to:

• Provide a consistent and comparable approach to assessment across different sectors and geographical contexts.
• Assess performance in the workplace aligned to the curriculum outcomes.
• Support learning through multiple low-stakes assessment activities, enabling timely feedback and reflection.
• Guide and motivate learning by clarifying expectations and required standards.
• Demonstrate that pharmacists have developed the knowledge, skills, behaviours, and experience required for enhanced practice.
• Provide assurance that pharmacists can deliver safe, effective, and person-centred care at an enhanced level.

Assessment within this curriculum follows a programmatic approach, where evidence of learning is built over time rather than relying on a single high-stakes assessment.

In this model, each individual assessment contributes a small amount of information about performance. While a single assessment provides limited insight, multiple data points collected over time combine to give a more accurate and meaningful picture of a pharmacist’s capability.

This approach reflects the nature of enhanced pharmacist practice, which requires the integration and application of knowledge, skills, and behaviours in real-world settings over time. These capabilities develop progressively and are best demonstrated through routine practice rather than isolated assessment events or “examinations”.

Programmatic assessment emphasises:

• Assessment in authentic practice environments.
• The use of multiple assessment methods and tools.
• The importance of professional judgement.
• Continuous feedback to support development.

This aligns with assessment at the highest level of Miller’s pyramid (‘Does’), where performance is demonstrated in everyday practice.

The credentialing assessment is underpinned by the following principles:

1. Multiple data points inform judgement

Each assessment represents a single piece or ‘data point’ of evidence. Decisions about progression are based on the aggregation and triangulation of multiple data points across different contexts using different SLEs and evidence types.

2. Assessment drives learning

Assessment activities are designed to promote ongoing meaningful learning. They clarify expectations and encourage engagement with future learning experiences.

3. High-quality feedback is central

Each assessment interaction should generate constructive, meaningful feedback to support reflection, identify development needs, and guide progression.

4. Flexible use of assessment methods and tools

A range of assessment tools may be used, depending on the learning and practice context. No single method is inherently superior; value is determined by how effectively it supports learning and provides useful insight into performance.

5. Professional judgement is essential

Assessment of complex capabilities relies on informed professional judgement from a range of contributors, including supervisors and collaborators such as colleagues and patients. These perspectives are essential in understanding performance in practice.

6. Low-stakes assessments inform high-stakes decisions

Individual assessment events are typically low stakes, focusing on development. The final credentialing decision is high stakes and is based on a holistic review of evidence over time.

7. Proportionality of evidence

The volume and depth of evidence required are proportionate to the level of risk associated with the activity, particularly where patient safety is a key consideration.

8. Robust decision-making and quality assurance

Final decisions are based on a comprehensive review of evidence, supported by trained assessors to ensure consistency, fairness, and credibility. This provides assurance that pharmacists meeting the standard are able to practise safely and effectively at an enhanced level.

Assessment decisions

Evidence in the e-portfolio is used to inform two key types of decisions:

1. Progress reviews
   
   Regular, formative reviews of the e-portfolio between the pharmacist and their educational supervisor to reflect on progress and identify any additional support or development needs.
   
2. Final credentialing decision
   
   A summative decision based on a holistic review of the portfolio of evidence by a trained RCPharm assessor, determining whether the pharmacist’s portfolio has demonstrated the curriculum requirements for enhanced practice.

Pharmacists on enhanced credentialing pathways will be provided with access to the enhanced pharmacist e-Portfolio.

The e-Portfolio supports the recording, organisation, and review of learning and assessment evidence against the curriculum outcomes throughout the duration of the pathway.

The e-Portfolio facilitates engagement with collaborators by enabling pharmacists to generate and share Supervised Learning Events (SLEs). This allows collaborators to observe practice, provide feedback, and contribute to the development of evidence within the portfolio.

Educational supervisors and practice supervisors will also have access to the e- portfolio. This enables them to:

• Contribute to SLEs.
• Provide structured feedback.
• Review evidence submitted against the curriculum outcomes.
• Support progression through ongoing engagement with the pharmacist.

Pharmacists can use the e-Portfolio to document the outcomes of meetings with their educational supervisor using structured report templates. These records support reflection on progress and the development of action plans to guide ongoing learning and development.

SLEs are a key component of the learning and assessment approach within this curriculum. They provide structured opportunities for pharmacists to learn from practice, supported by observation, feedback, and reflection.

SLEs are designed to support authentic, workplace-based learning, enabling pharmacists to demonstrate and further develop their knowledge, skills, and behaviours in real practice settings. They are widely used across healthcare education as an effective method of linking learning to day-to-day professional practice.

Each SLE should include a formative element, with a focus on providing timely, high-quality feedback. This supports pharmacists to reflect on their performance, recognise strengths, and identify areas for further development in relation to the curriculum outcomes.

SLEs are not pass/fail assessments. Instead, they contribute to the overall body of evidence collected over time and are considered as part of the holistic review of progress and the final credentialing decision.

Learning opportunities for SLEs should arise naturally from routine practice. Pharmacists are encouraged to engage regularly in SLEs, using everyday clinical and professional interactions as opportunities for observation, feedback, and reflection. As a guide, this process should occur frequently (for example, on a weekly basis), recognising that the exact frequency will depend on the practice setting and individual needs.

Pharmacists are likely to gain the greatest benefit from SLEs when feedback is obtained from a range of collaborators, including members of the multidisciplinary team. This supports the development of a broad and well-rounded perspective on practice.

SLEs may be conducted:

• In person, or
• Remotely, using appropriate digital technologies where suitable for the learning context.

All SLEs must be conducted in accordance with relevant information governance requirements, ensuring that patient confidentiality and data protection are maintained at all times.

Where approved remote technologies are used to support SLEs (for example, through recording video or telephone consultations), recordings must be managed in line with local information governance policies. Recordings should not be stored within the e-Portfolio. Learners and supervisors should follow local guidance on obtaining informed consent and on the appropriate handling of audio or visual data, including secure storage, access, and disposal.

A range of SLE tools will be available within the enhanced pharmacist e-Portfolio for use by pharmacists on the credentialing pathways, as well as their supervisors and collaborators. These tools support the documentation of learning and provide evidence of progression towards, and demonstration of, the curriculum outcomes.

Pharmacists are not expected to use all available tools. The choice of SLE tools should be guided by the practice setting, learning needs, and context, recognising that some tools are more suited to particular environments or modes of working, including remote practice.

Pharmacists may also upload other locally developed SLE forms to supplement their evidence, where required.

In addition to SLEs, pharmacists are expected to include a range of evidence types within their e-Portfolio to demonstrate the curriculum outcomes.

This broader evidence base enables pharmacists to demonstrate their development across different contexts and to reflect the full scope and level of their practice. It supports a more comprehensive understanding of performance, including activities that may not be directly observed through SLEs.

Pharmacists are encouraged to select and upload evidence of their practice ‘outputs’ that best demonstrate their progression and capability. Evidence should be relevant, aligned to the curriculum outcomes, supported by reflection and, where possible, corroborated through a SLE or testimonial.

Examples of uploaded evidence may include, but are not limited to:

• Anonymised written feedback from patients and colleagues.
• Anonymised documentation demonstrating involvement in activities such as significant event analysis, risk management, service development, or formulary management.
• Recordings of presentations or meetings (where appropriate and compliant with information governance requirements).
• Evidence of completing training courses
• Minutes of meetings demonstrating contribution and engagement.
• Anonymised responses to clinical enquiries relating to medicines.
• Training plans and learner feedback forms.
• Personal development plans.
• Audit, QI, service evaluation, or research reports.
• Conference abstracts or posters.

Formative feedback and progression

Providing high-quality formative feedback is central to effective programmatic assessment and to supporting ongoing professional development. Pharmacists undertaking this pathway should receive regular, meaningful feedback from a wide range of sources to inform their learning, support reflection, and guide progression towards the curriculum outcomes.

Feedback should be obtained from a variety of collaborators, including:

• Colleagues within and outside the pharmacist’s organisation.
• Members of the pharmacy team and wider health and social care teams.
• Peers and more experienced healthcare professionals.
• Patients, carers, and advocates.

Engagement with diverse perspectives supports a more comprehensive understanding of performance and helps to develop a well-rounded, person-centred approach to practice.

Formative assessment opportunities, particularly through SLEs, should encourage pharmacists to reflect on their practice, identify strengths and areas for development, and take appropriate action to support their learning. Over time, the portfolio should demonstrate how feedback has been used to support progression and development.

Role of educational supervision

In addition to feedback arising from day-to-day practice, pharmacists should receive structured formative feedback through regular review meetings with their educational supervisor. This feedback is typically broader in scope and focuses on overall progress across the curriculum or within specific domains towards credentialing.

Educational supervisor discussions should:

• Support reflection on progress and development towards credentialing.
• Help identify learning needs and priorities to meet the standard for credentialing.
• Inform ongoing training and development plans.

A summary of these discussions should be documented within the educational supervisor reports.

Supporting progression

Regular review and feedback provide an opportunity to identify when additional support may be required. This may arise where progress is affected by factors such as limited learning opportunities, time away from practice, or challenges within the workplace.

Pharmacists are encouraged to work proactively with their educational supervisor and employer to address any issues that may impact their progression. Early identification and appropriate support are key to ensuring continued development and successful achievement of the curriculum outcomes.

Evidence of reflective practice should be demonstrated throughout the e-Portfolio, showing how learning and development evolve over time. Reflection should be integrated across different types of evidence, rather than presented as isolated entries.

Where appropriate, reflective accounts should be supported by corroborating evidence to strengthen the link between reflection and practice. This may include documentation, feedback, or outputs that validate the learning described.

It is recognised that reflection may not always be recorded contemporaneously with the learning event. Where there has been a delay, retrospective reflection is acceptable, provided it demonstrates meaningful insight into practice and learning.

Pharmacists undertaking enhanced credentialing pathways can choose to work towards one of the following enhanced credentialing options:

• Full enhanced credential (all domains)
• Enhanced clinical modular credential (Domains 1 & 2)
• Enhanced non-clinical modular credential (Domains 3, 4 & 5)

Pharmacists may submit their e-Portfolio for credentialing when they judge that they have gathered sufficient evidence to demonstrate the curriculum outcomes for the credentialing option they are following.

The final credentialing decision is made by an enhanced credentialing assessor who will review the portfolio to determine whether the pharmacist has demonstrated the required level of performance for entry-level enhanced practice. This is done through a holistic review of the portfolio, drawing on the range of assessment data and evidence collected throughout the pathway. This includes information from SLEs, additional evidence, feedback from supervisors and collaborators and reflection.

Assessment outcomes

• To be credentialled at entry level enhanced a pharmacist must successfully meet the standard against all five domains.
• For a clinical modular credential, a pharmacist must meet the standard for all the outcomes in domains 1 & 2.
• For a non-clinical modular credential, a pharmacist must meet the standard for all the outcomes in domain 3, 4 and 5.

For each domain being assessed, pharmacists will receive one of the following assessment outcomes:

Domain met: Sufficient evidence has been provided to demonstrate achievement of all curriculum outcomes within the domain.

Domain not evidenced: Insufficient evidence has been provided to demonstrate achievement of one or more curriculum outcomes within the domain.

Where a domain has not been evidenced, specific feedback will be provided on which curriculum outcome(s) were not evidenced and what action the pharmacist needs to take to meet the curriculum outcome(s) on resubmission. The pharmacist may then undertake additional learning and submit further evidence for reassessment in the relevant domain(s).

All applicants will receive feedback on their portfolio, regardless of the assessment outcome, to support continued professional development.

The evidence requirements for the credentialing assessment are outlined in detail within the assessment blueprint (Section 5.12).

The curriculum adopts a flexible and proportionate approach to evidence, recognising that pharmacists will demonstrate capability in different ways depending on their role, practice setting, and learning experiences.

For some curriculum outcomes, it is necessary for performance to be demonstrated through direct observation of practice. In many cases, this may be facilitated through the use of appropriate remote technologies, where suitable and in line with information governance requirements.

Where demonstration of practice is required, SLEs (including multi-source feedback) are likely to provide the most robust and meaningful evidence to support credentialing decisions.

Volume and breadth of evidence

The number of pieces of evidence required to demonstrate achievement of a curriculum outcome will vary depending on:

• The individual’s scope and area of practice.
• The individual’s own pace of progression towards the standard.
• The level of risk associated with the curriculum outcome (stakes rating – see below).
• The range, quality, and breadth of evidence presented.

Pharmacists are strongly encouraged to use the indicators of expected performance for each curriculum outcome to guide their evidence generation and selection. Supervisors and collaborators should also be familiar with these indicators to support meaningful feedback and narrative within SLEs.

As a general guide, the number of pieces of evidence which clearly demonstrate the required standard mapped to each of the curriculum outcomes should be:

These ranges are indicative and should not be interpreted as prescriptive minimums. Greater emphasis is placed on the quality, relevance, and consistency of evidence than on the quantity alone.

What counts as a piece of evidence?

A piece of evidence is the collection of material used to demonstrate that an activity completed in practice demonstrates a curriculum outcome. It may consist of a single upload or multiple uploads where needed.

As a general guide, each piece of evidence should demonstrate evidence triangulation, which includes three elements which may be comprised of one or more uploads:

• Output – The work you completed or the activity you undertook (for example, the plan and materials you used to deliver a teaching session, a medicines governance document like an SOP or protocol etc.).
• Corroboration – Independent confirmation that the activity took place and was completed to the appropriate standard (such as a supervisor’s corroboration as part of an ESR, a collaborator’s testimonial or judgment as part of a completed SLE).
• Reflection – Your own evaluation of the experience, including what you learned, what went well, and how it will influence your future practice.

In some cases, all three elements may be contained within a single SLE form. In other cases, more than one upload may be required to provide the complete evidence triad and create a single full piece of evidence. The focus is on ensuring that the evidence collectively demonstrates the activity performed, independent verification, and reflective learning.

Each curriculum outcome is assigned a stakes rating of High, Medium, or Low. This reflects the potential level of risk associated with the curriculum outcome, particularly in relation to patient safety.

The stakes rating does not indicate the importance of a curriculum outcome. All curriculum outcomes are considered equally important in demonstrating enhanced level practice, and all must be achieved to be credentialed.

The table outlines potential methods of assessment for each curriculum outcome. It is not expected that all assessment tools will be used for every outcome, and additional forms of evidence may also be used where appropriate.

⁴ Testimonial form (TEST) is a structured tool used to provide feedback on a candidate’s performance when no other Supervised Learning Event (SLE) assessment is suitable.

H = high stakes, M = medium stakes, L = low stakes

Direct observation: Pharmacist must be observed undertaking activities. Can be done remotely and / or retrospectively (NB includes MSF and PCF).

Indirect observation: Requires discussion between collaborator and learner. Can be done remotely.

Blank: No specific interaction required.

We want to minimise unnecessary duplication of assessment while maintaining our responsibility to assure practice for patients and the public. To support this, we operate an Accreditation of Prior Certified Learning (APCL) process with organisations delivering education against our curriculum.

APCL exemptions are granted via agreements with universities and other education providers whose courses’ learning outcomes have been granted ACPL exemptions against the enhanced curriculum and are listed on the RCPharm APCL directory. If a candidate has a certificate from any of these providers, candidates will automatically receive the exemptions agreed with the training provider following certified proof of course completion.

Quality assurance mechanisms are in place to ensure the continued quality of the credentialing assessment to ensure assessment outcomes are reliable, fair and valid.

Assessor training and governance

All enhanced credentialing assessors are required to complete training prior to undertaking assessment of portfolios. This includes preparation in:

• Applying the assessment standards consistently.
• Using professional judgement appropriately.
• Recognising and mitigating potential sources of bias.

Assessors are required to declare any potential conflicts of interest prior to reviewing a portfolio to ensure independence and fairness in decision-making.

A lead assessor as well as the relevant RCPharm education governance bodies oversee the credentialing process, providing additional support and scrutiny and ensuring consistency in the application of standards.

Quality assurance processes

A range of quality assurance measures are also in place to support the integrity of the assessment:

• Moderation of assessment decisions: A sample of assessed portfolios in each diet is reviewed by the lead assessor to ensure consistency and quality in decision-making.
• Appeals process: A transparent appeals process is available for individuals who believe their assessment outcome has been affected by procedural or administrative issues.
• Performance monitoring: Learner performance and assessment outcome data are subject to analysis and reviewed regularly by RCPharm staff, the lead assessor and relevant RCPharm educational governance bodies to identify trends and ensure consistency over time.
• Training and guidance for contributors: Supervisors and collaborators are provided with guidance to support their roles and enhance the quality of feedback and support provided.
• Ongoing review and evaluation: The curriculum, including the credentialing assessment, undergoes regular review by the relevant RCPharm educational governance bodies to ensure it remains relevant and fit for purpose.

We are committed to developing and delivering inclusive and equitable assessment processes, ensuring that all individuals can demonstrate achievement of the curriculum outcomes without bias or discrimination.

In addition to the measures outlined in Section 3.2, several approaches are in place to support fairness and mitigate potential bias within the credentialing assessment. These include:

• Inclusive governance structures: Promoting diversity within assessment and governance groups to reflect the diversity of the profession and those undertaking credentialing pathways.
• Assessor training: Requiring all assessors to complete mandatory training, including awareness of conscious and unconscious bias.
• Leadership and oversight: Appointment of a lead assessor to support consistency and oversight in decision-making, including ensuring inclusive approaches to assessment.
• Monitoring differential attainment: Oversight by the relevant RCPharm governance bodies to identify and address variation in outcomes across different groups.
• Transparency of data: Collection and publication of equality and diversity data relating to assessment performance in our annual credentialing reports.
• Reasonable adjustments: Provision of clear processes to support reasonable adjustments for individuals with disabilities or additional needs.

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