How we considered equality, access and inclusion in the Enhanced Pharmacist Curriculum and credentialing process.

1. What we assessed

The Enhanced Pharmacist Curriculum sets out the knowledge, skills, behaviours and level of performance expected of pharmacists developing their practice after registration. It supports pharmacists in patient-focused roles to build confidence and practise with greater autonomy, including as prescribers. It also supports development across leadership, education, research and evaluation.

Pharmacists who choose to seek an RCPharm credential will build an electronic portfolio containing supervised learning events from the workplace and other appropriate evidence. Evidence is mapped to the curriculum outcomes and reviewed for a final credentialing decision, with sampled moderation providing quality assurance.

The pathway offers three submission options:

• Enhanced clinical credential – curriculum domains 1 and 2
• Enhanced non-clinical credential – curriculum domains 3, 4 and 5
• Full enhanced credential – all five curriculum domains

The modular options are intended to make progress more manageable. There is no fixed time limit for completing the portfolio, recognising that professional development takes place at different rates and alongside work and personal commitments.

2. How we gathered evidence

The assessment used the Equality Act 2010 as its principal framework. This includes avoiding discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity and making reasonable adjustments for disabled

people. Welsh-language access and the circumstances of people working in rural or remote areas were also considered.

Evidence and views were gathered through:

• A UK-wide steering group and task-and-finish groups involving practising pharmacists, academics, educational commissioning bodies, early-career pharmacists, pharmacy students and patient representatives.
• Representation from community pharmacy, GP practice and secondary care, as well as all four UK nations.
• Iterative engagement and a full open consultation, including a specific question about possible positive or negative effects on people sharing protected characteristics.
• An internal review followed by a focused equality impact assessment workshop, with external volunteers invited to challenge and develop the findings.

3. What we considered

The assessment considered age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. It also considered caring responsibilities, socioeconomic circumstances and financial cost, Welsh-language access, and rural or remote practice.

Most protected characteristics were assessed as having a neutral impact once existing safeguards and planned actions were taken into account. Potential negative effects were identified in relation to carers and Welsh-language access. Financial pressures and unequal access to workplace opportunities were also identified as important cross-cutting considerations.

4. Main findings

Time, work and personal circumstances

People may need different amounts of time to complete the pathway. Part-time or shift working, caring responsibilities, pregnancy, family leave, disability or ill health, fertility treatment, religious commitments, career breaks and major life events can all affect access to learning activities or the time available to build a portfolio. Carers may also experience a disproportionate financial impact where learning or assessment is not employer-funded.

To mitigate this, RCPharm will:

• Release submission dates in advance.
• Record webinars.
• Provide learning in different formats.
• Retaining an open-ended completion period.
• Offer modular credential options at enhanced level.

Disability, accessibility and digital confidence

The amount of written information and the use of an electronic portfolio could create barriers for some disabled or neurodiverse pharmacists, people with learning differences, and people who are less confident using digital technology. Some people may also need to submit evidence in formats other than writing.

To mitigate this, RCPharm will:

• Provide information about the pathway in different formats.
• Record webinars.
• Explain how alternative evidence formats can be used e.g. audio or video reflection.
• Explain how reasonable adjustments can be requested.
• Maintain Level AA website accessibility.
• Test compatibility between the e-Portfolio with commonly used text-to-speech software.

Bias and subjectivity in assessment

Bias could arise in workplace observations or the final portfolio review. It may relate to a single protected characteristic or a combination of characteristics. Workplace assessment also involves professional judgement, so no individual observation should carry enough weight to determine the overall result.

To mitigate this, RCPharm will:

• Ensure portfolio assessors draw on different types of evidence and observations from a range of workplace collaborators.
• Not share candidate demographic information collected for internal differential attainment monitoring with assessors or others making decisions about an individual portfolio.
• Provide assessors with mandatory training, including consideration of unconscious and conscious bias
• Quality assure results through moderation and lead assessor oversight
• RCPharm will also recruit actively for a diverse assessor pool.

Access across sectors, roles and locations

Although the curriculum has been designed for use across sectors, some evidence may be more difficult to obtain in particular settings. This may particularly affect community pharmacists, locums and pharmacists working in rural or remote areas, especially where access to supervision, prescribing opportunities or protected learning time is limited. Evidence gathered during

consultation also suggested that Black and Asian pharmacists may be more likely to work as locums, potentially making this a wider equality issue.

RCPharm cannot control entry requirements or employment arrangements for commissioned training programmes. It will, however, seek to mitigate this by:

• Providing realistic examples of evidence.
• Providing guidance on undertaking supervised learning events remotely.
• Building in flexibility in how appropriate evidence is generated and presented.

Welsh language and financial access

Welsh-language access was identified as a potential negative impact. Pharmacists working in Wales contributed to the curriculum development groups. RCPharm will:

• Work with Health Education and Improvement Wales where there is a need to translate the curriculum or support documentation into Welsh.

Assessment fees may be a barrier for people with lower financial means, particularly where employers do not provide funding or where someone uses a modular approach to the full credential.

RCPharm will:

• Publish fees clearly and explain how these cover assessment delivery and assessor costs.
• Clearly communicate that membership of RCPharm will not be required to access pathway information, the curriculum or the credentialing assessment.

5. Monitoring and accountability

Equality impact assessment is an ongoing process. Through our educational governance processes, RCPharm will:

• Monitor who is engaged with the pathway, who submits for credentialling and successful completion rates by protected characteristic.
• Report non-identifiable equality and diversity information transparently through the annual credentialing report.
• Review the diversity of webinar presenters and educators.

6. What this means for pharmacists and stakeholders

• Pharmacists can complete the pathway at a pace that reflects their circumstances and can use modular credentials where this is more manageable.
• Reasonable adjustments and alternative evidence formats will be available where required.
• Employers and supervisors should support fair access to supervision, learning opportunities and protected development time across different sectors and working arrangements.
• RCPharm will monitor outcomes rather than assuming that the intended safeguards are sufficient, and will act where evidence of inequality emerges.

Our commitment: to keep the Enhanced Pharmacist Curriculum and credentialing process fair, accessible and responsive to evidence as the pathway is implemented.