Royal College celebrates 92% success in latest advanced credentialing round
Published: 24 July 2026
Pharmacists working across community pharmacy, general practice and secondary care have achieved a 92% pass rate in the Royal College of Pharmacy’s latest round of advanced credentialing.
Credentialing plays an increasingly important role across healthcare by providing independent assurance that professionals have the knowledge, skills and experience to deliver care at an advanced level. For patients, it helps build confidence that healthcare practitioners are meeting nationally recognised standards, supports high-quality and consistent care, and contributes to safer clinical decision-making.
Candidates in the cohort had been supported through advanced-level development programmes provided by the Centre of Postgraduate Pharmacy Education, Public Services Delivery Scotland and University College London. Their success reflects the commitment of the pharmacists themselves, and the collaborative support provided by programme teams, supervisors, collaborators, employers and assessors.
The cohort also marked two significant milestones for the profession. It included the first pharmacist to be credentialed as an advanced pharmacist in critical care through the collaborative Royal College and UK Clinical Pharmacy Association joint credentialing pathway.
In Scotland, the cohort included the third community pharmacist to achieve Royal College credentialing at advanced level. This important achievement demonstrates that advanced practice can be developed and recognised across a breadth of pharmacy sectors and roles, and highlights the increasing clinical contribution community pharmacists are making to patient care.
Deputy Superintendent Pharmacist Michelle Frazier MRCPharm (Advanced), from Crimond Pharmacy, said:
“Achieving Advanced Credentialing is a milestone that I am incredibly proud of. Community pharmacy has evolved significantly, and pharmacists are delivering increasingly complex clinical care every day. Completing the credentialing process gave me the opportunity to reflect on my own practice, recognise how much it has developed over the years, and demonstrate that against nationally recognised standards.
“For me, this achievement is not just about recognition; it is about demonstrating the value that community pharmacists bring to patient care and showing that advanced practice is firmly established within our sector. I hope it encourages other community pharmacists to have confidence in their own expertise and to see credentialing as an achievable and worthwhile step in their professional development.”
Joseph Oakley, Associate Director of Assessment and Credentialing at the Royal College of Pharmacy said:
“A 92% success rate is a tremendous achievement and reflects the expertise, dedication and commitment of this cohort. It also demonstrates what can be achieved when pharmacists, employers, education providers, professional groups and the College work together around a shared vision for the profession.
“We are particularly pleased to celebrate achievements in critical care and community pharmacy. Advanced practice exists across sectors and settings, and it is essential that pharmacists have equitable opportunities for their expertise and impact on patient care to be recognised.
“Credentialing is about more than receiving a new professional badge. It provides independent assurance that pharmacists have demonstrated their capability against nationally recognised standards aligned to other advanced roles in healthcare, giving pharmacists confidence, employers assurance and patients trust.”
The College’s curricula and credentialing pathways form part of its career-long approach to supporting pharmacists from their early post-registration development through to advanced and consultant practice. As pharmacists take on increasingly autonomous clinical and prescribing responsibilities, this combination of structured workplace development, shared professional standards and robust credentialing will become increasingly important.
This approach will also underpin the forthcoming Enhanced Curriculum and Credentialing Pathway, which will support newly qualified pharmacist prescribers to develop their knowledge, skills and professional judgement through real-world practice and provide a clear bridge towards advanced and consultant-level practice.
The Royal College of Pharmacy congratulates everyone who participated in the latest credentialing round and thanks the programme providers, assessors, supervisors, employers and partner organisations whose collaboration supported their achievement.
Find out more about RCPharm credentialing.
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Royal College of Pharmacy renews focus on education for pharmacists across all sectors
The Royal College of Pharmacy (RCPharm) is launching a range of education, credentialing and professional support initiatives designed to support and strengthen its education offer for pharmacists at every career stage and in every setting. As the role of pharmacy professionals continues to expand across health systems – including advances in medicines, technology and increased pharmacist prescribing – education, credentialing and professional development remain essential to advancing pharmacy practice and assuring patient safety. Ongoing learning and professional development helps pharmacists strengthen their clinical capability, respond effectively to change and flourish in their practice and career. Louise Goldring, Director of Education at RCPharm comments: “We know that pharmacists will increasingly have a career that spans multiple sectors and settings of practice and we are committed to developing the support, learning and assurance mechanisms that respond to the realities of modern pharmacy practice and enable pharmacists to flourish whatever their chosen career path. “The College is building on the foundations already in place and embarking on an ambitious educational future, working with pharmacy and education stakeholders and listening to the needs of our members and the wider pharmacy community to ensure our education and learning supports pharmacists across their whole professional journey: setting standards, supporting learning and professional development, assuring and recognising advancement and helping pharmacists practice with confidence. “We will continue to introduce education and professional support that helps pharmacists develop, thrive and deliver excellence for patients.” Newly qualified pharmacists support hub for College members: Launching today (Friday 24 July 2026), From Qualified to Confident is a uniquely cross-sector combination of support and learning designed to help newly qualified pharmacists continue to develop as pharmacists while building confidence, capability and judgement in safe and effective practice. Developed in collaboration with experts and leaders across pharmacy and across GB, From Qualified to Confident is designed to complement employer-led training and NHS provision in England, Scotland and Wales. It provides consistent, cross-sector support for pharmacists in every practice setting, helping them develop the capability and judgement needed to practice safely, recognising the responsibility every prescribing decision carries and providing both real time support and reflective education to meet those needs. Enhanced curriculum and credentialing pathway: Launching in September 2026, the enhanced curriculum and credentialing pathway is the Royal College of Pharmacy’s national pathway for supporting newly qualified pharmacist prescribers from newly registered to confident prescribers. Registration is the beginning of a professional journey. Safe and confident prescribing develops through experience, high-quality support and supervision, feedback and reflection – not through registration alone. The pathway will provide the structure pharmacists need to build their clinical skills, professional judgement and confidence through real-world practice. It will also support pharmacists to become well-rounded professionals who can lead improvements, educate others and use evidence to deliver better patient care. Designed for patient-focused practice, it can be used across community pharmacy, primary care, secondary care and other settings. Built for the profession, by the profession, the pathway has been shaped by pharmacists, employers, educators, patients and healthcare partners across every sector and all four UK nations with patient and multidisciplinary voices embedded from the outset. A new e-portfolio will help pharmacists capture evidence of their learning, feedback and practice. RCPharm credentialing will recognise those who demonstrate the enhanced standard, giving pharmacists confidence and recognition, employers and other professions assurance, and patients trust in the care they receive. The enhanced curriculum and credentialing pathway are distinct from the accompanying member support package, and RCPharm membership will not be required to access them. Support and learning for community pharmacists: The College has developed clinical and practical learning that will help community pharmacists prepare for the expanding role of pharmacy services across Great Britain. Content on the College's flagship education and learning platform RCPharm Learn will support pharmacists delivering Pharmacy First services in England and Scotland, and the Pharmacy Independent Prescribing Service in Wales. The resources include clinical learning in key conditions and a focus on practice skills including consultation skills, clinical assessments and remote consultations. RCPharm Learn resources are offered in multiple formats to support different learning styles and preferences. The College is committed to the continued development of education in response to changes in pharmacy practice and informed by member feedback. President of the Royal College of Pharmacy, Tase Oputu said: “The announcement of these ambitious plans to support newly qualified pharmacists, including the forthcoming launch of our enhanced curriculum and credentialing pathway, and our continued work to support pharmacists in community settings, really sets the pace for the College over the coming months as we move towards our goal of providing lifelong learning that prepares, supports and enables pharmacists achieve to excellence in practice and success in any role. “As we develop our long-term strategy, our focus on education, credentialing and enabling excellence in practice will continue to provide career-defining education that enables pharmacists, particularly our members, to excel in practice, grow their skills and deliver for patients and the public wherever they choose to practice.” Explore the newly qualified pharmacists support hub: From Qualified to Confident. Read more news stories.
Our response to Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists open letter
This letter was published when the organisation was the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Following the open letter sent to us by the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists (GHP), we have responded to them and have set out our response below: Dear Rob, Thank you for your recent letter concerning our Constitution and Governance Review. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is currently engaged in a conversation with our members and the wider profession about our proposals for change and our ambition to become a Royal College. These proposals are being set out for pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists (whether members or not) via a series of ‘roadshow’ engagement events across GB during October and November. A recurring focus of the conversations we are having at these events is our ambitions to integrate credentialing into the profession; some of the questions about credentialing are echoed in the Guild Council’s letter. We are happy to clarify the benefits we envisage will flow from the further embedding of credentialing and to address some of the other points raised by the Guild Council. The key purpose of RPS credentialing is to protect the public and the integrity of the pharmacy profession through assuring patient-focused pharmacists (i.e., roles that have a direct impact on individual patients and/or patient populations) working at advancing levels of post-registration practice. Defining and assuring post-registration professional standards is a fundamental activity for a royal college and thus fully aligned with our proposals for change. Credentialing provides considerable benefits for pharmacists and the system. For a pharmacist, credentialing can support a standard professional career structure which offers potential for advancement. Credentialing also engenders professional confidence and pride, increases professional cohesion and provides a mechanism by which the skills and capabilities of an individual are recognised. We have also heard from candidates about the benefits they have gained from successfully undertaking credentialing; including increased confidence, improved practice and greater integration within the wider multidisciplinary team. For the employer and wider system, credentialing provides an objective and validated assurance mechanism for employee capability within and across organisations which can inform fair and valid career progression and recruitment decisions, assure consistency across the system and improve workforce portability. It also provides a mechanism by which other health professionals and patients can recognise the level of practice of the pharmacy workforce. We have heard of pharmacists having to ‘re-prove’ their level of practice when they have moved employer, sector, or location, with some having to restart a training pathway from scratch to meet specific regional or national training requirements. This is not efficient or effective for the service, the employer or the pharmacist and is addressed by embedding credentialing in the profession. RPS, in collaboration with the pharmacy profession, has been developing our credentialing model over the last 4 to 5 years and we recognise there is much work ahead of us, in continued partnership with many others in the pharmacy ecosystem, to ensure the full value of credentialing can be realised to the benefit of pharmacists, patients and the public. The changes and opportunities that lie ahead for the pharmacy profession act as a call for action for this change. Medicines, and therefore pharmacy practice, are advancing and becoming more complex; this is mirrored by patients’ healthcare needs. In tandem, the role of the pharmacist in delivering healthcare services within the wider multidisciplinary team is evolving rapidly across community, primary, and secondary care settings, including the prescribing of medicines from point of registration from 2026. We recognise that collaboration is vital in order to enable the integration of credentialing, and we are committed to continued engagement with employers across GB during 2025 and beyond to highlight the value of credentialing for them and their employed pharmacists. We will continue working closely with the Chief Pharmaceutical Officers, Pharmacy Deans and other NHS leaders, and will collaborate with professional representative bodies and other stakeholders, to demonstrate the value credentialing brings to the profession, patients and the wider healthcare system. Introducing a formal progression model into the post-registration space will involve additional effort and cost but we believe that these will be proportionate to the benefit (to patients, pharmacists and the profession) they will bring. NHS education commissioners have already supported pharmacists to engage with credentialing by, for example, providing access to the RPS post-registration foundation e-Portfolio, supporting post-registration foundation candidates through credentialing via national training programmes and funding candidates through core advanced credentialing. We will continue to advocate for employer and system support for the further rollout of credentialing. Credentialing has already been integrated into NHS policy as a requirement to progress to consultant pharmacist roles, in all sectors, including the NHS managed sector, as articulated in the NHS Consultant Pharmacist Guidance. Integrating all levels of credentialing meaningfully into the profession will require collective action and support and achieving this will not be achieved by the RPS or any future royal college in isolation. To be fully woven into the profession, credentialing needs to be integrated into job descriptions, job plans and career progression (including remuneration). We continue to drive for this through our advocacy work. And of course, pharmacists need to be supported. We agree that ensuring pharmacists have the time, space and support to develop professional practice portfolios is essential to integrating credentialing meaningfully in the profession. We have advocated for this through our Protected Learning Time policy and we recognise the need for more effective job planning. RPS curricula describe the recommended level of commitment from employers required to support a pharmacist undergoing a credentialing pathway. We’d like to emphasise that RPS credentialing is not a micro credential in a specific area of clinical practice but the assurance of a level of practice. When credentialing at core advanced level, we are assuring clinical and non-clinical capabilities (for example leadership) which align to the multiprofessional definitions of advanced practice in other professions. Where there is a patient and system need for specific clinical definition and assurance, we will continue to collaboratively develop specialist curricula, as we have done recently in critical care with the UK Clinical Pharmacy Association (UKCPA) and mental health in collaboration with the College of Mental Health Pharmacy (CMHP). The requirements of the specialist curricula can be demonstrated at the same time as the core advanced credentialing process or separately, depending on the pharmacist’s career preferences. Moving away from the question of credentialing and considering the wider ambitions of our proposal for change, we must consider governance. Governance mechanisms exist to ensure appropriate decisions are made in line with the organisation’s ambitions. Our rigorous governance review aims to embed transparency in the way we work and ensure that the future Royal College remains led by the profession. Our intent to register as a charity further ensures that there are appropriate external frameworks and scrutiny in place so that we meet our intended objective of advancing the science and practice of pharmacy, with patient and public benefit at the forefront of our work. We look forward to constructive dialogue with the Guild Council over the coming months as we refine our proposals for change and prepare to set the final proposition before our membership for a vote in early 2025. Meanwhile we invite Guild members together with all pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists to attend one of our roadshow events and/or to find out more about the proposals for change. Yours sincerely, Paul Bennett FRPharmS, Chief Executive, Royal Pharmaceutical Society