Following the publication of the joint letter to pharmacy owners about changes to the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) in 2025/26, published on 31st March 2025, we have been working with NHS England and DHSC to finalise all the necessary requirements for the agreed changes to the contract to be introduced.
This has included NHS England working with the NHSBSA and clinical IT system suppliers to update their systems in alignment with the agreed CPCF changes. Now that this work on updating the IT systems is well advanced, it is possible to set provisional dates for the commencement of the various changes to the CPCF.
Further information on each change is included below including the provisional dates for the launch of the three key elements. NHS England will confirm the various commencement dates nearer the time, via their Primary Care Bulletin, subject to receiving confirmation that the necessary changes to the clinical IT systems will be made on schedule.
DHSC has also communicated this information via the NHSBSA website and an email sent to all pharmacy owners by the NHSBSA.
Revised Pharmacy First Clinical Pathways
We previously alerted pharmacy owners to the publication of draft updated clinical pathways and PGDs for the Pharmacy First service.
The revisions to these documents followed a clinical review of the clinical pathways conducted by NHS England with input from clinical experts and frontline community pharmacists.
Download the DRAFT versions of the clinical pathways and PGDs
The provisional date for commencement of use of the new clinical pathways and PGDs is Wednesday 1st October 2025.
IT system suppliers are planning to amend their existing systems to incorporate the updates to the service on the night of 30th September 2025, so that from 1st October 2025, the updated service can be provided in accordance with the updated service documentation.
The updated documentation will be published on the NHS England website on 1st October 2025.
Pharmacy Contraception Service (PCS)
On Wednesday 29th October 2025, the PCS will expand to include the provision of oral emergency contraception (EC). In addition, the service will be updated to allow pharmacy technicians to provide the service from that day. These changes will be reflected in the service specification, PGDs and consultation records provided by IT system suppliers.
The updated service specification, amended oral contraception PGDs and new PGDs for levonorgestrel and ulipristal were published on the NHSBSA website in June to provide advance notice to pharmacy owners and their teams of the changes.
Download the DRAFT documents from the NHSBSA website
Further minor changes will be made to the PGDs (both new and existing for COC and POP), and these will be published in draft form on the NHSBSA website and will be published on the NHS England website on the commencement date.
We have also published a briefing setting out the key changes to the PCS service specification:
Download the Community Pharmacy England briefing on the PCS changes
Pharmacy owners who are currently registered to provide the service and intend to continue providing it (including oral EC), are not required to take any action regarding service registration.
Pharmacy owners who are registered and do not wish to provide oral EC need to de-register from the existing service via the NHSBSA’s MYS portal by 29th September 2025. In that circumstance, pharmacy owners should note that de-registering from the service after 31st August 2025 will make them unable to fulfil the gateway criteria for the Pharmacy Quality Scheme 2025/26, and consequently any Aspiration payments they have already received will be re-claimed from them at a future date. In addition, to receive the Pharmacy First Clinical Pathways monthly payment from June 2025, pharmacies need to be signed up to provide both the Hypertension Case-Finding Service (except Distance Selling Pharmacies (DSPs)) and PCS.
Pharmacy owners currently providing a locally commissioned EC service should check what is going to happen with that service; your LPC or the service commissioner will likely be able to provide you with information on this.
New Medicine Service
On Wednesday 29th October 2025, the NMS will expand to include depression as an eligible therapeutic area. This will be reflected in the updated service specification and NMS Eligible Drug List.
The NMS Eligible Drug List has been updated to incorporate changes following a full review of the list of drugs for all conditions eligible for the service. This review was undertaken to ensure that the list remains up to date and allows pharmacy owners to provide the service safely and effectively.
The review has removed discontinued medicines, hospital specialist only initiated medicines and medication with very low levels of prescribing in the community, while adding newer medicines that have been approved for each condition since the last review of the list. We do not expect the changes to the list will adversely impact on the number of opportunities for pharmacy owners to offer the service to patients.
The draft updated NMS Eligible Drug List and service specification are available to download from the NHSBSA website to provide advance notice of the changes to pharmacy owners.
Download the DRAFT revised service specification and drug list from the NHSBSA website
The majority of the changes to the service specification are additions of ‘standard wording’ that are contained in almost all of the other Advanced service specifications, e.g. on post-payment verification and record keeping. The service specification has also been amended to include the clarification on sub-contracting of the service not being allowed, which was highlighted to all pharmacy owners at the time of the CPCF settlement announcement in March.
The wording in the service specification regarding the timing of Intervention and Follow up consultations has also been amended, so the Intervention consultation is provided between 7-14 days after recruitment and the Follow up consultation is between 14-21 days after the Intervention consultation. The previous wording said consultations would ‘typically take place between those time periods’. There is, however, also an ability for the pharmacist to agree consultations outside those periods on an exceptional basis, e.g. if a patient in on holiday.
Pharmacy owners who opt to use an IT system to maintain appropriate clinical records for the NMS should look out for communications from their IT supplier or discuss these changes with their supplier and confirm that their IT system will be updated to fully support service provision from 29th October 2025.
Actions for pharmacy owners and their teams
In relation to any of the above services the pharmacy owner provides, they should review the revised service documentation, if they haven’t already done so.
Pharmacy owners should also ensure that all pharmacy staff who will provide the amended services have read the draft documentation linked to above, are aware of the changes and will ensure they are competent to provide the updated services from the relevant commencement date.
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