Executive summary

The demand for pharmacy workforce continues to increase across all sectors of pharmacy practice as the shape and nature of pharmaceutical services change.
There is evidence that the demand for pharmacy services depends on the size and composition of the population. The projected increase in the size and change in the composition of Scotland’s population is therefore likely to increase the demand for pharmacy services.
There is evidence that the demand for pharmacy services depends on socioeconomic deprivation. The demand for pharmacy services is likely to vary within and between NHS boards according to variation in socioeconomic deprivation.

The ratio of applications to accepted places on four-year MPharm courses in Scotland has been decreasing overall at both providers since 2012.
The intake to MPharm courses in Scotland in 2020 was 295, the largest intake in recent years.
The percentage of first-year Scottish-domiciled MPharm students decreased from 92.37% in 2012-13 to 81.69% in 2020-21.
The probability of completing the programme in Scotland was 0.8 within four years and 0.9 within six years.
The latest PRPS/FTY survey found that most respondents (90%) qualified from a school of pharmacy in Scotland and 80% planned to remain in Scotland.
150 IPs qualified in Scotland in 2022.
There were 221 WTE Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technicians in the managed sector in 2022.

The 2022 NHSScotland staff and vacancy survey (covering Acute, Central, Mental Health, Community and Primary Care) showed a total of 3717.2 WTE staff in post, a 6.5% increase on the 2021 survey.
Numbers of WTE Managed Sector staff in September 2022 were 1,786.4 Pharmacists, 1069.7 Pharmacy Technicians, and 861 Support staff. There were 266.6 WTE Pharmacist vacancies (a vacancy rate of 13.0%), 149.2 Pharmacy Technician vacancies (12.2%), and 147.5 Support Staff vacancies (14.6%).
Since the last Staff and Vacancy survey, WTE numbers increased for Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Support Staff. The vacancy rates for Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians have also increased. The vacancy rate for Support staff decreased but remains relatively high.
There was variation between NHS Boards in the number of WTE staff per 10,000. Pharmacists remain on the UK Shortage Occupation List.
Based on a comparison of GPhC Scottish Registrant data and combined employment data from the Scottish Community and Managed sectors, there are approximately 1,400 more Pharmacists registered with the GPhC than there are in employment.
Real median gross hourly pay for Pharmacists in Scotland increased in 2022 to more than £25 per hour. Hourly pay also increased in 2022 for Pharmacy Technicians and Dispensing Assistants.

1 Introduction

In April 2009 Audit Scotland found that workforce planning for pharmacy staff was not well developed and recommended that the SG should work with NES, NHS NSS and NHS boards to develop national pharmacy workforce planning information to support NHS boards in taking forward workforce plans and workforce development. In response to this recommendation the SG set up a Pharmacy Action Plan Steering Group and created a Pharmacy Workforce Planning Project, which agreed that NES and NHS NSS would work together to analyse pharmacy workforce data to inform the Pharmacy Action Plan Steering Group. Following a review of pharmaceutical care in Scotland the SG published a vision and action plan, which recommended that

NES, working with key stakeholders such as the Schools of Pharmacy and the NHS boards, should be commissioned to undertake data collection and trend analysis to lead to better supply and demand forecasting, and capacity planning for the pharmacy workforce.

2 The demand for pharmacy services

Audit Scotland reported that the demand for pharmacy services was a function of the size and composition of the population and the level of socioeconomic deprivation. The following sections report the latest population projections for Scotland and the spatial distribution of socioeconomic deprivation in Scotland.

2.1 Population projections

Audit Scotland reported that the demand for pharmacy services was a function of the size and, because the number of medicines people are prescribed rises after age 50, the age distribution of the population. Therefore the expected future demand for pharmacy services depends on the population projections for Scotland.

The latest 2020-based population projections from the NRS show the projected size and composition of the population.

Between 2020 and 2030 the population of Scotland is projected to increase by 15,527.0 (0.28%). By contrast, between 2020 and 2030 the population of Scotland aged 50 and over is projected to increase by 4.54%.

2.2 The distribution of community pharmacies by SIMD

Audit Scotland reported that the demand for pharmacy services was a function of the level of socioeconomic deprivation. The following chart demonstrates this relationship by linking the postcodes of Scotland’s 1,257 community pharmacy contractors (from data compiled by NES and CPS) to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).

SIMD is a relative measure of deprivation that ranks each of the 6,976 Data Zones in Scotland from most deprived to least deprived. Here we report the grouping of ranked datazones into ten equally-sized groups known as deciles.

There were more than twice as many community pharmacies in the most deprived SIMD decile (1) compared to the least deprived decile (10).

2.3 Demand for Pharmacy workforce from NHS Boards

The demand for pharmacy workforce continues to increase across all sectors of pharmacy practice as the shape and nature of pharmaceutical services change. Significant changes to practice are being driven through the evolution of pharmacotherapy services, automation of dispensaries and stores and digitisation of prescribing, development of large molecule medicine and personalised approaches to treatment choices, all of which will impact on the numbers and skills required by the pharmacy workforce in the future.

A key factor has been the impact of the introduction of the General Medical Services Contract Pharmacotherapy service which has seen movement of staff from acute and community pharmacy into primary care, resulting in significant challenges in continuing to provide essential hospital and community pharmacy services.

In 2021, an updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU (2)) set the requirements for staffing in General Practices to deliver Pharmacotherapy services. MOU 2 defines expectations for Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Support staff, resulting in continued recruitment to these roles, but specifically in relation to Pharmacy Technicians and Support staff who are essential for Level 1 Pharmacotherapy services. This continues to increase demand pressures across the whole workforce.

The demand for pharmacists is also a function of policy objectives. The Scottish Government strategy Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care states:

We are committed to ensuring that every GP practice has access to a pharmacist with advanced clinical skills by 2021 as outlined in the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan. It is important to recognise that there will not always be a uniform approach to the support for all GP practices. How they utilise pharmacists’ and pharmacy technicians’ skills will be dependent on the needs of the local population, the GP practice and the skills of the pharmacy team.

As a continuing part of the support for this vision, the SG allocated funding to NHS boards to employ pharmacists in GP practices.

A similar commitment to advance practice in community pharmacy saw an increase in demand for community pharmacists to train as prescribers and undertake clinical assessment skills training:

We will target resources to expand the number of community pharmacists undertaking independent prescribing and advanced clinical skills training. This includes exploring how resources to cover back-fill for the residential training and period of learning in practice can be provided in order to build clinical capacity to deliver an extended MAS and enhanced CMS.

This action was supported with a commitment to fund community pharmacists to train as prescribers from September 2021.

A further incentive for community pharmacy contractors to recruit and utilise pharmacist independent prescribers, was announced in 2021, with a potential monthly payment of £3000 per contractor. This payment is now available for contractors who can ensure an Independent prescriber is available for 25 hours per week, for 45 weeks of the year. Additionally, the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 contains outlined arrangements to support community pharmacy to reduce unnecessary GP and out of hours appointments.

As part of the commitment to establish a sustainable pharmacotherapy service in every practice, the 2018 General Medical Services (GMS) Contract in Scotland announced additional funding to increase the number of pre-registration pharmacist training posts:

In order to increase the pool of qualified pharmacists to provide the pharmacotherapy service, additional funding has been secured to increase the number of pharmacist training posts from 170 to 200 per year from 2018/19.

Scotland’s Integrated Health and Social Care Workforce Plan for Scotland contains a commitment to create up to 120 more Pharmacists to work in primary care settings, increasing Pharmacy pre-registration training places by 40 each year over the next 3 years. These 40 additional places per year are in addition to the 30 new places funded under the GMS contract.

HEPMA continues to be rolled out and developed at different rates across the Health Boards. This may transform hospital processes and services, although what impact it may have on the workforce is not yet clear.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been an increased focus on pharmaceutical care in care homes, and a Care Home Specialist Interest Group of Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians has been established. This evolving area of practice will draw from the existing workforce and may impact on vacancies in other sectors of practice.

Similarly, in an attempt to address the shortfall in mental health services, the Scottish Government announced funding for mental health pharmacists and pharmacy technicians through the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, in November 2021. The recruitment through this fund is expected to run until 2024-25.

3 Training market information

3.1 Introduction

Registration as a Pharmacist with the GPhC involves completing a GPhC accredited MPharm course, completing a Foundation Training Year (formerly known as year of Pre-registration training), completing the GPhC’s registration assessment, and meeting the fitness to practise requirements for registration.

3.2 MPharm courses in Scotland

Two universities in Scotland offer GPhC accredited MPharm programmes.

There are 30 accredited providers in the rest of the UK. England has two approved providers of five-year programmes, which integrates the MPharm with the Foundation Training Year (formerly known as year of Pre-registration training), and four others have provisional approval. Scottish students are funded by the public sector through the SFC.

The total amount of funding allocated by the SFC to support teaching in Scotland depends on the number of full-time equivalent students and the subject price. The 2022-23 SFC Final Funding Allocation announcement reports that the gross subject price for pharmacy for academic year 2022-23 was £10,028.

Students from the rest of the UK pay tuition fees set by each university. In academic year 2022-23, MPharm tuition fees for students from the rest of the UK were £9,000 at RGU and £9,250 at Strathclyde.

From academic year 2021-22 EU students are not funded by the public sector as a result of the UK leaving the EU. In academic year 2022-23, MPharm tuition fees at RGU for EU students were £9,000 and for overseas, non-EU students were £17,270. For academic year 2023-24 at Strathclyde, tuition fees for all oversees students have been set at £24,950 per year.

There are several demand side subsidies to support students studying at universities in Scotland but, unlike students on dentistry, nursing and midwifery or Allied Health Professional programmes, there is no additional financial support for pharmacy students.

3.2.1 Applications to MPharm programmes

UCAS collects data on applications for and acceptances into all university courses. These data comprise the number of applications through the main application scheme and number of accepted places via all application routes. We report the latest available data here which relate to courses starting in 2021.

The number of acceptances onto MPharm courses increased in 2021 at Strathclyde University for a second consecutive year, and decreased at Robert Gordon University (RGU).

The ratio of applications to accepted places is an indicator of the demand for MPharm places relative to the supply of these places. Demand for places has decreased overall at both Scottish providers since 2012.

3.2.2 MPharm students

HESA collects an annual record for each student in training from UK universities in September each academic year. We report the latest available data which relate to academic year 2020-21.

3.2.2.1 Four-year MPharm programme

Most students entered into year one of the programme but between 2014 and 2016 all new students at Strathclyde entered year two of a five-year integrated Masters programme. From academic year 2017 the University of Strathclyde enabled year 1 entry for some students under the Scottish Government’s Widening Access programme. These students follow the Biomedical Sciences curriculum in their first year.

MPharm intake sizes have varied over time at both institutions but the intake in 2020-21 was 295, higher than in recent years and more similar to the intake in 2011-12 (300).

3.2.3 Student demographics

3.2.3.1 Age

The mean age of students on entry to the four-year MPharm programme between 2005-06 and 2020-21 was 19.81 at RGU and 19.2 at Strathclyde. Students beginning an MPharm course in 2020-21 at Strathclyde University were younger than those at RGU.

3.2.3.2 Sex

The sex distribution has been similar at both providers during the sample period with females accounting for about 68.55% of new entrants on the four-year programme.

3.2.3.3 Domicile

The percentage of Scottish-domiciled students was higher overall at Strathclyde (88.7%) than at RGU (66.79%).

The percentage of students entering Strathclyde from non-EEA countries has varied between 3% and 11% in the last four intakes. The percentage at RGU has been relatively steady at around 8%.

3.2.3.4 SIMD Quintiles

The SIMD combines a set of indicators across domains including income, employment, health, education, skills and training, housing, geographic access and crime and is available for students who were domiciled in Scotland on application. SIMD Q1 represents students from the most deprived 20% of areas. Between academic year 2005-06 and 2020-21 8.03% of students were from the most deprived 20% of areas, while 38.38% were from the least deprived 20%. The student intake at Strathclyde University has been increasingly evenly distributed across SIMD quintiles over the past five intakes.

3.2.4 Probability of completing

The probability of completing an MPharm course within four years was 0.77 at RGU and 0.84 at the University of Strathclyde. The probability of completing an MPharm course within six years was 0.90 at both Universities.

3.3 2022 Foundation Training Year Exit Survey

3.3.1 Introduction

To register and practise as a pharmacist in Great Britain, pharmacy graduates have to successfully complete 12-months of Foundation Training and then pass a GPhC registration assessment. The Foundation Training year (FTY) was introduced by the GPhC with the 2021-22 cohort of trainee pharmacists; however, the Pre-Registration Pharmacist Scheme (PRPS) (as it was formally known) was introduced in Scotland in 2006. The training year has three main components: a centralised recruitment process, a standardised training programme and quality management processes for premises and supervisors. NES pays a training grant to the employers of the FTY trainee pharmacists, which covers trainee pharmacists salaries at AfC band 5 and any additional employment costs. The pharmacists who successfully complete the FTY in Scotland are therefore one source of inflow into the pharmacy workforce in Scotland.

NES receives funding from Scottish Government for a fixed number of FTY posts each training year. Numbers of funded posts have been increased since 2018 in response to the increase in demand for Pharmacists working in Primary Care. A further increase has been agreed from 2020 to 235 funded posts per year in an attempt to increase numbers and contribute to employing an extra 120 Pharmacists in Scotland. The following table presents numbers of funded posts to 2023 and the latest available data on recruitment.

Each year NES asks the PRPS/FTY trainees to complete an exit survey about their career plans when they are about to finish their training.

3.3.2 Results

There were 198 responses to the NES PRPS/FTY exit survey, a response rate of 98%.

90% of respondents qualified from a pharmacy school in Scotland.

77% of respondents identified themselves as British Nationals. 18% reported other nationalities and 6% did not respond.

Respondents indicated their intentions with regard to where they intended to work during the next stage of their career:

80% of respondents indicated an intention to work in Scotland only.

Respondents also indicated intentions with regard to the sector they intended to work in:

73% of respondents planned to stay within the same sector and 9% planned to switch to another sector.

Respondents who indicated that they intended to stay within the same sector were asked to rate the importance of various reasons for doing so:

The most popular reasons related to job security, opportunities to undertake further training and support networks.

3.4 Post-registration Pharmacist training

3.4.1 Pharmacist Independent prescribing training

Pharmacists can register as an IP after completing a GPhC accredited course at either University of Strathclyde or Robert Gordon University. The courses are funded by NES. Courses typically take between 6 and 12 months to complete including academic and experiential components and requires sign off by a Designated Prescribing Practitioner (DPP).

This year NES commissioned a total of 430 IP places, to support delivery of the NHS Pharmacy First Plus service in community pharmacy, delivery of pharmacist-led clinics in primary care as part of the pharmacotherapy service, and inpatient and outpatient prescribing in secondary care. To accommodate the increased number of funded places there were 5 intakes to the Scottish GPhC accredited Independent Prescribing Courses; 2 at Robert Gordon University and 3 at University of Strathclyde.

The chart below shows the number of funded and qualifying IPs together with the cumulative number of trained and in-training, patient-facing IPs in each year. 150 IPs qualified in 2022. A further 19 pharmacists pursued their independent prescribing qualification through the Diploma/MSc. route.

A national newly-qualified pharmacist curriculum and assessment programme was implemented in Scotland in 2021 to provide a standardised approach to training across all sectors of pharmacy practice. Previously the NES Foundation Pharmacists programme was predominantly undertaken in Acute and Primary Care but has been extended into Community Pharmacy practice from Autumn 2021. This supports development of newly-qualified pharmacists prior to undertaking their Independent Prescribing qualification.

The following table presents data from the 2022 NES Pharmacist Prescribing report showing IP training and activity levels across the three sectors of Pharmacy practice.

3.5 Pharmacy Technician training

Registration with the GPhC as a Pharmacy Technician in Great Britain now requires completing the SQA accredited Diploma in Pharmacy Services at SCQF Level 7 (comprises of the Professional Development Award (PDA) in Pharmacy Services at SCQF Level 7 (knowledge) and SVQ Pharmacy Services at SCQF Level 8 (competency) qualifications) or those accredited by other awarding bodies such as City & Guilds and Pearson/Edexcel.

SQA shared data with NES on previous NC and SVQ certifications up to and including academic year 2021-22.

Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technicians employed in the managed sector previously undertook the NC on a two-year day-release basis. The majority of those undertaking the SVQ Pharmacy Services Level 3 were also from the managed sector with a small number from community, as the majority of contractors used the distance learning format delivered by alternative training providers such NPA or Buttercups.

Due to changes to the GPhC standards for initial education and training of pharmacy technicians the qualifications required to gain access onto the register can no longer be achieved consecutively, and must be undertaken concurrently. Whilst this has no impact on those employed as Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technicians, it does mean that the Scottish further education providers cannot offer the course independently and will now require a commitment from employers to provide training placements.

The number of SVQ certifications more than trebled between academic years 2020/21 and 2021/22 while the number of NCs decreased. This may reflect increased recruitment activity in some Boards, through which employees were enrolled onto the new diploma which incorporates both the NC and SVQ concurrently as a single qualification.

The available data from the SQA includes Pharmacy Technician post-registration qualifications.

The number of certifications in accuracy checking and in pharmacy services development increased by almost 50% between academic years 2020/21 and 2021/22.

3.5.1 Pharmacy technician training in the managed sector

Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technicians (PTPTs) in the managed sector are recorded in the NHS Scotland Staff and Vacancy Survey. The number of WTE PTPTs in the managed sector has increased each year since 2014. The number of Year 1 trainees has trebled between 30 September 2021 and 30 September 2022.

3.6 Summary

The ratio of applications to accepted places on four-year MPharm courses in Scotland has been decreasing overall at both providers since 2012.
The intake to MPharm courses in Scotland in 2020 was 295, the largest intake in recent years.
The percentage of first-year Scottish-domiciled MPharm students decreased from 92.37% in 2012-13 to 81.69% in 2020-21.
The probability of completing the programme in Scotland was 0.8 within four years and 0.9 within six years.
The latest PRPS/FTY survey found that most respondents (90%) qualified from a school of pharmacy in Scotland and 80% planned to remain in Scotland.
150 IPs qualified in Scotland in 2022.
There were 221 WTE Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technicians in the managed sector in 2022.

4 Labour Market Information

This chapter reports information on the labour market for pharmacy staff and includes information from the NHSScotland staff and vacancy survey, the 2022 Community Pharmacy Workforce Survey, the 2022 Aseptic Dispensing Workforce Survey and the average earnings of pharmacy staff in Scotland.

4.1 NHSScotland staff and vacancy survey

4.1.1 Staff in post

The following section presents WTE staff in post on September 30th 2022 for Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Support Staff (Pharmacy Assistants, Administration & Clerical, and Other). These figures do not include staff in training - numbers reflect trained staff only. Results are presented by region, NHS Board and sector.

There were 57 Band 5 PRPS/FTY Trainee Pharmacists in post in 2022, a -12.0% decrease from the 2021 survey. PRPS/FTY Trainee Pharmacists are not included in the numbers of Pharmacists reported here.

The total number of WTE staff in post on September 30th 2022 was 3717.2, an 6.5% increase on the 2021 survey.

The WTE numbers by staff group were 1786.4 Pharmacists (a 2.2% increase from 2021), 1069.7 Pharmacy Technicians (a 11.2% increase), and 861 Support Staff (a 10.5% increase).

Each Regional grouping is a subset of all NHS Scotland Boards:

North Region consists of NHS Shetland, NHS Orkney, NHS Western Isles, NHS Highland, NHS Grampian, and NHS Tayside
East Region consists of NHS Lothian, NHS Fife, and NHS Borders
West Region consists of NHS GG&C, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, NHS Ayrshire & Arran, and NHS Lanarkshire

The number of WTE Pharmacists continues to increase - although at a slower rate - driven by increases in AfC bands 7 and 8A.

The increase in WTE Pharmacy Technicians between 2021 and 2022 has been driven mainly by increases at AfC Band 5. Numbers of WTE Support staff at AfC Band 3 have almost doubled over the past four years.

A comparison of WTE staff numbers across survey years indicates continued increases in Pharmacist and Pharmacy Technician WTE in Primary Care since 2013, though the rate of increase has slowed in more recent years. WTE numbers of Pharmacy Technicians in the Acute sector have been relatively stable over the past five or six years.

From 2022, the NHSScotland staff and vacancy survey reports numbers for Mental Health and Community Hospitals separately. Full results of the latest survey are available on NES’ Turas Data Intelligence website.

There was variation between NHS boards in the number of WTE staff per 10,000 of the population.

4.2 Vacancies

The vacancy rate provides an indication of an employer’s demand for labour.

The vacancy rates in Scotland on 30th September 2022 were 13.0% for Pharmacists, 12.2% for Pharmacy Technicians and 14.6% for Support staff. The vacancy rates for both Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians saw a relatively large increase since the 2021 survey. The support staff vacancy rate, which had previously seen a large increase due to NHS Lanarkshire’s pharmacotherapy staffing model, decreased slightly in 2022 but remains relatively high.

The following tables present vacancy rates for the three staff groupings of Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Support staff (Pharmacy Assistants, Administration & Clerical, and Other). Results are presented by region, NHS Board and sector.

There is considerable variation in the vacancy rate between NHS boards.

Several boards had no staff in post or vacancies for Pharmacy Technicians and Support Staff. The null vacancy rate in these cases is denoted by a dash (“-”).

The vacancy rates for Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians is highest in the Mental Health sector. For Support staff the vacancy rate is highest in the Primary Care sector.

4.3 Community Pharmacy

The 2022 Community Pharmacy Survey was undertaken by NES in conjunction with CPS. Independent community pharmacies and pharmacies in the CCA were asked to supply information on staff and vacancies for the week commencing 11 September 2022.

There were 1,368 WTE Pharmacists, 784 WTE Pharmacy Technicians and 3,125 WTE Support Staff in post. Pharmacists accounted for 17.6% of the overall WTE. The largest staff group was Dispensing Assistants which accounted for 26.7% of the overall WTE.

Numbers of WTE Pharmacists have decreased each year since 2020 and the national vacancy rate for Pharmacists increased from 12.9% to 23.4% between the 2021 and 2022 surveys. The vacancy rate for Pharmacy Technicians also increased over the same period 6.9% to 10.5% while the vacancy rate for Medicines Counter Assistant decreased from 7.1% to 3.1%.

Full results of the 2022 survey are available on NES’ Turas Data Intelligence website.

4.4 GPhC Registrants

The GPhC collects data on the number (headcount) of registered Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians with a registered address in Scotland. The table below shows the headcount of registrants in September 2022 compared to headcount numbers of these roles employed in the NHS and the Community Pharmacy sector in September 2022 (employment figures do not include Locum Pharmacists and may not capture all Pharmacists working in a relief capacity).

*Source: General Pharmaceutical Council, NES

There are approximately 1,400 more Pharmacists in Scotland registered with the GPhC than there are employed in the Community and NHS managed sectors. However, the figures on the Community pharmacy workforce do not include headcount data for self-employed locum pharmacists. The employment data also does not include people employed by the universities, GPhC, RPS, Colleges, the pharmaceutical industry, or other related employers.

The the GPhC data contains breakdowns of registrant occupational groups by gender and 10-year age bands.

4.5 Aseptic Dispensing Workforce

Data on the Aseptic Dispensing Workforce is collected annually to support workforce planning for a new service model within NHSScotland Boards. NES collects data on staff in post, vacancies, length of service and the distribution of aseptic dispensing tasks across AfC bands.

On 30 September 2022 there were 234.6 WTE aseptic dispensing staff in post, a 12.5% increase from September 2021. Of these staff 47.2% (110.8 WTE) were Pharmacy Technicians, 27.5% (64.5 WTE) were Pharmacy Support Workers, 21.4% (50.3 WTE) were Pharmacists and 3.8% (9.0 WTE) were classed as Other.

62.7% of Aseptic Dispensing staff in fixed posts have been working in NHSScotland for 10 years or less.

There was a small increase in the number of WTE vacancies in this workforce over the past year, from 18.0 in September 2021 to 22.5 in September 2022. Four of the Boards employing Aseptic Dispensing staff did not report any vacancies.

4.6 Shortage Occupations

An occupation that appears on the Shortage Occupation List indicates that there is a shortage of skilled workers in the UK. Employers who wish to recruit an individual from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland to fill a vacancy that is on the shortage occupation list may issue a Tier 2 certificate of sponsorship (CoS) without the need to demonstrate that a resident labour market test (RLMT) has been carried out.

Pharmacists were added to the shortage occupation list for healthcare and education following a review by the Migration Advisory Committee recommending addition to the list in 2020.

4.7 Earnings

The earnings of 1% of UK employees is published as part of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) by SOC 2010 code. Therefore, these data include employees in both the hospital and community sectors. We report the latest available data here which relates to 2022.

Real median gross hourly pay for Pharmacists increased from £21.63 in 2021 to £25.59 in 2022. Hourly pay also increased in 2022 for Pharmacy Technicians and Dispensing Assistants.

4.8 Summary

The 2022 NHSScotland staff and vacancy survey (covering Acute, Central, Mental Health, Community and Primary Care) showed a total of 3717.2 WTE staff in post, a 6.5% increase on the 2021 survey.
Numbers of WTE Managed Sector staff in September 2021 were 1,786.4 Pharmacists, 1069.7 Pharmacy Technicians, and 861 Support staff. There were 266.6 WTE Pharmacist vacancies (a vacancy rate of 13.0%), 149.2 Pharmacy Technician vacancies (12.2%), and 147.5 Support Staff vacancies (14.6%).
Since the last Staff and Vacancy survey, WTE numbers increased for Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Support Staff. The vacancy rates for Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians have also increased. The vacancy rate for Support staff decreased but remains relatively high.
There was variation between NHS Boards in the number of WTE staff per 10,000.
Pharmacists remain on the UK Shortage Occupation List.
Based on a comparison of GPhC Scottish Registrant data and combined employment data from the Scottish Community and Managed sectors, there are approximately 1,400 more Pharmacists registered with the GPhC than there are in employment.
Real median gross hourly pay for Pharmacists in Scotland increased in 2022 to more than £25 per hour. Hourly pay also increased in 2022 for Pharmacy Technicians and Dispensing Assistants.

Pharmacy Workforce Report 2022

NHS Education for Scotland