Community Pharmacy Survey 2025

The Community Pharmacy Workforce report covers results from the recent Community Pharmacy Survey 2025. The survey covered information on staff and vacancies for the week ending 13^th September 2025. The survey was undertaken by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) in conjunction with Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS). Data on staff and vacancies was supplied by independent community pharmacies and pharmacies within the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA).

This publication provides details of the workforce composition including all roles within community pharmacies across Scotland, and a break down on Regional and Health Board level. Charts and tables allow for comparison across years. This publication consists of an interactive dashboard and a written report.

This survey would not have been possible without the participation of Scottish community pharmacy contractors, Community Pharmacy Scotland, the Company Chemists Association and the Primary Care Community Pharmacy Leads Group. We thank them for their time and effort in providing the relevant data.

Please see the technical document for details on the data sources, data processes and analytical methods.

Main points and key findings:

• Overall response rate of 97.03%, which is the highest compared to previous years.
• There were a total of 8,424 Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Support staff employed (excluding relief staff, trainees, locums and central staff) with a total WTE of 5,883.13 across Scotland on 13 September 2025.
• In total 205.18 WTE was covered by Relief staff, with the majority (181.81 WTE) being pharmacists.
• WTE of core pharmacists has decreased between 2020 and 2022, stabilised in 2023 and increased in 2024 and 2025 with the current WTE at exactly the same level as 2020: 1,536.7.
• Pharmacists account for 18.6% of the overall WTE (excluding Relief staff). The largest staff group is Dispensing Assistants which accounts for 35.3% of the overall WTE. A further 9.9% of the workforce are Trainee Dispensing Assistants.
• There has been a sharp increase in Dispensing Assistants of 39.4% (excluding Relief staff) between 2022 and 2025, and a decrease of Medicines Counter Assistants of 45.2% (excluding Relief staff) between 2022 and 2025. A potential reflection of Medicines Counter Assistants progressing to Dispensing Assistants through training.
• Vacancy rates have decreased on a national level across multiple roles between 2020 and 2025 with a temporary increase around 2022. E.g. pharmacists’ vacancy rate was 10.2% in 2020, increasing to 23.1% in 2022 and decreasing to 4.8% in 2025. For Pharmacy technicians with accuracy checking vacancy rates were 1.1% in 2020, 13.8% in 2022 and 1% in 2025.