This report contains a revision to the previously released figures on WTE staff per 10,000 population. The previous figures erroneously reported Establishment per 10,000 population (the sum of WTE staff and WTE vacancies), with the result that the figures were overestimating WTE staff depending on the size of the vacancy rate. The figures now correctly reflect WTE staff only.

Introduction and data

This paper reports results from the 2021 Community Pharmacy Survey undertaken by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) in conjunction with Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS). Independent community pharmacies and pharmacies in the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) were asked to supply information on staff and vacancies for the week commencing Sunday 12 September 2021.

The survey gathered information on staff in post and vacancies, reported as both Headcount (HC) and number of hours employed. Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) was estimated by dividing the hours employed by a standard 40-hour full-time working week.

Information was gathered about the following roles:

  • Pharmacists including GPhC Provisionally Registered Pharmacists, Trainee Pharmacists, Locum Pharmacists and Central staff Pharmacists
  • Pharmacy Technicians including Pharmacy Technicians with accuracy checking, Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technicians and Central staff Pharmacy Technicians
  • Dispensing assistants including Dispensing Assistants with accuracy checking, Trainee Dispensing Assistants and Central Staff Dispensing Assistants
  • Medicines Counter Assistants, including Trainee Medicines Counter Assistants and Central Staff Medicines Counter Assistants
  • Locum staff including Locum Pharmacists and Locum Pharmacy Technicians
  • Relief staff including Pharmacists, Provisionally Registered Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Pharmacy Technicians with accuracy checking. This is the first year in which data on relief staff data have been captured separately. Numbers of relief staff are reported separately in this report but are also included in the relevant role totals throughout, e.g. the total number of Pharmacists includes relief Pharmacists.
  • Independent prescribers (IPs) including locum Pharmacist IPs

Data collection

Data were collected as follows:

  • Independent (non-CCA, non-group) contractors completed an online survey. The resulting data set contained one observation per contractor.
  • Data for independent, small-group contractors were collected by Community Pharmacy Scotland using a spreadsheet template. The data set contained one observation per contractor.
  • Data for independent, small group central staff were gathered by Community Pharmacy Scotland using a spreadsheet template. The data set contained one observation per group.
  • Data for Company Chemist Association (CCA) pharmacy staff were collected by the CCA using a spreadsheet template. The compiled data set contained one observation per contractor.
  • CCA central staff data were compiled by the CCA using a spreadsheet template. The data set contained one observation per company.
  • CCA Relief Pharmacist head count was provided as a single total for all CCA contractors, because relief pharmacists in CCA member companies are not normally contracted to a single Health Board area. This was added to the headcount of employed CCA Pharmacists.
  • CCA Relief Pharmacist vacancies were provided in hours at Board level. These vacancies are reported here as Pharmacist vacancies.

Relief staff data collection: response errors and corrections

Respondents were asked to report the total headcount and number of hours worked for employed Pharmacists, including Relief Pharmacists. Secondary to this, they were asked to report the headcount and total hours worked for Relief staff only, i.e. subcategorising the employed Pharmacist figures. Inspection of the data indicated that in many cases respondents had not included relief staff in the initial, all-staff figure. For employed Pharmacists, the proportion of the data affected was approximately 25% of contractors in the Small Groups data, 17% in the CCA data, and 5% in the Independents’ data. This estimation was based on counting cases where the headcount figures for Employed Pharmacists and Relief Pharmacists were identical, but the number of employed hours differed. There may have been cases of the same issue elsewhere in the data that we were not able to identify by comparing figures like this.

After seeking clarification with data providers at Community Pharmacy Scotland and the Company Chemists Association, the following actions were agreed:

  • For all observations in the CCA contractor data, the number of employed hours for Relief Pharmacists and Relief Provisionally-registered Pharmacists would be added to the number of employed hours for all Employed Pharmacists. The Relief headcount data would be discounted as this likely referred to the number of relief shifts worked in the census week rather than unique Pharmacists. The CCA would instead supply a single figure for the total number of Relief Pharmacists employed by the CCA in the census week (see Data collection, above).
  • CPS identified those contractors who had counted Relief Pharmacists separately to Employed Pharmacists, i.e., they did not double-count Relief Pharmacists. In these cases, the Relief Pharmacist employed hours were added to the employed hours for all employed Pharmacists. Again, any Relief-only headcount figures would be discounted
  • The smaller number of cases for the Independent contractors were not followed up due to the much smaller impact on any totals and the costs associated with contacting individual contractors for corrections. Based on the 5% of erroneous cases that we could identify, the shortfall from Relief Pharmacists not being included in overall Pharmacist numbers was only 5.4 WTE.
  • Headcount figures for Relief staff will not be reported separately this year. Aside from the corrective actions described here, Relief staff will be represented in the relevant overall headcount figures to the extent that they were uniquely identified and correctly double-counted by respondents.
  • Headcount figures for Locum staff will also not be reported this year, as these staff are likely to be affected by the similar difficulties in counting unique individuals.


Revisions to 2020 data

The 2020 survey data was reviewed and found to be affected by similar issues with Relief staff counting. In discussion with Community Pharmacy Scotland and the Company Chemists Association, we have revised the 2020 survey data as follows in order to improve one-year comparisons between 2020 and 2021:

  • The number of employed hours for Relief Pharmacists and Relief Provisionally-registered Pharmacists were added to the number of employed hours for all Employed Pharmacists, for both CCA and small group contractors.
  • The number of employed hours for Relief Pharmacy Technicians (with and without accuracy checking) was added to the number of employed hours for all Pharmacy Technicians, in the small group contractor data only.

Due to the issues identified above, and to minimise any risk of confusion over headcounts, we are not reporting headcount figures this year apart from at a national level for Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Pharmacy Support Staff. Analyses will focus instead on Whole Time Equivalent figures to estimate the size of the workforce and for year-on-year comparisons.

Results

Response rates

The overall response rate was approximately 97%. 100% of CCA pharmacies responded while the response rate for non-CCA pharmacies was 94.8%. Weightings have therefore been applied to the non-CCA data for all non-central staff roles. Weightings were calculated based on Board-level response rates, estimated using a list of all eligible contractors compiled by NES and CPS.


Composition of the workforce

Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Support Staff

N.B. Roles included: Pharmacist, GPhC Provisionally Registered Pharmacist, Pharmacy Technician, Pharmacy Technician with Accuracy Checking, Dispensing Assistant, Dispensing Assistant with Accuracy Checking, Medicines Counter Assistant. Also includes relief staff numbers where these were reported in, e.g., the all-Pharmacist totals. Excludes trainees, locums and central staff. Support staff are Dispensing Assistants and Medicines Counter Assistants/Healthcare Assistants/Healthcare Partners.

Differences between Headcount and Whole Time Equivalent numbers indicate the levels of part-time working.

Results are also presented by Region:

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


National

A comparison of Headcount and Whole Time Equivalent indicates a higher degree of part-time working among support staff.

Regional

Board


Relief staff

For a second year the survey gathered data on relief staff in the roles of Employed Pharmacist (including GPhC Provisionally Registered) and Pharmacy Technician (including Pharmacy Technicians with accuracy checking qualification).

Provisionally Registered Pharmacist was a new role in 2020 due to COVID-19 delaying the GPhC registration exam. These Pharmacists were more likely to be employed in a relief role, possibly resulting in a slight increase in relief staff numbers and a slight decrease in Employed Pharmacist numbers compared to what would be expected in a normal year.

Relief staff were predominantly Pharmacists.



All roles

The following table and chart present the data for all roles covered in the survey, including locums, trainees and central staff where relevant. Medicines Counter Assistants, Healthcare Assistants, and Healthcare Partners are jointly referred to as Medicines Counter Assistants. Relief staff and Independent Prescribers are reported separately here but are included in other totals elsewhere in this report, so the figures in the following table should not be summed.

Pharmacists account for 18.8% of the overall WTE. The largest staff group is Dispensing Assistants which accounts for 28.9% of the overall WTE.

The distribution of roles is broadly similar between CCA and Non-CCA contractors. Non-CCA pharmacies employ more Pharmacists, though this sector is the larger employer (52% of community pharmacies in Scotland) and has a higher degree of part-time working for this role. CCA contractors employ more relief and locum pharmacists. More Central Pharmacy Staff employed by non-CCA contractors compared to CCA contractors – though many CCA functions will be carried out by staff at UK head offices who are not included in these Scotland-only data.

All roles (table)

By employer (chart)


Workforce since 2020

The following chart presents Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) figures for the roles common to both surveys since 2020.

Staff and Vacancies by Role

The following sections present WTE and vacancy rates (%) for each role group and role, nationally and at Board level. Vacancy rate was calculated as WTE vacancies divided by establishment WTE, which was taken to be the sum of WTE and WTE vacancies.

We also present the number of a given role per 10,000 people in each Board. A national benchmark is shown on the charts as a dashed line and was calculated by summing the individual Board populations. Board populations are based on National Records for Scotland’s mid-2020 population estimates.

Overall national headcount and WTE numbers for Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Support Staff (excluding locums, trainees and central staff) can be found above in Composition of the Workforce - National.


All roles

The following table presents a comparison of national workforce measures between 2020 and 2021 (WTE only for staff in post - see revisions to 2020 data, above).

Nationally, the vacancy rate for Pharmacists increased from 10.2% to 12.9%. The largest increase in vacancy rate between 2020 and 2021 was among Dispensing Assistants with Accuracy Checking (from 0% to 17.6%). Vacancy rates for Pharmacy Technicians (including with Accuracy Checking qualifications), Medicines Counter Assistants and Trainee Dispensing Assistants saw increases of between five and six percentage points.



Figures for WTE Staff per 10,000 population have been revised (August 2022)

Pharmacists

Staff and Vacancies Table

WTE Chart

WTE per 10,000


Locum Pharmacists

Staff and Vacancies Table

WTE Chart

WTE per 10,000


Pharmacy Technicians

Staff and Vacancies Table

WTE Chart

WTE per 10,000


Dispensing Assistants

Staff and Vacancies Table

WTE Chart

WTE per 10,000


Medicines Counter Assistants

Staff and Vacancies Table

WTE Chart

WTE per 10,000



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