Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS)

The PQS will run in 2026/27 with fewer requirements than in previous years and a smaller budget of £20 million.

The new scheme retains some existing criteria and sees the addition of new criteria intended to support the safe introduction of prescribing into community pharmacy.

The scheme will commence in June, and it will continue to be optional for community pharmacies to do.

Pharmacies that choose to participate will be able to claim an Aspiration payment of 80% of the overall points value they intend to claim. This Aspiration payment claim will be during July ahead of payment on 1st September 2026.

The scheme will consist of the following elements:

Gateway criterion This is a must do to be able to participate.

• Pharmacies must develop or update a Palliative and End of Life Care (PEoLC) action plan and if they stock the 16 PEoLC medicines, update their Directory of Services profile to confirm this. Pharmacies will also have to complete a short online survey regarding this criterion.

Medicines Optimisation & Patient Safety domain

• Respiratory: Pharmacists must complete unit 4 (asthma) of the CPPE Fundamentals of respiratory therapeutics e-course and pass the asthma (2026) e-assessment to demonstrate they have updated their knowledge in line with the NICE/BTS/SIGN Guideline on Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management.
• Urgent Supply of Repeat Medicines: Pharmacies must update SOPs to ensure they contain guidance on how to support patients requesting time-critical medicines or Controlled Drugs.

Professional Practice domain

• Clinical audit and peer discussion: the clinical audit will be agreed with Community Pharmacy England and the results must then be considered in a peer discussion. The latter requirement is intended to support embedding reflective practice as a tool to develop and expand clinical competence.

Full guidance and resources will be made available as soon as possible on the PQS hub webpage at CPE.