Community pharmacists are rising to meet the challenge of the new LETBs

摘要

THE next few months will be a crucial time for pharmacy to engage with the emerging local education and training boards (LETBs). With functions including holding and allocating funding for education and training for the entire local health and care workforce, LETBs are clearly an important "friend" for pharmacy to make. Organised (in the main) to be co-terminous with the former strategic health authorities, with which the responsibility for NHS workforce and development previously lay, LETBs will comprise a significant number of staff "lifted and shifted" from SHAs.This is not in itself a bad thing, say pharmacists and educationalists, because it ensures that the NHS retains organisational skills and memories, which will be important for the ongoing development of the NHS pharmacy workforce. Where the lift-and-shift model may fall down, though, is in the development of the community pharmacy workforce. Thanks to the strategic recommendations of the Department of Health and Health Education England, LETBs' roles and responsibilities now cover the community pharmacy workforce, including pharmacy technicians — a role not previously managed by SHAs.