A smaller scheme, a tighter budget and a hard gateway. This guide breaks down exactly what your pharmacy must do, by when, and what you can be paid. Built for PharmaPlus members from the Community Pharmacy England source material.
Payment depends on two things. You must clear all three parts of the gateway, and you must meet every quality criterion inside any domain you want to claim. The gateway pays nothing on its own. The points, and therefore the money, sit entirely in the two domains.
Three mandatory parts, all centred on palliative and end of life care. Miss the questionnaire deadline of 31st December 2026 and you cannot make any declaration at all, regardless of everything else you have done.
Two domains carry the points. Domain 1 covers medicines optimisation and patient safety. Domain 2 covers professional practice. You must satisfy all criteria in a domain to claim it. Partial work in a domain earns nothing.
One change to flag. NHS England is not publishing its usual PQS guidance for pharmacy owners this year. The Drug Tariff update of 2nd June 2026 and the Community Pharmacy England resources are the operative reference. There is no fuller official guidance document coming.
Follow the route from the start of the scheme to payment. Click any stage to see what it involves. Notice the gate. If all three gateway parts are not met, the whole route closes and nothing is payable, however much domain work you have done.
Every part below must be met to qualify for any payment. The theme this year is palliative and end of life care, prompted by access problems for dying patients.
Complete the questionnaire evaluating the value of the palliative and end of life care criterion. It will be on the NHSBSA website from August 2026 and must be submitted by the end of 31st December 2026.
If you routinely hold the 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines and can support local access to parenteral haloperidol, update NHS Profile Manager to show you are a palliative care medication stockholder. Do this as soon as possible after 2nd June 2026 and by the end of 31st March 2027.
Have a plan to follow when you do not hold the required stock of the 16 medicines or parenteral haloperidol for a patient. It must let you redirect a patient, relative or carer to the nearest open pharmacy that does stock them, as fast as possible.
The plan must include:
Meet every criterion within a domain to claim its points. Both domains carry equal weight. In Band 2 each domain is worth 15 points, so the maximum is 30 points.
Both criteria below must be met to claim Domain 1.
By the end of 31st March 2027, every pharmacist working at the pharmacy on the day of the declaration must have completed either the CPPE Asthma for Pharmacy Quality Scheme 2026/27 e-learning, or unit 4 of the CPPE Fundamentals of respiratory therapeutics e-learning since 19th February 2025, and passed the Asthma e-assessment between 19th February 2025 and 31st March 2027.
Prompted by the Charlie Marriage Prevention of Future Deaths report and feedback from Controlled Drug Accountable Officers on inappropriate supply of Controlled Drugs. By the end of 31st March 2027, update all relevant SOPs to cover what to do when you cannot respond to a request or referral for an urgent supply.
Updated SOPs must include guidance on:
All pharmacy staff must be familiar with the updated SOPs. They must be available for inspection from 31st March 2027 and retained for 3 years.
A single criterion. It must be met in full to claim Domain 2.
Complete a clinical audit on the quality of Pharmacy First clinical pathway consultations, then build an action plan to improve practice. A pharmacist must also complete a peer discussion of roughly 1 to 2 hours with a buddy pharmacist, reviewing the audit findings and the action plan.
Staff may have to repeat training and assessment they did before, depending on the stated validity period and when they completed it. Plan the team's training early rather than near the deadline.
New staff, or staff back from long term leave such as maternity, who have not completed the training and assessment by 31st March 2027 can still be counted, provided you have a training plan to complete it within 30 days of the declaration day or by 31st March 2027, whichever is later. Keep the training plan and proof of completion at the pharmacy.
By the end of 31st March 2027, hold an electronic copy of each staff member's personalised completion certificate at premises level, stored and accessible digitally, except for those covered by a training plan. Retain everything for 3 years for post payment verification.
Your band is set by your prescription volume from February 2025 to January 2026. Pick your band, choose the domains you intend to claim, and see the likely payment range. The gateway must be cleared first or nothing is payable.
Figures are for planning only. The value per point is the one genuine unknown and is not fixed until reconciliation on 1st April 2027, so drag the slider to model it. The floor of £64.20 assumes every pharmacy achieves maximum points, which spreads the £20m pot thinnest. The cap is £128.40. The CPE document itself carries two different illustrative figures, £75.00 in its worked payment total for a Band 2 pharmacy and an implied £128.40 cap from its own take up scenario, so treat £75 as a cautious central anchor and not a forecast. Prior year per pharmacy averages overstate this year, because the budget fell to £20m with fewer requirements. Pharmacies eligible for the Pharmacy Access Scheme, and those opening after 1st February 2026, are placed in Band 2.
Status is shown against today's date. The two that decide whether you get paid are the questionnaire deadline and the declaration window. Miss either and the work counts for nothing.
Tick items as you complete them. Progress is saved in this browser, so it stays put when you come back. This is a planning aid, not your formal evidence record.