Community pharmacy in England
This briefing provides information on community pharmacy services in England. In particular, it focuses on funding, services, workforce and pharmacy closures.
The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) is an agreement between the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England, and Community Pharmacy England (CPE). CPE is the representative body for all community pharmacy owners in England.
The CPCF sets out funding for the community pharmacy sector.
In July 2019, the government set out a five-year deal, which would deliver £2.59 billion annually between 2019/20 and 2023/24. In addition, the government committed a non-recurrent additional investment of £100 million across years 4 and 5 to support contractors, through an increase to the retained medicine margin. The retained margin is a profit that pharmacies can earn on dispensing medicines through cost effective purchasing.
2024/25 to 2025/26 funding dealIn March 2025, the government published details of a new two-year CPCF settlement covering 2024/25 and 2025/26. The agreement secured the below funding for the community pharmacy sector:
- £2.7 billion in 2024/25; and
- £3.0 billion in 2025/26.
This represented a 20% increase compared with 2023/24 funding, and a 15% increase compared with 2024/25 funding. By comparison, the overall NHS budget is set to increase by around 6% in 2025/26.
The settlement also included:
- £215 million for pharmacy funding and services linked to the Primary Care Access Recovery Plan.
- The write-off of £193 million in historic medicines margin over-delivery, largely accrued during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- An expansion to existing pharmacy services, including the new medicine service and pharmacy contraception service.
Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Social Care said the investment would enable it to “embed and build on the range of clinical services that we commission from community pharmacy as we seek to improve access through reform and better use the skills of pharmacy teams to keep people well in their communities”.
Stakeholder responsePharmacy stakeholders welcomed the additional funding but reiterated longstanding concerns about pharmacy funding being below the level needed to maintain long-term viability.
Community Pharmacy England (CPE) called the agreement a “step-change for the sector, moving the dial away from ever-deepening real terms cuts, and a vote of confidence in its potential from the new Government”. However, it warned that it was “only a first step towards sustainability, and that more funding is needed”.
Nick Kaye, Chair of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said it was “good to see a concrete sign that Ministers want to support pharmacies”, but cautioned “that because of a decade of neglect [the settlement] also falls a long way short of the NHS’s own estimates of the true cost of providing pharmacy services”. The NPA is the trade association for independent community pharmacy professionals in the UK.
Wider concerns about the funding modelParliamentary and sector stakeholders have raised concerns about the structure, adequacy and operation of the CPCF as a funding model since its introduction in 2019. In its May 2024 report on pharmacy, the Health and Social Care Committee described the CPCF as “not fit for purpose”, “overly complex” and contributing to financial pressure.
In its January 2025 response, the government partially accepted these recommendations, noting that an economic analysis by NHS England would inform future funding and contractual proposals.
In 2023 the Health and Social Care Committee’s independent expert panel also reported on government commitments on pharmacy. They found that stakeholders wanted a revised funding model that maintained the increased focus on service delivery, but in a way that did not compromise dispensing.
The expert panel’s report also captured criticism from stakeholders that, to some extent, the funding model relies on pharmacies receiving referrals from other parts of the NHS (such as general practice and hospitals) to be paid for some of the services pharmacies deliver. Given engagement from those external agencies was described as “patchy and unreliable”, the report said the same is also true of the funding that community pharmacies receive from these referrals.
Workforce Pharmacist numbersAs of January 2026, there were 56,845 pharmacists registered in England.
The Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) published its Community Pharmacy Workforce Review (PDF) in May 2025. The review was undertaken using data from NHS England Community Pharmacy Workforce surveys published between 2017 and 2023. The review reported that England would face a shortfall of 16,000 community pharmacists by 2036/37. This shortfall was calculated with reference to NHS England’s June 2023 Long Term Workforce Plan, which estimated that between 34,000 and 36,000 community pharmacists would be required by 2036/37.
As of September 2025, 7,198 full time equivalent pharmacists were employed in general practice via the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme.
Staffing shortagesIn June 2025, Community Pharmacy England published its Pharmacy Pressures Survey: Medicines Supply Report after surveying 4,300 owners and head office representatives, and 1,600 pharmacy team members.
60% of pharmacy teams reported staffing shortages. 54% of pharmacy owners reported struggling to recruit permanent staff. 81% of pharmacy staff reported longer patient waiting times, and 57% said they had a reduced ability to offer advice and services.
Pharmacy closuresData from NHS England’s edispensary dataset suggests that over 1,000 pharmacies closed in England between February 2016 and February 2026. There were 10,526 pharmacies open in England in February 2026, compared with 11,609 in February 2016. This represents a 9% decrease (1,083 fewer pharmacies).
The reasons being cited for these closures include inadequate funding, rising operating costs and difficulty recruiting and retaining community pharmacists.
There has also been concern about the rate of temporary pharmacy closures where contractors have not secured a pharmacist to work part or all of the day. In 2024, Healthwatch submitted freedom of information (FOI) requests to integrated care boards (ICBs) in England, asking about permanent and temporary pharmacy closures. Based on data obtained from all 42 ICBs, Healthwatch found that in 2023, 13,863 temporary closures were reported across 41 ICBs, resulting in 46,823 hours lost and an average closure length of three hours and 40 minutes. ICBs reported staff shortages, such as problems finding a locum as the main reason for temporary closures.
Pharmacy FirstIn May 2023, NHS England published its Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care. The Plan set out a £645 million investment, over two years, to expand services offered by community pharmacy. It committed to introducing a “Pharmacy First” service for patients, by the end of 2023. It would allow pharmacists to supply prescription only medicines for seven common conditions; sinusitis, sore throat, earache, infected insect bite, impetigo, shingles and uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women. Pharmacy First was subsequently introduced in January 2024.
It incorporated the previously introduced Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS), so Pharmacy First also facilitates the urgent supply of repeat prescriptions and the treatment of other minor illnesses.
Between February 2024 and October 2025, pharmacy contractors claimed payment for 4.5 million Pharmacy First consultations. As of October 2025, the number of participating pharmacies had grown to 10,900.