PQS
Pharmacy Quality Scheme
Published on 1st April 2021 | Updated on 3rd April 2025
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Pharmacy owners must have signed up to deliver the Pharmacy First Service and the Pharmacy Contraception service by the end of 31st August 2025 and remain registered for both services until the end of the scheme, 31st March 2026. Pharmacy owners will not be required to make a declaration for this gateway criterion as this will be verified by a post payment review of the pharmacy owner’s declaration to deliver the service and subsequent registration from 1st September 2025 until the end of the scheme, 31st March 2026. Pharmacy owners should note that they will not be able to claim payment for the quality criteria during the declaration period if the gateway criterion has not been met. Please note that following de-registration from the Pharmacy First and/or Pharmacy Contraception Service, pharmacy owners will not be able to re-register for the service for a period of four months from the final day of their 30 days’ notice. Any pharmacy owners that de-register between 1st September 2025 until the end of the scheme, 31st March 2026 will not meet the Gateway Criterion for this scheme. Pharmacy owners who de-register before the declaration window will not be able to make a declaration; those who de-register after the close of the declaration but before 31st March 2026 will have their payments recovered by the NHSBSA. Pharmacy owners who open or change ownership from 1st September 2025 Pharmacy owners who open from 1st September 2025 up until 31st December 2025 or have a change of ownership resulting in a new ODS code, must sign up to deliver the Pharmacy First Service and Pharmacy Contraception service, within two weeks of opening under the new ODS code, and remain registered until the end of the scheme, 31st March 2026 to qualify for payment for PQS 2025/26. Pharmacy owners who open or have a change of ownership from 1st January 2026 resulting in a new ODS code will not be eligible for the gateway criteria and will not qualify for payment for PQS 2025/26. Resources Resources and further information on Pharmacy First can be found on our Pharmacy First page. Resources and further information on the Pharmacy Contraception Service (PCS) can be found on our PCS page. Declaration requirements Pharmacy owners will not be required to make a declaration for this gateway criterion as this will be verified by a post payment review of the pharmacy owner’s declaration to deliver the service and subsequent registration from 1st September 2025 until the end of the scheme, 31st March 2026.
Validity of training Pharmacy owners and pharmacy team members should note that there is a requirement in the 2025/26 Scheme that may mean that staff are required to repeat training and e-assessments that they have completed previously, depending on the stated validity period and when staff completed the training and e-assessments. The table in our Summary of the training requirements for the PQS 2025/26 resource details the validity periods and the dates in which the training and e-assessments must have been completed within. New staff or staff returning from long term leave Where new staff who have recently joined the pharmacy or staff returning from long term leave, for example maternity leave, have not undertaken the training and assessment by 31st March 2026, the pharmacy owner can count them as having completed the training and assessment, if the pharmacy owner has a training plan in place to ensure they satisfactorily complete the training and assessment within 30 days of the day of the declaration or by 31st March 2026, whichever is the later. This training plan and demonstrable evidence of completion of the training and assessment, within 30 days of the day of the declaration or 31st March 2026 (as appropriate), must be retained at the pharmacy to demonstrate they are meeting this criterion. Evidence of meeting the training criteria An electronic certificate of completion of the training will be provided following the completion of each of the e-assessments. Pharmacy owners must keep a copy of the personalised certificate for each member of staff as evidence that the training and e-assessment has been completed. Since there is no e-assessment for the CPPE Consulting with people with mental health problems, pharmacists will need to confirm completion of the e-learning in their CPPE record. When a pharmacist has confirmed completion, they will be able to download a certificate of study. Pharmacists will need to locate the CPPE Consulting with people with mental health problems e-learning programme, select ‘Certificate of study’ and confirm they have completed the e-learning programme to download the certificate. This evidence must be retained for three years for post-payment verification purposes. CPPE PQS web page and tracker for pharmacy professionals The Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) has developed a PQS tracker on their website. This allows pharmacy professionals to easily determine which CPPE learning programmes and assessments they have completed within the specified timeframe (when applicable) for the 2025/26 PQS.
There are five quality criteria in Domain 1 – Medicines optimisation. All of the quality criteria need to be met to be eligible to claim payment for the domain. The quality criteria are: Further details on all of the quality criteria in Domain 1 – Medicines optimisation can be found below. Palliative and End of Life Care Action Plan As soon as possible after 1st April 2025 and by the end of 31 March 2026 the pharmacy owner: Pharmacy owners with profiles that cannot currently be updated via NHS Profile Manager, may still claim for this domain and update the Directory of Services (DoS) profile by contacting their Regional DoS lead. If pharmacy owners are not a stockholder of these 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines, they are not required to update NHS Profile Manager. The 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines are: By the end of 31st March 2026, pharmacy owners must have an action plan in place to use when they do not have the required stock of the 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines and/or parenteral haloperidol available for a patient. This must include collated information from pharmacies in their area to be able to aid a patient, relative/carer in obtaining medication as swiftly as possible by redirecting them to the nearest open community pharmacy that stocks the 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines and/or parenteral haloperidol. To qualify for payment all pharmacy owners must have this action plan irrespective of whether they do or do not routinely stock the 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines listed above. The action plan must include: The action plan for 2025/26 must be available for inspection from the end of 31st March 2026 at premises level and must be retained for 3 years for PPV purposes. For pharmacy owners who claimed for the Medicines Safety & Optimisation domain in 2023/24, an update to the previous action plan will be required. NHS Service Finder can be used by pharmacies and other health care professionals with authorised access to it to identify those pharmacies in their area who have updated their DoS profile to indicate they are holding the 16 critical end of life medicines. Updates to the NHS Profile Manager with whether the pharmacy hold the 16 critical end of life medicines will not be reflected on the public facing NHS website pharmacy profile. Whilst pharmacy owners who hold the 16 critical end of life medicines have until 31st March 2026 to indicate that they are a stockholder, they are encouraged to update their NHS Profile Manager as early as possible. This will help inform those pharmacies that are not stockholders to develop their action plans to support patients in obtaining medicines. Resources Declaration requirements When making a declaration for this criterion, the following information must be reported on the MYS application: Consulting with people with mental health problems – CPPE learning To support the quality of New Medicine Service consultations following the expansion of the service, by the end of 31st March 2026, all pharmacists working at the pharmacy on the day of the declaration must have satisfactorily completed, within the last 4 years (between 1 April 2022 and end of 31 March 2026), the Consulting with people with mental health problems e-learning CPPE online training. Since there is no e-assessment for the e-learning, pharmacists will need to confirm completion of the Consulting with people with mental health problems e-learning in their CPPE record. When a pharmacist has confirmed completion, they will be able to download a certificate of study. Pharmacy owners will need to have evidence to demonstrate that all pharmacists working at the pharmacy on the day of the declaration have satisfactorily completed, within the last 4 years (between 1st April 2022 and end of 31st March 2026) the CPPE online training. This evidence must be available for inspection from the end of 31st March 2026 at premises level and must be retained for 3 years for PPV purposes. Resources Declaration requirements When making a declaration for this criterion, the following information must be reported on the MYS application: Respiratory: Use of a spacer in patients aged 5-15 years By the end of 31st March 2026, the pharmacy must be able to evidence that between 1st April 2025 and the day of the declaration they have: Where no patients are identified for referral, the pharmacy owner will still be eligible for payment if they can evidence that they have robustly attempted to identify suitable patients and that they have processes in place for referrals should they identify a patient who is suitable. They will need to declare no patients have been identified as needing these interventions on the MYS declaration. Pharmacy owners are advised to record any intervention and/or referrals made in the patient medication record (PMR). The evidence for meeting above criterion must be available for inspection from the end of 31st March 2026 at premises level and must be retained for 3 years for PPV purposes. Resources Asthma referrals – this provides pharmacy owners with guidance for the 2025/26 Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) on meeting the following criteria, which are part of the Medicines optimisation domain: use of a spacer in patients aged 5-15 years; and referrals for patients using three or more short-acting bronchodilator inhalers without a corticosteroid inhaler in six months. The Briefing also contains four annexes which are available below as separate documents: Declaration requirements When making a declaration for this criterion, the following information must be reported on the MYS application: Respiratory: Referrals for patients using 3 or more short-acting bronchodilator inhalers in 6 months By the end of 31st March 2026, the pharmacy must be able to evidence that between 1st April 2025 and the day of the declaration that patients with asthma, for whom three or more short-acting bronchodilator inhalers were dispensed without any corticosteroid inhaler within a six-month period have, since the last review point, been referred to an appropriate healthcare professional for an asthma review. For pharmacy owners who claimed elements of these criteria previously as part of PQS 2023/24, a new review will be required. In addition, the pharmacy team’s knowledge and understanding of the process to identify suitable patients should be reviewed. Methods used to identify ‘at risk’ patients for referral should be reviewed for effectiveness. Where no patients are identified, the pharmacy owner will still be eligible for payment if they can evidence that they have robustly attempted to identify suitable patients and that they have processes in place for referrals should they identify a patient who is suitable. They will need to declare no patients have been identified as needing these interventions on the MYS declaration. Pharmacy owners are advised to record any intervention and/or referrals made in the patient medication record (PMR). The evidence for meeting the above criterion must be available for inspection from the end of 31st March 2026 at premises level and must be retained for 3 years for PPV purposes. Resources Asthma referrals – this provides pharmacy owners with guidance for the 2025/26 Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) on meeting the following criteria, which are part of the Medicines optimisation domain: use of a spacer in patients aged 5-15 years; and referrals for patients using three or more short-acting bronchodilator inhalers without a corticosteroid inhaler in six months. The Briefing also contains four annexes which are available below as separate documents: Declaration requirements When making a declaration for this criterion, the following information must be reported on the MYS application: Emergency Contraception – CPPE learning & e-assessment To support the quality of Pharmacy Contraception Service consultations following the expansion of the service to include Emergency Contraception, by the end of 31st March 2026, all pharmacists and any pharmacy technicians intending to provide the Pharmacy Contraception Service working at the pharmacy on the day of the declaration, must have satisfactorily completed, within the last 3 years (between 1st April 2023 and end of 31st March 2026), the CPPE online training and passed the e-assessment. Pharmacy owners will need to have evidence to demonstrate that all pharmacists and any pharmacy technicians intending to provide the Pharmacy Contraception Service working at the pharmacy on the day of the declaration have satisfactorily completed, within the last 3 years (between 1st April 2023 and end of 31st March 2026) the CPPE online training and passed the e-assessment. This evidence must be available for inspection from the end of 31st March 2026 at premises level and must be retained for 3 years for PPV purposes. Resources Declaration requirements When making a declaration for this criterion, the following information must be reported on the MYS application:
There are three quality criteria in Domain 2 – Patient safety. All of the quality criteria need to be met to be eligible to claim payment for the domain. The quality criteria are: Further details on all of the quality criteria in Domain 2 – Patient safety can be found below. Antimicrobial Stewardship – Pharmacy First consultations – Clinical Audit Pharmacy owners must complete a clinical audit, which will concern the clinical advice and consultations provided to patients scoring FeverPAIN 0-3 on the Pharmacy First Sore Throat clinical pathway. The 2025/26 clinical audit should be conducted from 1st September 2025 and completed no later than 31st March 2026. The audit must be carried out with a minimum of 10 patients over four weeks, or over an eight-week period if 10 patients are not achieved. Pharmacy owners should make a record of the start and end date of the audit as they will be required to enter this information into the MYS application when they make their declaration. Pharmacy owners should choose an eight-week consecutive period between the audit launch and 3rd February 2026 to commence the data collection (please ensure you complete the audit no later than 31st March 2026). The pharmacy must have completed the audit, sharing their anonymised data with NHS England, and incorporating any learnings from the audit into future practice by the end of 31st March 2026. The information that needs to be submitted to NHS England is included in the audit document, which will be accessible from the NHSBSA website by the end of May 2025, and must be reported on the MYS data collection tool. Completing the audit data submission is an essential requirement for meeting the audit criterion. Undertaking the audit without submitting the data will mean the pharmacy owner will not have met the requirements of this domain. MYS allows a pharmacy owner to start their data collection and then return to it later should this be necessary. Where a data collection has been started but not submitted, it will not be eligible for payment. Pharmacy owners who successfully complete their data collection submission will receive a data collection submission confirmation email as evidence that their submission has been successful. This email must be provided if a pharmacy owner needs to demonstrate that they have successfully completed their data collection submission. Should a pharmacy owner not receive this data submission confirmation email within one hour of submitting their declaration then, after first checking their junk email folder, they should email the provider assurance team at pharmacysupport@nhsbsa.nhs.uk immediately to make them aware of the issue. No patient identifiable data should be entered onto the MYS data collection tool. Where no patients are identified for the audit, the pharmacy owner will still be eligible for payment if: Declaration requirements When making a declaration for this criterion, the following information must be reported on the MYS application: Sepsis – CPPE learning & e-assessment By the end of 31st March 2026, all registered pharmacy professionals working at the pharmacy on the day of the declaration must have satisfactorily completed, within the last two years (between 1st April 2024 and end of 31st March 2026), the CPPE sepsis online training and passed the e-assessment. Pharmacy owners will need to have evidence to demonstrate that all registered pharmacy professionals working at the pharmacy on the day of the declaration have satisfactorily completed, within the last 2 years (between 1st April 2024 and end of 31st March 2026) the CPPE sepsis online training and passed the e-assessment. This evidence must be available for inspection from the end of 31st March 2026 at premises level and must be retained for 3 years for PPV purposes. Resources Declaration requirements When making a declaration for this criterion, the following information must be reported on the MYS application: Regularising enhanced DBS checks for registered pharmacy professionals By the end of 31st March 2026, all pharmacists and pharmacy technicians (registered pharmacy professionals) working at the pharmacy on the day of the declaration must have undertaken an enhanced DBS check to support the safe provision of clinical services, with a certificate issued within the last three years (between 1st April 2023 and end of 31st March 2026), to regularise the frequency of performing these checks in line with other healthcare professionals in the NHS. Pharmacy owners will need to have evidence to demonstrate that all pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working at the pharmacy on the day of the declaration must have requested an enhanced DBS check to support the safe provision of clinical services, with a certificate issued within the last three years (between 1st April 2023 and end of 31st March 2026). This evidence must be available for inspection from the end of 31st March 2026 at premises level and must be retained for 3 years for PPV purposes. Declaration requirements When making a declaration for this criterion, the following information must be reported on the MYS application:
For the 2025/26 PQS, £30 million funding is available and pharmacy owners will be able to claim an Aspiration payment if they wish to, later this year; please see below. Points allocation The domain(s) have a designated maximum number of points dependent on the participating pharmacy owner’s total prescription volume in 2024/25*/**/***/**** according to the NHSBSA’s payment data as shown in the table below. * Pharmacy owners, who opened part way through 2024/25, will have their total prescription volume determined as the average number of prescriptions dispensed per month during the full months they were open in 2024/25 multiplied by 12. Please note that change in ownership for the purpose of the PQS banding only is not treated as a new pharmacy owner. ** Pharmacy owners, who open after 1st April 2025, will be placed in band 2 for PQS 2025/26. Please note that change in ownership for the purpose of the PQS banding only is not treated as a new pharmacy owner. *** Pharmacy owners, who are eligible for the Pharmacy Access Scheme (PhAS), are automatically placed in band 2. **** Where two pharmacies have consolidated, in accordance with Regulation 26A,161 since 1st April 2024, the total prescription volume of the continuing pharmacy will be determined as the item volume for the continuing pharmacy only. The item volume for the closing pharmacy will not be attributed to the continuing pharmacy. This is not the same as a change in ownership situation. The total funding for PQS 2025/26 is £30 million. The funding will be divided between qualifying pharmacies based on the number of points they have achieved up to a maximum £115 per point. Each point will have a minimum value of £57.50, based on all pharmacy owners achieving maximum points. Payments will be made to eligible pharmacy owners depending on the band they are placed in, how many domains they have declared they are meeting, and hence points claimed. For example: Assuming the number of pharmacy owners in each band and the average number of points achieved by each pharmacy owner is as set out as below in the table, we can calculate how many points in total were delivered and therefore the value of each point: The total number of points is 250,436 which means £30 million would deliver a value per point of £119.79. However, each point is capped at a total of £115. So, the pharmacy owner would receive £115 per point they earned. This would mean that around £1.2 million (out of the £30 million) would remain undelivered through the PQS and would be taken into account in the delivery of the overall Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework funding agreement. Aspiration payment Pharmacy owners will be able to claim an Aspiration payment. The Aspiration payment is optional for pharmacy owners and not claiming it will not impact on the pharmacy owner’s ability to claim payment for PQS 2025/26. Pharmacy owners will need to make a declaration to the NHSBSA using MYS and indicate which domains they intend to achieve before the end of the declaration period. The aspiration payment must be claimed between 9am on 1st May 2025 to 11.59pm on 16th May 2025 for pharmacy owners to receive payment on 1st July 2025. Completing the declaration within the declaration window is essential to receive an Aspiration payment. MYS allows a pharmacy owner to start their declaration and then return to it later should this be necessary. Where a declaration has been started but not submitted, it will not be eligible for payment. Pharmacy owners who successfully complete their declaration will receive a declaration confirmation email as evidence that their declaration has been successful. This email must be provided if a pharmacy owner needs to demonstrate that they have successfully completed their declaration. Should a pharmacy owner not receive this declaration confirmation email within one hour of submitting their declaration then, after checking their junk email folder, they should email the provider assurance team at pharmacysupport@nhsbsa.nhs.uk immediately to make them aware of the issue. The maximum number of points for which a pharmacy owner can be paid an Aspiration payment is 75% of the number of points available. The value of each point for the Aspiration payment is set at £57.50 (i.e. the minimum value of a point for PQS 2025/26). The Aspiration payment will be reconciled with the payment for the PQS 2025/26 on 1st April 2026. Where there is a change of ownership during the course of 2025/26 and the previous pharmacy owner received an Aspiration payment and does not make a declaration between 9am on 2nd February 2026 and 11.59pm on 27th February 2026, this Aspiration payment will be recovered from the previous pharmacy owner A new pharmacy owner cannot rely upon the PQS activities conducted by a previous pharmacy owner for PQS payment where a change of ownership has occurred resulting in a new ODS code being issued for the pharmacy owner. For example: e pharmacy’s prescription volume in 2024/25 would put them in Band 2 for 2025/26 PQS. They intend to achieve 50 points in 2025/26 (i.e. the maximum available for Band 2). They receive an Aspiration payment of £2,156.25 (i.e. 75% of 50 points is 37.5, and 37.5 multiplied by £57.50 is £2,156.25). The pharmacy achieves the 50 points as intended. In addition, the points delivered by all pharmacy owners mean the value of a point is set at £80. In the reconciliation payment the pharmacy owner receives £1,843.75. The PQS declaration (making a claim) To receive a PQS payment the pharmacy owner must have met the gateway criterion by the end of 31st August 2025. The pharmacy owner must also declare between 9am on 2nd February 2026 and 11.59pm on 27th February 2026 as having met and have evidence demonstrating meeting one or more of the domains (please note, pharmacy owner must meet all of the quality criteria in each domain to be eligible for a PQS payment in respect of that domain). No PQS payment will be made to pharmacy owners that fail to submit their declaration by 11.59pm on 27th February 2026, even if they have evidence to demonstrate that they have undertaken the work to meet the scheme requirements. The overall level of the PQS payment will depend on how many of the domains the pharmacy owner declares it has met. Validation of claims NHS England has a duty to be assured that where pharmacy owners choose to take part in the PQS that they meet the requirements of the scheme and earn the payments claimed. NHS England will work with the NHSBSA Provider Assurance Team to undertake verification checks on all declarations. The verification checks include comparing the information provided by pharmacy owners in their declarations against the datasets and evidence sources available, as well as evidence held. When pharmacy owners make their submission for the PQS 2025/26, they are making a declaration that they have met the gateway criterion and will meet the quality criteria in each of the domains they are claiming for by the end of 31st March 2026. It is the pharmacy owner’s responsibility to be able to provide evidence of meeting the scheme requirements and this may be required by the NHSBSA for post-payment verification. Pharmacy owners experiencing any difficulty with collating evidence of meeting the scheme requirements or making the declarations for the PQS 2025/26 can contact the NHSBSA Provider Assurance Team at pharmacysupport@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. to make them aware of these difficulties at the time the difficulties occur. In cases where NHS England consider that a claim has been made for a PQS payment for which the pharmacy owner is not eligible, it will be treated as an overpayment. In such cases, pharmacy owners will be contacted by the NHSBSA and notified of the overpayment recovery process. Any overpayment recovery would not prejudice any action that NHS England may also seek to take under the performance related sanctions and market exit powers within The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013.
Band
Band 1
Band 2
Annual items
0-1,800
1,801 and above
Medicines optimisation
1.50
30
Patient safety
1
20
Total
2.50
50
Number of pharmacy owners
Average points per pharmacy owner
Band 1
13
2
Band 2
8,347
30
PQS Band for 2025/26
Band 2
Maximum ‘Aspiration points’ which can be paid
37.5
Points intended to deliver, as per Aspiration payment declaration
50
Aspiration payment (paid at £57.50 per aspiration point)
£2,156.25
Points actually delivered, as per 2025/2026 declaration (made between 9am on 2nd February 2026 and 11.59pm on 27th February 2026)
50
Reconciliation payment (1st April 2026) (based on final value of £80 per point)
£1,843.75
Total 2025/26 PQS payment
£4,000