Society to establish a support staff advisory group to assist Council
A support staff advisory group is to be set up to provide the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society with expert and informed advice on the education, training and continuing development of pharmacy technicians and other pharmacy support staff.
The group, which will work with the Education Committee, will provide
advice on the development and implementation of policies covering the
roles of different
groups of support staff and, more generally, vocational education policy
relevant to such staff.
The group will also provide advice to the Council on policy for the accreditation
of training programmes meeting the Society’s educational criteria
for pharmacy technician registration and Society policy requirements
for other support staff groups.
At the October
Council meeting it was agreed that such a group should
be established early in 2007 because a number of impending initiatives
would require input from the Society during 2007. These included a review
of the Scottish/National Vocational Qualifications level 2 and 3
in pharmacy services and the pharmacy technician aspects of the Society’s
education policy development programme, “Fit for the future”.
It was agreed that the advisory group would include one pharmacy technician
member of Council, two pharmacist members of Council with experience
of managing pharmacy support staff, one lay member with experience in
the vocational training of health care support staff, three experts in
vocational training relevant to pharmacy support staff, employer representatives
from both primary and secondary care with expertise in training pharmacy
support staff, two practising pharmacy technicians with expertise in
training pharmacy support staff and two pharmacists with experience of
managing support staff.
The initial term of office of group members will be one year. Once discussions
on future structures within the Society have been concluded, the remit
of the group, its composition, the required competencies of its members
and its accountability would be subject to review and modification where
necessary to ensure that they are compatible.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal