The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7443 p325
17 March 2007

Society summary

First Society accreditations for support staff training under new arrangements

Pharmacy support staff training programmes organised by Buttercups Training Ltd are the first to be formally accredited by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society under new arrangements approved by the Council in April 2006 (PJ, 22 April 2006, p485). The courses were accredited at a meeting of the Society’s Education Committee on 28 February.

The Society says that the Buttercups level 3 underpinning knowledge course is the first qualification to meet the Society’s post transitional underpinning knowledge requirements for registration as a pharmacy technician that is outside the arrangements of the national education regulatory bodies (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and Scottish Qualifications Authority).

The new accreditation procedures reflect existing Society procedures for accrediting MPharm undergraduate programmes and prescribing courses for pharmacists. They involve a visit to the training provider by an accreditation team, drawn from members of the Society’s accreditation panel.

The Education Committee also accredited two other Buttercups courses — a medicines counter assistants’ course and a training course for dispensing and pharmacy assistants.