Community pharmacies will be required to take part in a national health campaign later this year promoting Pharmacy First to the public, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has confirmed.
The campaign is the first to be agreed with NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care under the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) for 2025/26, following the joint letter to pharmacy owners on 31 March 2025 outlining contractual changes.
Related Article: Pharmacists concerned they will see ‘very little’ of contract funding boost
As part of negotiations, it was decided that pharmacy owners must deliver two national and two local health campaigns during the year – two fewer than the usual requirement.
All pharmacies will be expected to participate using campaign materials provided, with the activity running alongside an NHS England advertising campaign on Pharmacy First.
CPE said further details on how pharmacy owners must engage with the campaign will be published in due course.
Related Article: Expansion of Pharmacy First a ‘key step’ in delivering preventative care
In November 2024, NHS England (NHSE) relaunched its Pharmacy First advertising campaign with minor tweaks, but at the time sector leaders were concerned it still did not go far enough.
CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said previously that the campaign – which included TV, radio and social media adverts – needed to be part of ‘a much bigger, ongoing public awareness campaign to ensure the service has maximum impact’.
Related Article: Beyond the scales: reframing eating disorder recognition in primary care
The tweaked version of the campaign, which first launched in February 2024, was changed to include wording highlighting the specific age criteria for the different conditions within the scheme.
A roundtable hosted by The Pharmacist six months into the launch of Pharmacy First, last summer, suggested there was a lack of wider awareness of the scope of the service among the public.
Have your say
Please add your comment in the box below. You can include links, but HTML is not permitted. Please note that comments are not moderated before publication and the views expressed are those of the user and do not reflect the views of The Pharmacist. Remember that submission of comments is governed by our Terms and Conditions. You can also read our full guidelines on article comments here – but please be aware that you are legally liable for any libellous or offensive comments that you make. If you have a complaint about a comment or are concerned that a comment breaches our terms and conditions, please use the ‘Report this comment’ function to alert our web team.