PDA accuses regulator of inaction and incompetence on training standards

A major pharmacists’ union has suggested that the pharmacy regulator has failed to take action on addressing potential racial bias and disparities in educational attainment.

And it raised concerns about pharmacy technician training. In particular, it highlighted one provider that had 'softened' its science entry requirement.

The Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) was responding to the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)’s consultation on proposed changes to its quality assurance of pharmacy education and training.

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'Significant disparity' in attainment from different pharmacy schools

The PDA highlighted as many as 40 percentage points difference between registration assessment pass rates of students from different pharmacy schools. This had remained unchanged between 2019 and 2024, the PDA said.

‘It seems that the GPhC is proving incapable of resolving this significant disparity,’ the PDA suggested.

'Long-standing ethnicity attainment gap'

It also raised concerns around the ‘huge’ attainment gap for black-African students, which it said has been ‘consistently below’ that of other groups for over a decade.

The PDA said it was ‘unclear’ what the GPhC was doing to address any ‘potential bias’ in its own registration exam and how it was supporting black-African students to help reduce this gap.

The union also raised ‘significant concern’ that the GPhC was ‘repeatedly failing to equality assess the impact prior to making proposals’.

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It suggested that 'given the long-standing ethnicity attainment gap in the MPharm and the differential pass rates in the registration exam', the regulator was 'failing in its statutory duty to undertake such an impact assessment' for its proposed changes to the quality assurance of education and training quality.

Regulator allows 'softening' of pharmacy technician entry requirements

The PDA also raised concerns about the training of pharmacy technicians.

It highlighted a 2023 report on one training provider that had ‘softened’ its Science GCSE entry requirement ‘in the interests of widening participation’. The course was deemed to meet the GPhC’s criteria relating to the course’s election and entry requirements.

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A 'reliable national assessment’ for pharmacy technicians, independent of training providers and employers was ‘urgently required’, the PDA said.

The GPhC confirmed to The Pharmacist that it was currently analysing all of the responses to its consultation, and would then publish a consultation analysis report responding to the key themes and issues raised.