RPS invites pharmacists to help shape future royal college strategy

Pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, students and the wider pharmacy community have been invited to help shape the future strategy of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) as it prepares to become a royal college.

Those from across the profession have been asked to participate in a series of online events hosted by the RPS this autumn and to complete a survey on the move later this year.

The events will be based on five commitments set out by RPS in the run up to its historic vote earlier this year, in which members voted in favour of becoming the ‘Royal College of Pharmacy’ with charitable status.

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Its five commitments include:

• Creating greater recognition for pharmacy and the scope of its impact;
• Collaboratively shaping the future of pharmacy;
• Advancing pharmacists to provide excellence in patient care;
• Supporting workforce transformation;
• And putting patients at the forefront of its work.

By hosting a series of events, the RPS hopes its approach will ‘enable members and non-members to contribute and to ensure that voices from across the profession can be heard’, as it develops its royal college strategy.

Paul Bennet, chief executive of the RPS, said: ‘As we look ahead to becoming a royal college, it’s vital that our strategy reflects the ambitions and insights of our members and the wider pharmacy community.

‘These webinars are a key part of that journey and are an opportunity to shape our future strategy together.

‘I encourage members and non-members to take part in this important conversation.’

He added: ‘Your voice will help ensure we build a strategy that sets the new royal college on the right path to the influential future and strong voice pharmacy deserves.’

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This effort to include members of the pharmacy community in RPS’s future strategy follows criticism from the Pharmacist’s Defence Association (PDA) which warned against what it described as a ‘hastily convened’ voting ballot in March.

Only a third of RPS members turned out to vote on the move to a royal college, at 6,144 voters from a total of 19,594 eligible. Of those, 71.1% voted in favour of the proposed changes to the RPS’s Royal Charter and 28.9% voted to reject them.

There will be an online RPS event for pharmaceutical scientists and pharmacists working in industry on 30 September. On 2 October, there will be a webinar for RPS members and on 23 October there will be one for both members and non-members. The RPS will also co-host an event with the British Pharmaceutical Students' Association (BPSA) for pharmacy students on 4 November.

These events will complement engagement sessions at the Scottish and Welsh RPS conferences in Glasgow on 22 August and in Cardiff on 25 September and will culminate in a reveal of the key findings at the RPS Annual Conference on 8 November.

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In an all-member survey, due for the autumn, RPS members will also be able to share their views.

David Webb, chief pharmaceutical officer (CPhO) for England, told The Pharmacist in May that the incoming Royal College of Pharmacy must offer something that ‘excites’ and ‘interests’ pharmacists who are not already members.