We investigate concerns about the quality of pharmacy education and training in relation to our education and training standards and/or requirements. Priority would be given to any concerns where there is evidence that our standards and/or requirements are not being met. Also to those where the provision may be considered to present risks to patient and public safety.
Before contacting us, you should follow the concerns and/or complaints procedures operated by the education and training provider. You should also consider whether it might be more appropriate to contact a different authority or organisation. For example, for courses run by universities, it may be more suitable to contact the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education depending on the nature of your concern.
When raising a concern, it would be helpful to include as much detail as possible, including:
- dates of incidents
- specific locations
- individuals involved
- supporting evidence
- steps taken to address the concern
- the outcome being sought from raising the concern.
We’ll carry out an initial review to assess whether the concern should be investigated by our education team.
If the concern does require further investigation, then the details of the concern will be sent to the education or training provider with an ask that they respond to us with how they are addressing the concern raised. Depending on the consent you have given, and the nature of the concern raised, your details may or may not also be shared.
Further information may be needed from you or the provider to help resolve the concern and we may also seek expert opinion from members of our accreditation and recognition panels and other colleagues within the GPhC.
Once our education team have completed their initial assessment a decision with one of the following outcomes will be made:
- follow up with the provider by phone/email and/or invite the provider to a meeting to discuss the concerns in more detail and see if remedial action is required
- carry out further monitoring because the education or training provider is failing to meet our standards, and we need to be sure that the issues raised will be dealt with appropriately now and in the future. The monitoring will be done through our education quality assurance processes
- conduct a full quality assurance event because there is evidence that the issues raised may have a serious or major adverse impact on patient or public safety
- take no further action because:
- there isn’t enough evidence for us to investigate, or the concerns are not ones we can investigate
- the concerns raised are outside our jurisdiction or there is no case to answer
- we have contacted an education provider, and we are satisfied that they have dealt with the issues raised.
We may also decide that we need to refer the concerns to another area of our organisation or to another body. Other bodies that we may refer concerns to include, but are not limited to:
- NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
- Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW)
- NI Centre for Pharmacist Learning and Development (NICPLD)
- NHS England (NHSE)
- Office for Students (OfS)
- Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA)
- General Medical Council (GMC)
- Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
- General Dental Council (GDC)
- Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
- Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI)
- General Optical Council (GOC)
- General Osteopathic Council (GOsC)
- General Chiropractic Council (GCC)
You will receive an acknowledgement email confirming we have received your submission, shortly after you complete the online form; then, we will aim to keep you updated on progress and actions, at regular intervals.
No. We don’t investigate concerns about pre-registration pharmacy technician trainees, MPharm students, or support staff students. Student and trainee fitness to practise concerns should be raised directly with the education and training provider.
However, we do have a process to report concerns about foundation trainee pharmacists enrolled on foundation training schemes managed by Statutory Education Bodies (SEBs).
Yes. You can read our procedures for raising concerns about an individual pharmacist or pharmacy technician.
It’s important that staff are encouraged to be candid and that they feel able to raise concerns. For example, this might be about how education and training could present risks to patient care.
You shouldn’t be blamed or be worried about reprisals for highlighting potentially unacceptable practices or poor-quality care. Many employers will have a whistleblowing policy that explains how to raise concerns. As the regulator for pharmacy, we have published guidance on raising concerns for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians
The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 protects workers who disclose information about unacceptable practices at their workplace, or former workplace, if certain conditions are met. The conditions cover the nature of the information disclosed and the person to who it is disclosed. If these conditions are met, the Act protects the worker from suffering as a result of having made the disclosure.
There is also protection for people making disclosures to certain regulators, including the GPhC, and – in exceptional circumstances – wider disclosures such as to an MP or the media.
For advice about the legal protections given to whistle-blowers, you might wish to go to the website of Public Concern at Work, an independent charity that offers support and information. Some professional membership organisations also give support and advice if you are considering raising a concern.
