Community Pharmacy London and Soar Beyond Partner to Unlock the Potential of London’s Pharmacy Workforce

New Memorandum of Understanding will support nearly 1,300 community pharmacies across the majority of London to build, demonstrate and deploy their workforce capability – creating new opportunities for neighbourhood health, commissioned and private services, and a more financially sustainable future for community pharmacy

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Community Pharmacy London (Pharmacy London) and Soar Beyond Ltd have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop a near London-wide programme focused on strengthening, evidencing and unlocking the potential of the community pharmacy workforce.

Through the partnership, Pharmacy London and Soar Beyond will work together to develop the Pharmacy London Digital Workforce Hub – a programme designed to understand, develop and demonstrate the capabilities of pharmacists, independent prescribers, pharmacy technicians and the wider community pharmacy team.

​The ambition goes beyond training. The partnership will create the infrastructure and evidence needed to demonstrate what the community pharmacy workforce can deliver, support the development of new NHS-commissioned and privately remunerated services, and help establish community pharmacy as a financially viable, sustainable and integral partner in neighbourhood health and primary care.

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Unlocking a major workforce for neighbourhood health

As more care moves closer to people’s homes, community pharmacy provides an established clinical workforce already embedded within local communities and well placed to improve access to medicines and services, support prevention, manage long-term conditions and reduce pressure elsewhere in the health system.

​For London, Pharmacy London’s network of nearly 1,300 community pharmacies covering the majority of the capital represents a major opportunity to mobilise existing workforce capability at scale – supporting neighbourhood teams and improving access to care closer to home.

The partnership will focus on ensuring that this potential can be identified, developed, deployed and evidenced, so community pharmacy is recognised – and appropriately remunerated – as an integral and sustainable part of neighbourhood health delivery.

Building and demonstrating workforce capability

Through the proposed Pharmacy London Digital Workforce Hub, Pharmacy London and Soar Beyond will work together to:

• Establish a near London-wide baseline of community pharmacy workforce capability and readiness

• Develop workforce capability in agreed clinical, prescribing, digital, leadership and service priorities

• Support new and expanded NHS-commissioned and privately remunerated services

• Generate research and evidence of impact, value and service readiness to support future commissioning and investment

The programme will draw on Soar Beyond’s established infrastructure, including the SMART® Workforce Competence Platform, 4D® quality improvement methodology and i2i professional network.

The approach will connect workforce development directly with service implementation, measurable outcomes and sustainable remuneration – moving beyond training alone towards demonstrable transformation.

​Creating a sustainable model for community pharmacy

A key ambition of the partnership is to ensure that developing workforce capability also creates opportunities for sustainable remuneration and investment into community pharmacy.

The future development of the sector will depend not only on expanding clinical capability, but also on creating viable models that appropriately recognise and remunerate the expertise, accessibility and infrastructure community pharmacies provide.

The partnership will therefore explore opportunities including:

• new and expanded NHS-commissioned services

• neighbourhood health service models

• appropriately governed privately remunerated clinical services

• funded service transformation and quality improvement programmes

• research, advisory and insight opportunities

• funding that supports pharmacy participation, including backfill where appropriate

• other sustainable funding and commercial models

The objective is to ensure that enhanced workforce capability can translate into new services, new investment and sustainable income, enabling community pharmacies to invest in their teams, expand their clinical offer and remain financially viable providers of healthcare within their communities.

Partnership and collaboration

Under the MOU, Soar Beyond has been selected as Pharmacy London’s delivery partner to scope, design and implement the programme and to engage potential funding and system partners.

​Conor Price, CEO, Community Pharmacy London, said:

“London has an extraordinary community pharmacy asset, with pharmacies embedded within the communities they serve.

“We selected Soar Beyond because of its deep understanding of pharmaceutical needs across London, established relationships across the capital, and proven expertise in pharmacy workforce and service development, quality improvement and transformation. Its established SMART®, i2i and 4D® infrastructure enables us to build on proven approaches, accelerate implementation and move beyond workforce development to demonstrable service impact and sustainable change.

“Most importantly, this partnership will help us demonstrate the value community pharmacy can bring to neighbourhood health while developing sustainable models that properly recognise and remunerate that contribution.”

​Shailen Rao, Chief Executive and Co-Founder, Soar Beyond Ltd, said:

“Community pharmacy has enormous untapped clinical potential. This partnership is about identifying that capability, developing it and, crucially, demonstrating the impact it can have for patients and the wider health system.

“By combining Pharmacy London’s reach with Soar Beyond’s pharmacy workforce expertise and infrastructure, we are excited to have an opportunity to create new routes into commissioned and private services, attract investment into the sector and strengthen community pharmacy as a sustainable part of neighbourhood healthcare.”

Demonstrating the value of community pharmacy at scale

A strong focus of the partnership will be on researching and demonstrating the impact of community pharmacy, including its contribution to patient access, workforce capability, neighbourhood health, service outcomes and wider system capacity.

The aim is to create a stronger evidence base that can be used in conversations with commissioners, NHS organisations, policymakers, investors and other partners.

Success will therefore be measured not simply through participation in workforce development, but through improvements in capability, implementation of services, evidence of patient and system impact, commissioning opportunities, investment and sustainable income reaching community pharmacies and pharmacy professionals.

​A shared vision

Soar Beyond will now begin engaging with interested organisations and partners who share our vision for elevating and demonstrating the integral role of community pharmacy in improving patient access to medicines, services and high-quality care.

Our shared vision is to:

• Elevate community pharmacy’s role in neighbourhood health

• Unlock pharmacy workforce capability across clinical care and prescribing

• Improve patient access to medicines and services closer to home

• Create sustainable NHS and private service models

• Demonstrate impact and value to support commissioning and investment

We welcome conversations with NHS organisations, commissioners, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, digital health organisations and other partners interested in supporting workforce development, service innovation, research and sustainable community pharmacy models.