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The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has unveiled its new five-year strategic plan, setting out its vision to uphold safety, quality and public trust in pharmacy amid rapid changes in the sector.

Launched at a Westminster event on June 18 attended by pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock, the 2025-2030 strategy centres on three strategic aims: empowering pharmacy professionals, protecting the public through collaboration, and building a skilled, agile and inclusive organisation to carry out its regulatory responsibilities.

GPhC chair Gisela Abbam said the plan “delineates a clear path forward” to ensure pharmacy remains central to healthier communities, as pharmacists and pharmacy technicians embrace independent prescribing, digital transformation and expanded clinical roles.

“These advancements bring great opportunity but also new regulatory challenges,” said Ms Abbam. “The GPhC must provide a clear, robust framework to maintain public confidence and enable innovation.”

Chief executive Duncan Rudkin added: “This strategy offers an honest appraisal of where we are and where we want to be. A detailed delivery plan will follow shortly.”

Prescribing and clinical role expansion, access to pharmacy care, workforce wellbeing, digital services and collaboration with other healthcare regulators are key focus areas. The strategy emphasises that the evolving pharmacy landscape must be matched by agile, inclusive and forward-looking regulation.

The GPhC acknowledged the need to improve its regulatory performance and address perceptions of being adversarial. Key areas for development include streamlining fitness-to-practise processes, improving consistency and data coordination, and ensuring financial sustainability. 

“Too many pharmacists and pharmacy technicians seeing the regulator as a body that is there just to charge them fees and punish them if they fail,” it said.

“We aim to become a more effective, responsive and forward-looking regulator.”