Laura McEwen-Smith has been appointed as the Pharmacy Support Staff Apprenticeship Project Lead for HEE London and the South East and commenced post on 1st February 2016.  Laura’s role is to develop and implement a strategy for increasing the number of apprenticeships for pharmacy assistants in both sectors, which can be implemented across the whole geography from September 2017.

Work is currently underway scoping the current recruitment and engagement strategies in place for increasing pharmacy assistant (Level 2) apprenticeships across the geography in both acute and community pharmacy sectors.  With the support of LPCs, community pharmacy has been very engaged in this fact-finding process, as have the various providers of Level 2 Pharmacy apprenticeship training. 

Meetings with NHS Trust Chief Pharmacists and Trust Apprenticeship Leads will continue through April to enable a full evaluation of the current local context. Stakeholder consultation will be central to ongoing decision making in terms of identifying, evaluating and selecting the strategic options, with a view to sharing a final proposal in the early part of 2017.  

If you would like more information about the London and South East Pharmacy Support Staff Apprenticeship Project please contact Laura.