Quality Management

Health Education England, working across London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex outlines a list of quality standards based on and mapped to the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPhC) Standards for the Initial Education and Training of Pharmacists. We are responsible for the quality management of pharmacy training programmes including pre-registration (LaSE) and Foundation Pharmacist (KSS only).  

Trust Quality Visits

The six review methods to review quality within placement providers are; Urgent Concern Review, Risk-based Review, Multi-professional Review, Programme Review, Pathway Review and Thematic Reviews.

The Urgent Concern Review takes place following the escalation of risk requiring immediate investigation and action. This review will be held at short notice, and will be highly focused and specific. The focus of the Risk-based Review will be dependent on the level of risk associated with the learning environment and will be defined by a group of learners or trainers.

The Multi-Professional Review will take the form of an onsite visit and is a cyclical review of the whole learning environment. The Quality and Regulation Team will undertake to carry out this review for all placement providers across the London and South East region once every five years. 

The focus of the review will be on educational governance exploring the quality of education and training across a placement provider including all professions which may require focus on a specific area of practice. This review may also be used where there is a heightened organisational risk and may take place more frequently than stipulated where required. 

The Programme Review will consider the quality of a programme of learning across placement providers for learners within a particular area of practice. The focus of this review will be a professional group within a curricula context. 

A Programme Review is being undertaken for all pharmacy London NHS Trusts over the following two years. 
 

Quality Day Outputs and Next Steps

Following on from the World Cafe and Crowd Sourcing sessions at our Quality Day held at the end of November 2019 where we , please read our outputs document below.

Quality Management in Pharmacy

A trust who will be having a quality visit will be expected to complete and submit an LFG Report which includes the ten standards which are mapped to the HEE Quality Framework. The template is available to download below along with a link to the HEE Quality Framework. 

Local Faculty Groups


As part of a move to develop Education Governance in pharmacy, all Trusts are now required to have a Pharmacy Local Faculty Group (LFG). The purpose of Local Faculty Groups is to:

  • ensure there are systems and processes in place to develop learning programmes, teaching and assessment for pre-registration pharmacy trainees
  • ensure there is leadership, management and administrative support to underpin high quality learning environments
  • ensure teaching, learning and assessment is clearly linked to national syllabus and curriculum
  • review the pharmacy LFG report and Education Strategy

Trainee Feedback


LFGs should also consider trainee feedback in improving their systems and processes. 
Each year we conduct an end of year survey for pre-registration trainees and foundation pharmacists. Each site is sent an anonymised summary of the feedback (except for sites where there are less than 3 trainees). 

In sites where the trainee numbers are too small, the trust will receive an annual report showing trends year on year rather than specific trainee feedback.