Proactive and sustainable development of DPP workforce across two systems (Surrey Heartlands and Frimley Health & Care ICS)

Surrey Heartlands ICB & Frimley Health ICB

Background

Changes to the initial education and training of pharmacists will enable pharmacists to play a bigger role, as clinicians, having the skills to prescribe from the point of registration. An increase in Independent Prescribing (IP) learners requires an increase in Designated Prescribing Practitioner (DPP) supervisory capacity which is currently not in place, and access to DPP capacity is particularly challenging for community pharmacy. Frimley and Surrey Heartlands ICSs have partnered to develop a DPP Supervision Programme. Collaborative work is already happening, with set-up of a joint IP/DPP sub-group realising the benefit of undertaking this piece of work across two systems.

Project Aims

Develop a team of highly skilled, confident, and competent DPPs to enable them to support the future IP workforce.

Offer DPP development across the two systems with a focus on community pharmacy, where the trained DPPs will be able to deliver assurance of the standard and quality of supervision.

Project Objectives

Create a register of active DPPs and IPs (trained and in training), to support identification of DPPs.

Develop a suggested programme of works to support the DPP to assess the requirements to achieve the 90 hours of learning in practice across multiprofessional workstreams, giving the learner a broader experience of prescribing practice whilst sharing the responsibility of supervision across multiple professional settings.

Engage with Higher Education Institutes to ensure the development pathway aligns with the provider’s requirements for DPP supervision.

Engage DPPs in supervision support groups (Action Learning Sets).

Develop DPP mentoring champions - leading future development of IPs and DPPs.

Expected Outputs

Robust register of active DPPs within the ICS footprints.

Bespoke training plan to develop the confidence, competence, and skill of DPPs to ensure they have the tools needed to undertake their role.

Training plan with suggested programme of works to support the 90 hours of learning in practice for IP learners, with a cross sector approach.

DPP mentoring champions supporting training and development of future DPPs.

Creating experiential learning opportunities to develop the skills required of a DPP.

Sustainable pool of DPPs.

Evaluation of the project and sharing results through a published paper or presentation.

Project Team

Name

Claire Fuller

Rachel Mackay

Tim Langran

Organisation

Surrey Heartlands ICB

Surrey Heartlands ICB

Frimley Health & Care ICB

Role

Accountable Officer

Project Lead

Project Lead