Published: 25th June 2026
A weekly snapshot of activity across CPS, highlighting recent work on policy, systems, and engagement across the network.
There's been a rush of activity as we head towards the summer holiday period - our work this week has included:
Reviewing applications for our Policy Officer role - note that the deadline for this has been extended to this Sunday the 28th of June.
Representing the network at the national Pharmacy First Advisory group, where we put forward our early thinking on the next steps for the service as well as tackling current issues.
We said a fond farewell to Gill Paterson, who left the CPS Team after two years - we hope you join us in wishing Gill all the best for the future!
Gordon represented CPS at one of a series of sustainable prescribing workshops led by Scottish Government colleagues, with the focus on infrastructure and technology
The team supported Community Pharmacy Grampian's annual general meeting
We contributed to the latest meeting of the National Pharmacy Workforce forum advisory group where there were discussions around experiential learning models going forward and an update on a strategic paper outlining what skills, experience and qualifications Scotland needs its pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to have going forward as service delivery gets more complex.
Adam participated in the Digital Prescribing and Dispensing Pathways programme monthly delivery meeting, where the team fed into an exercise to define the differences in practice between the current state and the future where prescriptions arrive digitally into the PMR rather than the paper being collected at the GP surgeries.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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The CPS Snapshot provides members with a regular overview of the work Community Pharmacy Scotland is undertaking on behalf of the sector. It highlights engagement with stakeholders, policy development, service improvement work and ongoing projects that support community pharmacy in Scotland.
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Updates include policy work, service development, system reviews, and engagement with partners across the pharmacy sector.
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- We have already had some informal conversations and some applications for our open Policy Officer (Pharmacist) role - take a look if you haven't already seen this!
- Graham presented the findings of his research on use of the CPS Shortage reporter to the team working on refreshing it, which has helped us really understand which improvements will best support our members. Maximising the use of this tool provides us with crucial evidence on medicines pricing that can inform price adjustments - so keep an eye out for some developments in the coming weeks (including a name change to something a bit more "Ronseal")!
- We took some new Scottish Government Pharmacy colleagues out to visit the team at Omnicare Tollcross in Edinburgh so that they could see all of the hard work that pharmacy teams put into supporting local communities, highlighting areas that our teams in turn need to be supported in.
- Adam and Gordon continued the work kicked off last week to review the PCR requirements for a supplier review.
- Digital Prescribing and Dispensing work continues to develop - this week's conversations were tackling the systems, processes and governance around prescription cancellations and our thoughts internally are very much turning to the support and resource that will be required for implementation.
- Adam met with Skills Development Scotland to understand what is changing in the world of skills and in particular apprenticeships - the entire system is being overhauled and we are keen that our members are able to benefit from this in the coming years.
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You can follow weekly snapshots and updates shared through CPS communications, including the website and newsletter.
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