Quality and Safety Scheme (Wales)
Summary of Quality and Safety Scheme 2023/24
The intention of the quality and safety scheme is to:
- Increase the whole community pharmacy teams’ awareness of mental ill-health and wellbeing support
- Encourage pharmacies to take action on the responsible disposal of inhalers in line with the NHS Wales Decarbonisation Strategic Delivery Plan
- Validate information about pharmacy services contained in the All Wales Pharmacy Database (AWPD).
Awareness of mental ill-health and wellbeing support
Mental health awareness e-learning
All pharmacy employees involved in the provision of NHS pharmaceutical services at the pharmacy will have completed the Mental Health Awareness e-learning package. This must include any pharmacists, pharmacy technicians (including locums) or pharmacy employees involved in the provision of NHS pharmaceutical service who have not previously completed the e-learning package and who work regularly at the pharmacy (i.e. for a total of four or more weeks between 1st April 2023 and 31st March 2024). New employees who completed the e-learning at their previous pharmacy will not have to re-do the training providing it can be proved that it has been undertaken.
The Mental Health Awareness e-learning package will be provided by Health Education Improvement Wales (HEIW).
In the case of pharmacies where fewer than ten employees are involved in the provision of NHS pharmaceutical services, all employees (including locums) must complete the e-learning package.
In the case of pharmacies where more than ten employees are involved in the provision of NHS pharmaceutical services, no fewer than ten must complete the e-learning package, this must include all pharmacists and pharmacy technicians (including locums).
Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who work regularly at more than one pharmacy need only complete the e-learning once.
A single payment of £580 will be payable to all contractors who complete a declaration that they have achieved all the criteria in the National Electronic Claim and Audit Form (NECAF) system by 31st March 2024.
First aid for mental health training
To create a network of individuals trained in first aid for mental health across community pharmacies in Wales, one pharmacy employee involved in the provision of NHS pharmaceutical services at the pharmacy will be supported to undertake first aid for mental health training. This will consist of a 6-hour (one-day) face to face course provided by the Health Education Improvement Wales (HEIW).
A single payment of £580 will be payable to all contractors who complete a declaration in the National Electronic Claim and Audit Form (NECAF) system by 31st March 2024.
Responsible disposal of inhalers
In line with the ambitions of the NHS Wales Decarbonisation Strategic Delivery Plan pharmacies will be requested to participate in a nationally agreed community pharmacy inhaler waste amnesty programme to support the responsible disposal of inhalers. Information on the programme is yet to be released.
A single payment of £500 will be payable to all contractors who complete a declaration in the National Electronic Claim and Audit Form (NECAF) system by 31st March 2024.
Validation of the All Wales Pharmacy Database (AWPD)
Pharmacy contractors will be requested to undertake a validation exercise of the data held in the AWPD in two quarters of the year, a payment of £520 will be payable for each validation exercise. It is currently expected that this will take place during September 2023 and March 2024. Further details will be provided from NWSSP later in the year.
Wales National Workforce Reporting System (WNWRS)
The HEIW Community Pharmacy Workforce Survey 2019 report recommended that the feasibility of a single workforce tool for NHS Wales contractors should be mandated through contracts and align with job roles in the Electronic Staff Record for analysis and modelling.
In September 2022 a pilot expansion of the WNWRS to include 20 community pharmacy employers began with the intention to expand further to include all community pharmacies from April 2023.
Due to GDPR concerns raised, the details around this element of the Q&S scheme have yet to be decided. This is planned to be introduced later in 2023-24 once the GDPR concerns have been addressed.
More information is available on the CPW website.