General Pharmaceutical Council

Introduction from the Chief Executive and Registrar designate

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to this GPhC e-bulletin, my first since taking up the role of Chief Executive and Registrar designate on 4 January 2010.

I'm looking forward to the challenge of setting up a new regulatory organisation and to working collaboratively with the public, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and all our stakeholders to develop a positive role for the GPhC.

It will be particularly interesting to learn a lot more about pharmacy — building on my work in regulation as Chief Executive and Registrar of the General Dental Council. Pharmacy has an enviable opportunity to build a new approach to regulation, and it's really exciting to be a part of it.

In my first two weeks I've been looking at the detailed parliamentary processes through which the GPhC will be established as an independent organisation. It is my role to lead the operational establishment and I would like to be clear with everyone about where we are: the GPhC is on course to open in 2010 and we should be able to set an opening date once the parliamentary processes are completed, bearing in mind the eventual timing of the General Election. Of course, our target has been to open in spring 2010, parliamentary processes and timetable permitting. We are working hard to finalise all the details of the planning so that we can confirm the opening date with confidence, but regret we can't do that yet. Please see below for further details on the establishment process.

Of course, there are several priorities within the establishment process for the coming months. High on the Council's agenda is the formal consultation the GPhC will be holding later this year on the draft regulatory standards to enable you to really engage with the proposed changes. This will follow on from the consultation on the draft regulatory standards that has already been hosted by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE). Another key piece of the jigsaw is a set of detailed legislative rules setting out how regulation will work under the GPhC. We'll also be consulting on these, asking people to help us make sure we get the detail right. I hope to be able to bring you more news on this next month.

Another priority is how we communicate with pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy owners as we move towards the opening of the GPhC. At the moment we are communicating through our website, the pharmacy media and, of course, this monthly e-bulletin. Please alert your colleagues and contacts to the e-bulletin and publicise it via your networks. Once we have legal status — which is likely to be in March 2010 — and a proposed opening date, we will be able to write to all practising pharmacists, practising pharmacy technicians and pharmacy owners to give more details about the transfer of regulation and what it means for registrants. Meanwhile I encourage you to keep an eye on our website at www.pharmacyregulation.org where you can also feedback your views and ask questions.

Thank you for your involvement with the GPhC so far, and I look forward to working with you in 2010.

Duncan Rudkin
Chief Executive and Registrar Designate

Establishment update

The GPhC Chair designate Bob Nicholls welcomed the passing of the Pharmacy Order 2010 by the House of Commons this week. The Order must now go before the House of Lords in order to complete its parliamentary process. It was passed by the Scottish Parliament in December 2009.

Bob Nicholls said: "With another step in the parliamentary process for the Order now complete, a further major milestone has been passed, as we move towards the establishment of the GPhC in 2010."

The end of the parliamentary process will clear the way for the Pharmacy Order 2010 to go to the Privy Council. Once the Privy Council processes are complete, the GPhC will be able to come into existence as an independent legal entity.

Further steps in the process to establish the GPhC are already underway. A series of detailed legislative rules is currently being prepared which will set out clearly how GPhC regulation will operate, and which will work alongside the GPhC's regulatory standards. The first set of rules for consultation will include: fees, appeals, registration, statutory committees and fitness to practise. A public consultation on the rules will take place in early 2010, and the rules will then be subject to parliamentary and Privy Council processes, prior to the opening date.

The GPhC designate is working closely with the Departments of Health in England, Scotland and Wales, and with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB), to make sure the transfer of regulation is well organised. A date for the transfer will be announced as soon as it can be finalised, but the timetable is still subject to parliamentary and Privy Council processes.

Standards consultation: Next steps

The Council for the Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) consultation on the new regulatory standards for the GPhC closed on 12 January 2010 following a 12-week process. The responses will now be collated and analysed prior to being considered by the GPhC Council designate.

The GPhC Council designate will review the draft standards in the light of the consultation hosted by CHRE and will then undertake a further formal consultation on the draft standards, and rules, as soon as the GPhC has legal status.

To enable the GPhC to take up its regulatory functions as soon as possible, the standards consultation was undertaken in parallel to the parliamentary process to establish the GPhC. The consultation was taken forward by the CHRE which is a statutory body responsible for scrutinising and overseeing the nine health professions regulators in the UK.

The GPhC will be given the power, in the Pharmacy Order 2010, to set standards in a number of areas including:

• Pharmacy owners, superintendents and premises
• Conduct, ethics and performance (which also includes guidance on the consent and confidentiality standards)
• Proficiency
• Education and training
• Continuing professional development (which also contains the draft policy on return to practice).

Council designate news

The GPhC Council designate had its second meeting on 12-13 January 2010. The Council designate took decisions on governance approaches and managing conflicts of interest as well as beginning its work on the strategy for the organisation and preparing for the consultation on the GPhC's draft rules.

All decisions taken by the Council designate will be ratified once the GPhC gains legal status.

It is intended that the Council will hold most of its business meetings in public.

The Council will also aim to hold at least one meeting each year in Scotland and Wales.