How to become a Council member

Opportunities to join the Council arise when existing members complete their terms of office. When this happens, we will advertise the roles on this website, on our social media channels and through any recruitment agency supporting the process.

The power to make appointments to the GPhC Council rests with an external body - the Privy Council. In most cases, the Privy Council’s decision will be informed by advice from the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Our role is to assist the Privy Council to make the appointments by managing the processes to identify suitable candidates and recommending these candidates for appointment. For more information on this process see our policy for managing and recommending Council appointments [PDF 600 KB].

Our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion

The process we use to recruit new Council members is carefully scrutinised by the Professional Standards Authority. This includes looking at the actions we take to meet our equality obligations under the law, as well as how we follow the principles of a good appointments process, namely: merit, fairness, transparency and openness and inspiring confidence. Our policy sets out how we make sure that our end-to-end appointments processes comply with the law, relevant good practice guidance and our wider commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion in this context. 

We value diversity and want to promote it on our Council. It is vital that our Council members are drawn from the widest possible talent pools, bringing with them a diversity of life experiences, ideas and perspectives, to inform our discussions and decisions.

What we look for in a candidate

Candidates need to demonstrate that they have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience for the role, whether they are registrant members or lay members. And, candidates need to meet the essential criteria for the role as outlined in the candidate pack (we publish these packs when we are actively recruiting for new members).

For an illustration of the types of skills, knowledge and experience that Council members need to have, see some examples of essential criteria within Annex A and B of our policy [PDF 600 KB]; note these are only examples, so you will need to look out for confirmed details in future candidate packs when roles are advertised.

If you are interested in becoming a Council member, you should also get to know, understand and be able to demonstrate the ‘Seven principles of public life’ (also known as the Nolan Principles), as we have adopted these as our values for Council members.

Our commitment to transparency

Being a Council member is a paid position and we aim to be as transparent as possible about our remuneration and expenses policy. The remuneration and expenses details will be set out in the candidate pack. Currently, our Council members receive £15,000 per year.

Candidates will also need to be able to meet the time commitment for the role, generally about up to 36 days a year for Council members.  As part of the role, members also serve on one of our four non-statutory committees. Follow this link for more details about the work of these committees.

When will we recruit next?

We will publish more information on our website when vacancies arise so please look out for these. 

We would encourage anyone who meets the criteria to apply when the opportunities next arise, even if they have not held this type of role before.

If you have any questions or you would like to know more about the work of our Council, please get in touch with Laura McClintock or Janet Collins.