LloydsPharmacy is to offer pharmacy pre-regs eligible for provisional registration an annual salary of £38,480, based on a 40-hour working week, and will provide clinical support to help them deliver safe and effective care.

Victoria Steele, deputy superintendent at LloydsPharmacy, said: “We want to find a role for as many of our 150 pre-registration pharmacists as possible. We’ll be matching them with our vacancies first but will also have positions for external pre-regs.”

The GPhC has agreed to provisionally register eligible pre-registration trainees after the registration assessments scheduled for June and September were postponed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. The registration assessment is now expected to be held online.

To be eligible to join the register on a provisional basis, pre-reg pharmacists must successfully meet a number of criteria, and the regulator has said that structured support should be provided by their employer, including access to a mentor.

In October 2019 LloydsPharmacy launched a bespoke 12-month foundation programme to provide extra support for newly qualified pharmacists in their first year on the register. “The new provisional registration and postponement of the exam has meant we’ve had to adapt the programme but the principles at the heart of it are all still important for provisional registration,” Ms Steele said. 

LloydsPharmacy will also be supporting its provisionally registered pharmacists by finding them a suitable mentor, as well as ensuring they have access to a support network. Ms Steele added: “In addition to wanting our new pharmacists to feel supported, we also want them to feel valued, which is why we’ve made the decision for them to also benefit from our increased minimum rate of pay, of £18.50 per hour, that we announced in April.”