New PSNC resources are available to help contractors who wish to work towards achieving the Quality Payment criterion: "On the day of the review, the pharmacy is a Healthy Living Pharmacy level 1 (self-assessment)". This criterion is worth 20 points, meaning that £1,280 can be claimed in 2017/18 for achieving it.

The materials include a briefing that explains what a Healthy Living Pharmacy does and sets out the steps that must be taken to achieve HLP Level 1 - Promoting health, wellbeing and self-care.

There is also an Evidence Portfolio Workbook to help pharmacy teams record evidence, a checklist of the 27 quality criteria for HLP Level 1, and a flowchart detailing the eligibility process. The HLP page on the PSNC website has also been updated.

Contractors that meet the 27 quality criteria are now able to register their pharmacy as a HLP Level 1 through the Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH) website. To do so, an assessment of compliance must first be completed and submitted on the RSPH portal.

RSPH has been commissioned by Public Health England (PHE) to deliver the pilot HLP Level 1 scheme until the end of March, and is handling registration and quality assurance of the self-assessment process. Registrations obtained through this pilot are valid for two years.

The scheme is currently only open to pharmacies that have not been accredited as HLPs locally. PSNC has asked NHS England to consider a "grandparenting" approach whereby pharmacies that have already achieved HLP Level 1 status within the last two years are automatically eligible for the Quality Payment criterion. This is still being considered by NHS England; further information on this matter will be published as soon as it becomes available.