A cut of 25 per cent in salary support for NHS preregistration trainees, announced by Health Education England in January, will be put on hold for one year, according to a letter sent to hospital chief pharmacists in mid-February.

The letter, from Hazel Smith, national programme lead for HEE’s education funding reform programme, says that HEE now wants to “focus on informing recommendations for the implementation of the change in salary support from 2021–2022 intake”.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, which had described the plans as ‘incoherent’, has welcomed the news.

The letter goes on to say that publication of the NHS Long-Term Plan meant that a final proposal to HEE must be something that “can be endorsed by the chief pharmacist as coherent with the broader professional vision”.

A roundtable event to consider the future of funding preregistration places is to be held on March 14, says HEE, with pharmacy representatives to be invited via HEE’s pharmacy deans.