Community pharmacy staff in Wales earning less than £46,000 are to receive a pay rise of “at least four per cent” under the terms of a funding increase for the sector.

In a September 7 letter to contractors in Wales, chief pharmaceutical officer Andrew Evans said the sector is to receive an additional two per cent increase to the contractual funding agreement for 2022-23, lifting the total amount by £3m to £157.2m.

The increase “will be applied across the various elements” of the contractual framework, said Mr Evans, including clinical services, pharmacist independent prescribing, the collaborative working scheme and a two per cent “workforce incentive,” with all fees backdated to April 2022.

A four per cent increase will be applied to clinical services and independent prescribing to support commissioning, with the rest of the additional funding to be “distributed through increases to practice payments,” including an “explicit” expectation that team members will receive a pay rise.

“All directly employed staff involved in the direct provision of NHS pharmaceutical services must receive a pay increase of at least four per cent,” the letter stated, adding: “The increase does not need to include anyone who is not an employee, area/regional managers or head office support staff.”

Staff members on more than £45,839 may receive an increase of less than four per cent provided it amounts to at least £1,400 (pro-rated for those working less than 40 hours a week), to ensure the increase is in line with that paid out to NHS staff earlier in the year. 

Last week’s letter follows health secretary Eluned Morgan’s announcement in July of a pay uplift for NHS staff in Wales as recommended by the NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB).

While the recommendations did not apply to pharmacy staff, Ms Morgan “was explicit in setting out the expectation that the funding increase would result in a pay uplift for community pharmacy teams,” said Mr Evans.

“We will work with the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) to establish arrangements to confirm the necessary pay increases have been applied by individual contractors, and to recover additional funding from contractors where pay increases have not been applied.”