The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has announced proposals to become a royal college – the ‘Royal College of Pharmacy’, with charitable status.
It said the suggestion to register as a charity and move to become a Royal College was the outcome of a ‘comprehensive independent review’ of its constitution and governance, which has taken place over the past 18 months.
As a Royal College, the RPS said it would aim to ‘establish a stronger and more collaborative leadership body that can better deliver its strategic ambitions’.
This would involve a heightened focus on ‘enhancing and developing RPS core activities in education, assessment and credentialling, and standards and guidance to assure professional standards, to the benefit of patients and the public‘.
Proposed changes would also ensure future ‘flexibility‘ to support ‘deeper partnerships‘ with other groups and organisations in future, while enabling them to retain a ‘distinct voice‘, the RPS added.
The RPS plans to hold a series of events across Great Britain from October to December to share more detail about the proposed changes and gather feedback.
It then expects to hold a vote among RPS members in early 2025. Two thirds of members must support the proposals before it can be submitted to the King‘s Privy Council, which can approve amends to the current Royal Charter, as well as to the charity regulators.
Royal College status is ‘natural progression‘
Commenting on the proposed changes, RPS president Professor Claire Anderson said: ‘Pharmacy is changing rapidly and the expectations placed upon pharmacists and the wider pharmacy team will have profound repercussions in terms of delivering patient care.
‘It’s time for pharmacy to take its place alongside other health and medical professional leadership bodies and for RPS to become the Royal College of Pharmacy.‘
She said that becoming a Royal College was ‘a natural progression‘ for the organisation.
‘It will empower us to better advocate for pharmacy and deliver our mission and vision; ensuring that we are always at the forefront of the safe and effective use of medicines,‘ she said.
FAQs released by the RPS suggested that the term ‘Royal College‘ had beneficial name recognition, ‘particularly with the media and with policymakers‘.
RPS chief executive Paul Bennett added that the proposed change reflects the organisation‘s ‘commitment to the highest standards of professional leadership and patient care‘.
‘It will enable us to be more agile, collaborative and influential across healthcare. As a Royal College, we will have a stronger platform to advance the profession, push for the best possible outcomes for patients and support our members through a rapidly evolving environment,‘ he said.
‘We are hugely excited about this next chapter in our history and want to engage with our members and stakeholders to shape the future together. We are keen to hear the views of members and the wider pharmacy community about these proposals and urge everyone to get involved.‘
Duncan Rudkin, chief executive of the General Pharmaceutical Council, also commented on the RPS independent review.
He said it had set out ‘a positive vision‘ for the future of the RPS, including the proposals for it to become a Royal College and a registered charity.
‘Strong and collaborative leadership will be vital to help support and enable pharmacy to achieve its full potential in improving care for patients and the public,‘ Mr Rudkin added.
‘We welcome the ongoing discussions about the best way for professional leadership in pharmacy to develop, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with the RPS and other stakeholders as these discussions are taken forward.‘
Professional leadership, transparent governance
The RPS noted that the proposed changes come at a time of rapid changes in medicines development, technology and expectations of pharmacists and pharmacy teams.
In February 2023, the UK Commission on Pharmacy Professional Leadership found that there was insufficient collective leadership within the sector and that the ‘disjointed voice of the pharmacy professions’ is ‘holding back pharmacy from making the best contribution to UK healthcare’.
And in October 2023, the UKPPLAB was set up to bring together pharmacy professionals amid imminent changes to the professional landscape, such as pharmacist prescribing and greater opportunities for pharmacy technicians.
The RPS review also found that its governance structure, which had been in place since 2010, was ‘opaque to members and stakeholders‘. And despite it having been reviewed and issues identified in the subsequent years, no changes had been made.
The RPS therefore noted that its strategic ambitions would be ‘difficult to deliver‘ without changes to the organisation‘s governance.
It said it would seek to simplify its Charter ‘to ensure more flexibility but retain member influence and agency‘ and recognised that governance that ‘supports greater agility and transparency of decision making‘ was needed.
Royal College and other proposed changes
Subject to legal advice, a membership vote and approval from the Cabinet Office, the Privy Council and charity regulators, the RPS is proposing to:
- Become a registered charity
- Create a trustee board to run the charity and oversee fiduciary and administrative responsibilities
- Retain its Assembly, which will become known as the ‘Senate‘, for professional leadership focused on Great Britain
- Retain its National Boards, which will become known as ‘National Councils‘, with responsibility for policy at a national, devolved level
- Become a Royal College
- Make its knowledge and publishing business, Pharmaceutical Press, a wholly owned (limited) subsidiary.
If the changes were passed, RPS members would have new postnominals, which are expected to be ‘RCPharms‘ and therefore MRCPharms and FRCPharms would be used by members and fellows, respectively.
Steps to enable ‘future closer collaboration‘
The RPS said that it recognised ‘the unique role, identity and contribution of other specialist groups and leadership organisations within the pharmacy space‘.
And it acknowledged that ‘any proposal put forward would need to be co-created and supported by both the leadership and membership of the relevant groups and organisations‘.
As such, the RPS has ‘created flexibility in our proposal to allow for formal structures that could support deeper partnerships with these other groups and organisations, whilst enabling them to retain a distinct voice,‘ it added.
Proposed changes could allow for ‘additional equitable categories of membership‘ and ‘Faculties‘ in the future, the RPS said.
But since this would require ‘co-creation and discussion and agreement by members of all parties concerned‘, neither of these suggestions were part of the current proposals for change, the RPS said.
In October 2022, the RPS argued that it should represent both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to ‘achieve a more unified approach to pharmacy leadership’.
In response at the time, the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) said it wasn’t consulted on this suggestion and that ‘it would not be conducive for harmonious professional relationships for one profession to assume responsibility for another’.
With these latest developments, the RPS said it was open to a future discussion with pharmacy technicians about ways the two professions could come together in terms of professional leadership, with an understanding of pharmacy technicians as fellow pharmacy professionals under the same regulator.
‘We recognise APTUK as the professional leadership body for pharmacy technicians in GB, and as such, the starting point for any professional conversations in the future,‘ the RPS said.
And given the ‘vital importance‘ of the support of members of both organisations for any change, this would therefore need to be collaborative, longer-term conversation involving appropriate consultation and agreement on all sides, it added.
A version of this article was originally published by our sister publication The Pharmacist.
Image credit: RPS
