Community Pharmacy England has indicated it expects the current negotiations around the 2024-25 and 2025-26 contractual arrangements to wrap up between April and July.

Papers published this week following a meeting of CPE’s service development subcommittee on February 5 reveal that the negotiator is expecting to “conclude and implement 2024-25 and 2025-26 negotiations and evaluate the economic implication for the sector” between April and July, and to agree a “Community Pharmacy Plan” with Government and NHS over the coming summer. 

This plan will contain “priorities for enhancement of existing services and commissioning of new clinical services (including a Community Pharmacist Prescribing Service),” the papers reveal. 

Talks for 2026-27 are slated to take place between October 2025 and January 2026. 

CPE announced on January 28 that it had received a letter from pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock signalling the opening of talks 10 months after the last contract had elapsed. 

The meeting papers for February 5 also reveal that many pharmacies are still struggling to deliver enough Pharmacy First clinical pathway consultations to trigger the monthly £1,000 activity payment. 

This occurs “for multiple reasons, for example, a reduction in referrals and an increase in signposting from GP practices caused in part, by the BMA’s safe working in general practice in England guidance,” said CPE.

“We have continued to raise our concerns about the monthly thresholds with DHSC and NHS England, and the thresholds in 2025/26 will be discussed in the now re-started negotiations,” the negotiator added.

A CPE spokesperson commented: “This item in the 2025/26 workplan (which commences in April 2025) relates to work which goes into negotiations, analysis, and any necessary implementation work. Implementation work can go on for many months, depending on what is agreed, and work to influence Government spending is ongoing.”