Insight Online – June 2022

PDA Union – 2022 AGM calling notice

This year the PDA Union Annual General Meeting will be held face-to-face, for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, at 2 pm on Thursday 30 June 2022. The meeting will take place at the Jewellery Quarter Conference Centre, 10 Vyse Street, Birmingham B18 6LT.

PDA members can register by emailing agm@pda-union.org before close of business on Thursday 23 June confirming their full name and membership number.

The pharmacist apprenticeship scheme is back on the agenda

After a previously flawed scheme was successfully opposed by PDA members and others, and paused due to Covid-19, discussions are now back in progress to try and introduce a degree apprenticeship alternative to the current undergraduate route to qualification.

Large employers must pay a 0.5% ‘Apprenticeship levy’ of their annual pay bill and they can only get this money back if they use it to fund apprenticeship schemes. That can give those employers a significant incentive to make efforts to get that money and increase their workforce by adding apprentices.

Pharmacist degree apprenticeships were first floated as a concept in 2019 by a secretive group, including several large pharmacy employers. Their plans faced criticism as, with no prior notice, they attempted to get the proposal approved within the profession, giving less than two weeks’ notice of a consultation deadline.

NHS announces new guidelines for flexible working requests

Those working in the NHS and employed under Agenda for Change terms and conditions now have stronger rights regarding requesting flexible working. This is the result of a joint statement issued by NHS Employers and the trade unions representing NHS staff. The details of the statement can be found here.

This new guidance confronts some of the myths about who can request to move to a flexible working arrangement. It also explains how employers should see flexible working as a key to retaining and recruiting staff, rather than a burden.

Help Pharmacist Support to help more people in the profession

Pharmacist Support is an independent charity for pharmacists and their families, former pharmacists, trainees, and pharmacy students and is funded by donations from pharmacists and pharmacy organisations such as the PDA. The charity provides confidential advice and support with issues relating to stress, welfare, addiction, and finance. All services that are completely FREE of charge.

PDA Plus partners Lloyd & Whyte, together with the Benefact Group, have launched their Movement for Good Awards, giving charities and good causes like Pharmacist Support the chance to win a share of £1 million.

We at the PDA are hoping you can spend a few minutes of your time helping to give this well-deserved charity some much needed funding so that they help more people in the profession. Please nominate Pharmacist Support in the Movement for Good Awards today!