About the scheme
The Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) forms part of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF). PQS is designed to support delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan and reward community pharmacies that deliver quality criteria in three quality dimensions:
- clinical effectiveness
- patient safety
- patient experience
PQS 2025/26
If you’re participating in the PQS 2025/26, you will need to declare your performance against the quality domains on a day of your choosing during the declaration window.
The total funding for PQS 2025/26 is £30 million, with a reduced list of activities for contractors. The funding will be divided between qualifying pharmacies based on the number of points they have achieved. Each point will be worth between £57.50 and £115.00.
Payments will be made to all eligible contractors depending on the band you are placed in and how many domains you have declared you are meeting.
If you fail to meet the gateway criterion, you will not be eligible for the PQS 2025/26.
Aspiration payment declaration
As with the 2023/24 scheme, an aspiration payment declaration is planned for PQS 2025/26 whereby you can declare and indicate which domains you intend to achieve.
The aspiration payment must be claimed between 9am on 1 May 2025 to 11:59pm on 16 May 2025 through our MYS application.
The aspiration payment is optional and not claiming it will not impact on your ability to claim payment for the PQS 2025/26.
The aspiration payment for each domain is paid on the understanding that you will have made a declaration within the declaration period and that you will have completed the PQS 2025/26 before 11:59pm on 27 February 2026, stating you will meet the conditions of the relevant domains. If you do not achieve the full number of points you have claimed for, payment issued for the remainder will be reclaimed.
There is no requirement to have claimed for a previous PQS to claim an aspiration payment for PQS 2025/26.
The maximum number of points you can receive an aspiration payment for is 75% of the number of points within your band.
The value of the point for the aspiration payment is set at £57.50, the minimum value of a point for the PQS 2025/26.
Pharmacies that claim will have their aspiration payment paid on 1 July 2025.
Pharmacy Bandings
For the PQS 2025/26, the maximum number of points for the Medicines Optimisation domain is 30, and the Patient Safety domain has 20 points allocated to it. There are different points allocated for contractors in Band 1.
This better reflects the workload of meeting the PQS 2025/26 requirements for different contractors.
PQS 2025/26 Bandings (XLS: 156KB)
Gateway criterion
The aim of this gateway criterion is to ensure that all pharmacies taking part in the scheme meet all the terms of service requirements.
Pharmacy owners must have signed up to deliver the Pharmacy First Service and the Pharmacy Contraception service by the end of 31 August 2025 and remain registered for both services until the end of the scheme, 31 March 2026.
Pharmacy owners will not be required to make a declaration for this gateway criterion as this will be verified by a post payment review of the pharmacy owner's declaration to deliver the service and subsequent registration from 1 September 2025 until the end of the scheme, 31 March 2026.
Pharmacy owners should note that they will not be able to claim payment for the quality criteria during the declaration period if the gateway criterion has not been met.
Antimicrobial Stewardship - Pharmacy First consultations - Clinical Audit
The audit sample will include all patients referred to or presenting to the pharmacy seeking advice for the first time on the treatment of an episode of sore throat that score 0-3 points on the FeverPAIN score within the Pharmacy First sore throat clinical pathway. Any patients previously seen for the same episode of sore throat who re-present to the pharmacy should not be included in the audit data collection for a second time.
Data should be collected on a minimum of 10 patients over four weeks. If data cannot be collected on 10 patients during that four-week period, the audit period must be extended to an eight-week period. Pharmacy contractors can choose any time to commence the clinical audit from Monday 1 September 2025 to Tuesday 3 February 2026. The clinical audit must be completed and the data entered onto the NHSBSA data collection tool before 11:59pm on Tuesday 31 March 2026.
There are five standards that must be assessed for each consultation.
- Standard 1
A copy of the TARGET Treating your infection – respiratory tract infection (RTI) For community pharmacy leaflet is used in the consultation with the patient and is given to the patient (or sent to them, in the case of remote consultations).
- Standard 2
The consultation includes the provision of advice on the natural history and average length of sore throat symptoms.
- Standard 3
The consultation includes the provision of advice on when to re-consult if symptoms do not resolve.
- Standard 4
The consultation includes the provision of general information on AMS, antibiotic use and resistance.
- Standard 5
Face-to-face consultations with patients with a FeverPAIN score of 2 or 3 (and which therefore pass a Gateway point in the Pharmacy First clinical pathway) include an examination of the patient's throat and neck, as recommended by NICE CKS.
Note: This standard does not apply to remote consultations.
A link to the audit will be included here once available for contractors to review in advance.
Declaration data
February 2024 declaration data (CSV: 1.1MB) February 2023 declaration data (CSV: 460KB)February 2022 declaration data (CSV: 534KB)February 2021 declaration data (CSV: 477KB)February 2020 declaration data (CSV: 533KB)February 2019 declaration data (CSV: 1.5MB)June 2018 declaration data (CSV: 2.4MB)November 2017 declaration data (CSV: 2.3MB)April 2017 declaration data (CSV: 2.2MB)
If you need to contact us
Send any questions relating to the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) to us by email at pharmacysupport@nhsbsa.nhs.uk