The latest workforce survey suggests a decrease in the number of qualified pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in community pharmacy in England between 2022 and 2023.

The community pharmacy workforce saw a reduction of 226 qualified pharmacists and 1,108 pharmacy technicians between 2022 and 2023, according to headcount totals recorded by the NHS England (NHSE) 2023 community pharmacy workforce survey.

And in terms of the full-time equivalent workforce, the community pharmacy workforce lost an equivalent of 177 full-time pharmacists and 926 pharmacy technicians between 2022 and 2023.

This equates to just under a 1% decrease in pharmacist headcount and full-time-equivalent, and a 18% decrease in pharmacy technician headcount and full-time equivalent.

But the number of community pharmacy trainees for both professions increased, by 302 foundation pharmacists and 296 pre-registration pharmacy technicians.

Last year also saw an increase in the total the number of full-time equivalent accuracy checkers, trained dispensing assistants, trained medicines counter assistants and pharmacy delivery drivers.

And increased full-time equivalent vacancy rates suggest that demand for these roles was higher in 2023 than it was in 2022.

Vacancy rate data reflects long-standing vacancies that have been open and unfilled for more than three months.

And in 2023, a greater proportion of community pharmacists were working as locums, rather than employed or relief pharmacists, the survey suggested.

However, NHSE noted that there may be some double-counting - for instance, locum pharmacists working in multiple settings may have been counted more than once, since the survey was completed by contractors and reflects the staffing model for a typical week.

And pre-registration pharmacy technicians may have also been counted as dispensing assistants or under another job title, the survey suggested.

Last year, a report by the Community Pharmacy Workforce Development Group called the 2022 survey findings into question, with statistics thought to have been overestimated due to double-counting of locum pharmacists.

NHSE said that the insight provided by the 2023 survey collection was helping it, along with employers and stakeholders, to inform future investment in education and training, and effective workforce planning, across all sectors of pharmacy.

And it noted that usable data was collected from around 87% of all community pharmacies in England to inform the survey findings.